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As promised in the build thread HERE A few more pictures of the complete model are provided: And, a comparison with it's rader-dome-nosed brethren: Except for the gnarly landing gear, this was a fun a fairly easy to build kit. I recommend Planet Models kits wholeheartedly, but some, like this one, have a few challenges. Thanks for looking, Ed

Hello again. Due to impending holidays, chances of visitors, and general laziness, I have determined to try, at least for the rest of this year, to do some simple, quick to resolve models -- I hope! With that in mind, first up is the excellent Planet Models XF-91 Thundercepter V-Tail version. Having done the radome-equipped, standard tail version a few years ago, I felt this model would meet the criteria, and be another example of a resin model build to encourage others to take the plunge! The Thundercepter was designed with inverse taper wings, to help combat the early jet phenomena of "pitch-up". You can discover all that conversation elsewhere on-line, so I won't cover it here. A secondary reason for building this aircraft was to explore the use of dual engines-- a regular jet for normal cruise, and a rocket assist when high speed was needed. In the end, as jet aircraft engines progressed, this need was deemed unnecessary, as well as the logistics surrounding having to ship, store and load dual fuels for each aircraft. Thus only two aircraft were ever built, both being used for testing. I'd like to imagine that a lot of the research that led to our modern dual-tail aircraft was due to this V-Tailed aircraft. Anyway, the box looks like this: The aircraft itself has very few major parts, but there are a lot of small pieces for the landing gear retraction links, etc. I will not do a kit review here, as it has been done elsewhere on-line. The first step on most resin models is to complete the "innards" before closing the fuselage. In this case, the innards consist of one large cockpit/front gear well piece, the ejection seat and backrest, control sick and instrument panel with foot pedals. I glued them all together and painted them appropriately. Then the cockpit assembly was glued to the right fuse half with CA, followed by a liberal dose of 560 canopy cement, which is kind of like heavy duty white glue, for insurance. You may refer to several of my previous builds on this subject, so I won't rant here... Care must be taken to assure that the intake splitter is truly vertical, and that the landing gear well lines up with the front gear door opening. Then some weight is added under the cockpit area, using the afore-mentioned CA + extra glue method: Above right, sorry for the blurry photo. Next, despite sanding the fuse halves flat with sandpaper on a flat surface, some filling will be required along the fuselage seams, but not a lot: When all that sanding is sorted, the v-tail is next added, and some filling done there as well: Planet models has thoughtfully provided a dotted line molded into the aircraft on each side to show the center-line of the wing. This helps immensely when positioning the wings onto the fuselage eventually. But, I had learned from the earlier model that I'd built, that this was no picnic -- so I marked and drilled the wings and fuse, drilled tiny holes, and used short lengths of wire to correctly locate the wings later on. This serves two purposes; one, to allow me to paint the wing before assembly if desired, and two, the wing on the aircraft has variable incidence, so the seam from wing to fuse will not need to be filled, resulting in use of less cement, thus the wire will add a little additional support: Above right, the same procedure is used for the fuel tanks, as adding them later with only glue is a real bear, at least for me. The wire pins just make life a lot easier. Next, the vacuformed canopy is carefully cut out, and glued to the fuselage with G-S watch cement: My usual process is to smooth the excess watch cement with 91 percent alcohol, but for some reason, this time around, I could not see the clear glue well enough to see whether is was filling everything smoothly. So, above right, I taped off the glass area of the canopy, and added some 3M spot putty, just to make sure everything was going "smoothly". As I have stated before, I go to great lengths to prevent "steps" where jet canopies join a fuselage, unless the real aircraft also had them. Well, time for putty to dry, and for me to plot my next evil deed, so more next time. Ed

Originally designed as a half scale model of a planned jet airliner it became apparent during the design phase that the layout was unsuitable and but it continued as research a/c for investigating the characteristics of swept wings. Three were built. The first used a Vampire front fuselage and was used for low speed research. It crashed after spinning at low altitude. The second was used for high speed work but crashed whist practising for an attempt on the world speed record. The third, modelled here, had a modified fuselage having a more pointed nose and a lowered, more streamlined, canopy. It first flew in July 1947 and in September 1948 became the first British a/c to exceed the speed of sound, although completely out of control at the time! It was passed to the RAE in November 1949 for further research but crashed in September 1950 for reasons unknown but believed to be pilot incapacitation due to lack of oxygen. I once heard Eric Brown describe it as the most dangerous aircraft that he had flown. This resin kit was produced by Planet models and went together fairly easily. There are three basic components, the upper and lower halves of the wing/fuselage and the rudder, all nicely moulded and free from pinholes. The most notable problem being the fit of the upper front fuselage – it doesn’t and requires filler to correct a large gap between the front portions ahead of the canopy. I realised later that I should have spent some time thinning the rear sections of the wing to produce a sharper trailing edge. The kit is supplied with two vacform canopies. Unfortunately there is a flaw in that the frame which runs down the centre of the forward section is not quite in the centre. I had to trim the top of the pilot's seat to stop it fouling the canopy.. Not a big deal as it is hardly visible. One final problem appeared whilst fitting the u/c. The a/c sits slightly nose up and the model does not. It is partly due to the mainwheels being oversize, compared to Barrie Hygates drawing, and something else which I could not work out. I ended up shortening the legs to get it to look right. In fact the original legs looked far too long to retract into the wells whereas the shorter legs look to be about the right length. The finish is Alclad Airframe Aluminium over gloss black enamel followed by a light coat of Alclad Aluminium to reduce the shine. John Whilst putting it in the display cabinet I was reminded that I had seen that wing planform before... I had always thought of the 108 as being small but, as a half-scale model of the proposed DH 106 it had a span of 39ft (about 12m) Compare it with its American equivalent the Northrop X-4

Planet Models is to release a 1/48th resin kit of the CAC CA-25 Winjeel - ref. PLT259 In association with Red Roo Models - ref. RRK48002 About the Winjeel: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAC_Winjeel Source: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234938325-148-plt259-cac-winjeel/ V.P.

M1278 Heavy Guns Carrier "Joint Light Tactical Vehicle" (MV124) 1:72 Planet Models / CMK / Special Hobby It does not seem that long ago that the Jeep was replaced by the Humvee by the US Army, however that started to happened back in the 80s and now they are looking to partly replace these now, The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle or JLTV for short is a joint US Army/USMC programme to look at replacing some Humvees being used in the tactical role, something they were never designed for. Oshkosh was selected as the winner of the programme in 2015 with their L-ATV. These vehicles feature a high level of mobility and a much improved level of crew protection. The US Army & USMC have now declared initial operation capability with the vehicle with over 3000 on order, and planned up to 7000 for each service by 2023. The Army alone has plans to acquire 49000 over the lifetime of the programme across many variants such as weapons carriers, ambulances., recon vehicles and Command & Control vehicles. The US Air Force is also looking to procure this vehicle. To date there has been interest from the UK for over 2500 vehicles; and contracts placed from Lithuania, Slovenia and Montenegro. The Kit This is a new tool kit from Planet models under this brand from Special Hobby. The parts are all cast resin with the windows in clear resin. Smaller parts are provided on a PE fret. Additional parts are included in this kit for the Heavy Weapons Turret. The quality of the parts is all first class. There is the main chassis, main body, bonnet and rear body parts all as individual casts, the other main parts are the wheels. Ancillary parts are split between resin and PE depending on there size, plus for this boxing the heavy weapons turret. The vehicle appear quite detailed with a basic interior. Though in 1.72 you will not see much through the small windows (these are all clear resin and will need a polish to get the clarity up) . The instruction guide is not so much instructions but 4 exploded views showing where all the parts go. Given this and the small nature of some parts it is not recommended for the novice. CAD of this version from Special Hobby Markings No markings are provided in the kit. Conclusion It is good to see new kits of modern vehicles for the small scale modeller. Highly Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

M1280 General Purpose "Joint Light Tactical Vehicle" (MV124) 1:72 Planet Models / Special Hobby It does not seem that long ago that the Jeep was replaced by the Humvee by the US Army, however that started to happened back in the 80s and now they are looking to partly replace these now, The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle or JLTV for short is a joint US Army/USMC programme to look at replacing some Humvees being used in the tactical role, something they were never designed for. Oshkosh was selected as the winner of the programme in 2015 with their L-ATV. These vehicles feature a high level of mobility and a much improved level of crew protection. The US Army & USMC have now declared initial operation capability with the vehicle with over 3000 on order, and planned up to 7000 for each service by 2023. The Army alone has plans to acquire 49000 over the lifetime of the programme across many variants such as weapons carriers, ambulances., recon vehicles and Command & Control vehicles. The US Air Force is also looking to procure this vehicle. To date there has been interest from the UK for over 2500 vehicles; and contracts placed from Lithuania, Slovenia and Montenegro. The Kit This is a new tool kit from Planet models under this brand from Special Hobby. The parts are all cast resin with the windows in clear resin. Smaller parts are provided on a PE fret. The quality of the parts is all first class. There is the main chassis, main body, bonnet and rear body parts all as individual casts, the other main parts are the wheels. Ancillary parts are split between resin and PE depending on there size. The vehicle appear quite detailed with a basic interior. Though in 1.72 you will not see much through the small windows. All the windows are cast resin which will need a polish to bring the clarity up. The instruction guide is not so much instructions but four exploded views showing where all the parts go. Given this and the small nature of some parts it is not recommended for the novice. Picture from Special Hobby Web site Markings No markings at all are provided in the kit, Conclusion It is good to see new kits of modern vehicles for the small scale modeller. Highly Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

I built this Manchester MkI using various sources - the old-tool Airfix Lancaster, Planet Models as well as Paragon Designs. Decals came form the spares box. Regards, Rob

Hiya Peeps, For those that don't know, the SR-A1 was a prototype flying boat fighter plane and was the first jet-propelled water based-aircraft in the world. The concept was a reaction to Japan's successful use of military floatplanes and the emergence of the turbojet engine. In 1947, the first prototype (TG263) made its maiden flight, with a further two built. Being outclassed by land-based fighters and lack of orders, the project was cancelled with the last flight in June 1951. Of the three that were built, two were lost due to accidents, one of them being flown by Eric Brown. Here I present my latest from the 'Flying Boats and Floatplanes' group build, a Saunders-Roe SR-A1 using the Planet Models resin kit. Built mainly OOB, with the exception of a scratch built cockpit and the addition of a scratch intake grill. Build here: Stuart

I’m dragging three reluctant shelf queens along with the XIV in a race for quadruple Griffon engined glory! They’re all at the same stage and will get similar treatment (although the 46 will be clean as a whistle and semi-glossy), namely seal coat, filter, oil dots etc, before I move on to an FR. Mk 47. I love this (1996) kit!! first up - Planet Models Seafire f.mk 45 This was a pricey kit when I bought it (£45-odd iirc!) Must have been ten years ago, too - I remember warping the wings to the right angle and heating up a baby bottle for number 2 son in the warmer gizmo -worked a treat! That canopy masking’s been on there for a decade though. May have to re-glaze this one - but I can do that sort of thing these days, right? Of similar vintage, and inspired by Desmojen’s one on this very site, you’ve seen it all before, Mk 46. Bit more optimistic about the canopy mask on this one! I can’t help thinking the LM on the tail of this should have the black outline too. The hook wasn’t fitted to this plane. Number 3 - Contra-Prop Mk. 45 Aeroclub Mk 21 fuselage, Airfix 46 wings and prop. This mark was the longest of all of the Spitfire line - a two stage Griffon, contra-prop, broad rudder and hook, meant it was too long for the deck lifts on the Pretoria Castle, where Eric Brown did the deck landing trials. It still needed more rudder area as was unstable - it had sacrificed some area for the sting hook. Even with the contra-prop it was a bit of a pig to fly, so for the mk.46 the tail grew in height instead, borrowing the spiteful/seafang tail unit. What an awesome machine, I love it -Joe Smith and his team really knew how to wring out the spitfire airframe. You’d be pleased as these two if one was parked on your lawn, wouldn’t you? TTFN, Matt

I bought this resin model from Ebay some years ago, it's an aeroplane that has interested me for sometime a 1930s design that lived on till the end of WW2. These aircraft used by the Luftwaffe for night harassment on the Eastern Front make a change from all the usual 109s and 190s I have built. Onto the kit all the basics are there in resin plus white metal undercarriage legs, injection moulded wing struts, vac formed windscreens and decal sheet. Unfortunately I should have checked the contents of the kit a little more carefully when I received it as some of the smaller detail parts were missing ( good old Ebay!!!!). I managed to get some reasonable idea of the layout of the cockpits from trawling the net. Incidentally it seems the French have an example of this aircraft preserved, it originally was liberated by the French Resistance! The kit detail in cockpits was basic 2 floors, 2 seats, crude instrument panels, two radio sets, moulded interior framework (removed) and a missing control column! I added as much detail as would be seen, the cockpit openings are not that large. Fuselage was glued together and sanded down. The wing was supplied in left and right halves which I joined using small metal tubes to add strength, the weight of the assembled wing meant that the interplane struts supplied in resin were not going to support it, they would have been better supplied in white metal. My solution for this was to fabricate struts in metal using some brass Strutz streamlined wire I've had for many years, this was quite a reasonable solution I'm pleased to say. The joining of wing to fuselage still caused me a lot of frustration and cussing but eventually came together quite well. I painted the wing and fuselage seperately also applying the decals before joining them together. I fabricated the exhausts using 2mm soldering wire as the exhausts supplied were not suitable for a night harassment aircraft. A note about the colour scheme and decals these came from an OWL decal sheet I bought after buying the kit, they were quite thick and a couple of the items broke apart when applying them however I managed to get them on successfully in the end! The aircraft is He46c of NSGr.1, Idriza airfield, Eastern Front early 1944. Not one of my best builds but I highly doubt we'll see an injection moulded kit of this aircraft, watch the Czech kit producers prove me wrong 😁. It would be great to see some of these neglected second line aircraft in kit form (1/48 of course). Thanks for looking Cheers Andy

This is my rendition of the Planet Models' Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor. This may look kind of generic at first glance but, a closer look will show it has reverse taper wings with both the chord and camber being larger at the tip then the root, with the wheels folding into the tips and a V tail (they called it a "butter fly" tail but to me it looks like donkey ears, so I'll go with V). This is my third Planet Models kit and while I was very happy with the first 2 this one was a bit of a disappointment. The castings looked very good with no flash, but as soon as I started sanding I was in pin hole hell. The fuselage was also about a 1/2" (1.25cm) too long according to the drawings in the Ginter book and the length specification. I fixed this by removing a section just aft of the wings. Other dimensions were close enough for me not to worry about them. The decals were excellent. So on to the pictures: This is how much I had to remove Next up is an AP-2H gunship using the Hasegawa P2V-7 and the Blackbird conversion set. Enjoy.

This is my 1/72 Planet Models Grumman XF10F-1 Jaguar. The Jaguar was the first attempt to build a practical swing wing fighter and while it was a good first try, like most such things it was not a success. I used these 2 links, both members here, as inspiration http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2012/06/xf10f-pictures.html and Including using the Obscureco F9F pather seat and cutting a hole in what would have been the wing butt joint and inserting the part of the wing that was to be cut off if the wings were to be mounted in the swept-forward position which is how I decided to display it. I would rate the Planet Models kit as above average for resin kits with nice molds, fit and very few pinholes. I also had the Anigrand kit, but compared to the drawing is the Ginter book it was way undersized so I didn't use it. The kit included 2 vacuformed canopies and since it usually takes my at least 2 tries to get a vac canopy right, that was a good thing. As it turned out I got it right on my first try. The decals were everything you could ask a decal to be. Very thin, but with enough body so the could be moved around and no silvering. So on to the pictures; This next pose strike me as very bird like Next up will be the Hobbycraft F2h-3 Banshee. Enjoy.

After the 1/72nd kit (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234999169-172-miles-m35-libellula-resin-kit-by-planet-models-released), Planet Models is to release in 2018 a 1/48th Miles M.35 Libellula resin kit - ref. PLT?? Source: http://www.specialhobby.info/2017/02/plt267-miles-m35-libellula-in-172.html V.P.

As soon as I'd finished reviewing this little resin gem from Planet Models, I couldn't resist the urge to build it, so I started preparing some parts for assembly, then painting. I'm building it as a bit of a sanity/mojo build, as I've not done a tap of modelling for a couple of months at least, and I was starting to forget how. I've not obsessed over detail too much, nor done much in the way of research. I've just pottered on regardless I got the cockpit base painted a couple of weeks ago, then had to take a break, but yesterday I took up my modelling tools again, and began detail painting of the 'pit, and some of the ancillaries such as the engine. The cockpit when finished slided inside th fuselage, so nothing much is seen of the area behind the X-shaped cross-braces, so I didn't even bother painting them... which makes the cockpit look a bit shabby now. Not my best work, but very little will be seen inside the fuselage, which suits me Yesterday I decided to close up the fuselage, which is sometimes a pause for thought with a resin model. I decided to use CA, as it gives an immediate bond that can be useful to work out the kinks of a potentially warped pair of fuselage parts. As it happens, these were pretty good, with just a small gap/misalignment between front and rear parts of the upper seam. I glued it in parts, using an old #11 blade to insert CA into the joints, starting with the top join forward of the canopy. Then the rear fuselage and tail were glued, being sure to get things lined up where it matters. The underside was done in the same manner, and before it was cured, I sanded any remaining gaps to choke up the small spaces with a mixture of resin dust and CA. A line of CA was then added to the top, and again, sanded while still fresh to get it all merged together. That all went surprisingly quickly, and a quick squirt of black primer showed just a few spots where there were flat-spots that needed rounding off. The wings were just push-fitted at this point, although the fit was very good, needing just a slight fettle before I could glue them in place. I had painted the two banks of pistons a generic metallic colour, and added the push-rods from short lengths of 0.5mm diameter styrene rod, which were painted black, then picked out in GW Chainmail along with the ring for contrast. I've got some tinned copper florists' wire in various diameters, and used the 0.3mm stuff to simulate the wiring harness, which isn't included in the kit. 14 lengths for the front bank, and another 14 for the rear bank, which although they looked nice & shiny (too shiny), were dulled down with a bit of matt varnish. I painted the bell-housing interior/exterior green as a best guess from some reference photos, and will pretty much leave it as is because so little will be seen that any weathering would probably go unseen Elevators were added, and these again fitted neatly, with different sized tabs & slots to ensure you get them in the right 'ole. I pushed the engine in place, and later had a quick go with the cowling on too, to give the full effect of the aircraft's shape (minus vacformed canopy at this stage). Very Fw.190 indeed. The white dot on the lip of the cowling is a piece of styrene rod glued into a solitary bubble that snuck through QC. It would have been invisible in the factory, so we'll let them off I'll be spraying a bit more black primer here & there to test seams & finishes, but at the moment there are a couple of pieces of clear acrylic sat in the notches I cut in the wing for the nav lights, as these were solid resin, so needed to go. Once cured, I'll sand them back to profile and polish them back to clarity, although I think they're usually coloured lenses. Tamiya clear red & green are already in the bulbs (a small drilled hole), so things should look ok with some more on the lens. Can I keep momentum up? Who knows, but I'm not starting anything else now until I have finished something. I have a PV-1 with Owl nightfighter conversion set that's asking me to build it at the moment, but whatever else comes along in the meantime might prove shinier I'm seriously tempted by the Fw.P.II that @petr@SpecialHobby kindly sent me too. Bless him!

Planet Models is to release in 2018 a 1/48th Focke Wulf Fw.190V-1 resin kit Source: http://www.specialhobby.net/2017/12/novinky-special-hobby-leden-2018.html Miles M.35 Libellula threat : http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235017328-148-miles-m35-libellula-resin-kit-by-planet-models-in-progress-release-in-2018/ V.P.

Planet Models is to release a 1/48th FFVS J-22A "Swedish WW2 main fighter Aircraft" resin kit - ref. PLT264 Source: http://www.specialhobby.info/2017/01/plt-264-148-ffvs-j-22a-swedish-ww2-main.html About FFVS J-22 : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFVS_22 Source: http://www.avrosys.nu/aircraft/Jakt/113J22-2.htm V.P.

FFVS J-22A Swedish WWII Fighter 1:48 Planet Models During the early years of WWII, the Swedish Flygvapnet were stymied in their attempts to acquire replacements for their ageing Gladiators due to various practical impossibilities, so the company FFVS was set up specifically to design and build a new fighter, as the rest of Sweden's aviation industry was already working flat-out to produce their own aircraft. The design was completed around an un-licensed P&W R-1380 radial engine, and had a plywood exterior skin over metal framework, which saved weight as well as strategic materials. After a short period of trials it entered service in 1943, and became a mainstay of the Swedish Airforce, with excellent speed and handling characteristics, but suffering from the lack of supercharger, the performance fell away as the altitude increased. It was well matched to the possible opposition fighters, and the pilots were confident of their beloved fighter's abilities. Relatively unknown in the West, the J-22 stayed in service relatively unchanged until the early 50s when jet engines were becoming the norm. In all, almost 200 were delivered, and the Swedes are rightfully proud of their diminutive fighter's long and faithful service. The Kit My initial reaction to this release was "a what now?", but it immediately appealed due to its slightly left-field nature, and because it's Swedish, and I like Swedish things. Planet Models are Special Hobby's resin brand, producing kits that might not otherwise be made due to their subject matter. I know a lot of folks run screaming when they hear that dreaded "resin" preposition to the word kit, but these days you're not really going to need to freak out if you choose your manufacturer wisely. These kits can be as detailed and easy to build as a short to medium run styrene kit, and due to the relatively mainstream use of Photo-Etch (PE) and white metal, the delicate parts aren't all that weak. This kit is number 264 in their range, and is one of their smaller offerings, arriving in an almost figure-sized top-opening box with a simple but nicely executed profile adorning the top and ends. Inside are a set of heat-sealed compartmentalised bags that will be familiar to many of you, with resin, vacformed, PE parts and a large set of decals to round out the package. The instructions are colour printed onto loose leaf A4 paper, with the first page taken up with a history section, and a diagram of all the parts, numbering 50 in grey resin, three in white metal, one in clear resin, two in vacform plastic (duplicates), a sheet of PE parts, a clear pre-printed acetate film, and the aforementioned decals. The pouring blocks are shown on the diagram as dotted lines, so you are aware of what should and shouldn't be removed before construction begins. The general process is to remove all the casting stubs, clean up the parts and then wash them in warm soapy water, or an ultrasonic bath if you have one. As usual with resin, take the precaution of wearing a mask when cutting or sanding resin, as the tiny particles are harmful to your health if breathed in. Washing the parts in warm water will also improve the adhesion of paint, as there may still be some moulding release agent on the parts when you receive them. Construction begins with the cockpit around the L-shaped floor, adding cross-braces, control stick, rudder pedals and the lamination of PE, acetate and resin for the instrument panel. The seat is supplied with a set of seatbelts, and sidewall details are casting into the fuselage halves, which will need painting before closure around the tub and the metal tail wheel. The coaming fits over the instrument panel, and is joined by a gunsight and armoured windscreen panel later in the build. Attention then turns to filling the cowling, with the Twin Wasp depicted by a half-rendering of the rearmost bank of pistons on the bulkhead, and a full set at the front, to which you will need to add some wire for the pushrods. A choice of two exhaust types are glued to the rear of the bulkhead, and the completed assembly is mounted on the front of the fuselage, with a keyed join ensuring correct alignment. The cowling slips over the engine, and the prop is added, made up from a back-plate, three individual blades and a spinner. The canopy is vacformed, which also gives modellers the willies, but if you take your time, fill the interior with blutak and cut lightly multiple times, things should go according to plan, even if you want to open up the canopy by cutting it fore and aft. In case you slip, two copies are included so fret not! Machine guns, antennae and pitot probes are added along with the metal gear, nicely detailed wheels, and gear bay doors for the tail wheel. A scrap diagram shows the correct head-on profile to assist you in getting things aligned properly, and a dab of epoxy should provide a strong joint between the resin and metal parts. For camouflage option B, underwing blisters and small fairings around the rear support struts, and additional leading struts on the main gear are added for accuracy. Markings There are two decal options included on the sheet, both wearing the same basic olive green over blue-grey. From the box you can build either of the following: FFVS J-22 s/n 22129, Yellow S, 3rd Division, F3, Linköping, 1950 – White horseman on the cowling, white exercise stripes on wings and fuselage, yellow/black spinner. FFVS J-22 s/n 22140, Red M, 3rd Division, F9, 1945 – red spinner and devil motif on the cowling. The decals are printed anonymously, but appear to be in good registration, but a little translucent in places, especially the numeral 9, on which the white under-printing appears to have been omitted. The pattern on the base paper shows through the white, which could be a problem over the olive green and where the fuselage roundel passes through the demarcation line. It is a slight weakpoint of the kit, but Flying Colours Aerodecals produce tons of decals for Swedish aircraft if you feel the need to replace them. You can see photos of the finished model here, but in the meantime, here's a teaser picture of the kit after I splashed some paint and glue at it Conclusion With the exception of the slightly sub-par decals, this is a wonderful and intriguing kit that has plenty to recommend it. It's a difficult task to resist wanting to build it straight away! Highly recommended. In stock soon Review sample courtesy of

I did not plan to build this model, I got the kit accidentally and all of a sudden found myself building it The plane was conceived as a fast light bomber and reconnaissance plane. To obtain high speed and good aerodynamics, it was powered by two M-103 inline engines in tandem in a fuselage nose, driving two contra-rotating coaxial three-blade propellers. The design had quite unusual look, with long fuselage nose and a crew cab moved rearwards, towards double tailfin. Wings had a fighter-like form and their span was rather short. The VVIA under Bolkhovitinov was enlarged to tackle the expected problems in the design of the Bolkhovitnov S. The rear engine was geared to two high-speed shafts which passed either side of the forward engine to drive the rear propeller gearbox, whilst the forward engine and gearbox drove the forward propeller via shaft through the middle of the rear propeller gearbox. The structure of the S was predominantly light alloy stressed skin, the wing having two spars with heavy flush-rivetted upper and lower skins, and the fuselage built up from pre-formed upper, lower, and side panels attached to four longerons to give a strong but relatively simple structure to build. A total of 29 electrical actuators drove the Fowler Flaps, undercarriage, (rotating 90deg to lie flat in the wing), exit flap of the large common radiator duct, and many other services. The tail unit consisted of twin fins with rudders attached to the tips of the tailplane, variable geared elevators and separate servo and trim tabs on elevators, and rudders. Detail design of the aircraft began in 1937 and construction in July 1938. The first prototype S-1 was built in 1939, but it was made in order to evaluate an airframe only and therefore was powered by only one engine M-103. It was unarmed and fitted with a fixed skid landing gear. It first flew on January 29, 1940, with B.N. Kudrin at the controls.[1] A maximum speed was 400 km/h. The second prototype S-2 was powered by two engines and was armed with a single machinegun and bombs.[1] Four 100 kg bombs were carried vertically in a bay between pilot and a rear gunner-navigator, under a common canopy. Its state testing started from March 20, 1940, and lasted until July 1940.[1] A maximum speed reached was 570 km/h (354 mph). The plane had good handling, except for take-off and landing, which were difficult due to high wing loading.[1] Its range and speed were also lower than estimated. As a result, it was decided to improve the plane further. However, the plane was not developed in a favour of next Bolkhovitinov designs.[1] It was first planned to build also an attack plane with 2 Ultra-ShKAS machineguns with a high rate of fire, in a rear part of fuselge, firing downwards and manned by a second crew member. Also an interceptor aircraft was proposed, armed with 37 mm recoilless rifle, firing upwards at an angle and manned by two crewmen.[1] The plane had no official designation given. It was mostly known as S - sparka (otherwise explained as spartak, skorost (speed) or Stalin), also known as BBS - blizhniy bombardovshchik skorostnoi (close-range fast bomber), BB - bombardovshchik Bolkhovitinova, LB-S - legkiy bombardovshchik sparka (light bomber paired), SSS - svyerkhskorostnoi samolet (very fast aircraft).[1] More about the prototype,

Planet Models/MPM is to release a 1/48th Aero L-159A ALCA resin kit - ref. PLT149. Source: http://modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=68170&start=2355 V.P.

Planet Models is to release a 1/72nd Miles M.35 Libellula resin kit - ref.PLT267 Source: http://www.mpmkits.eu/2016/03/newsletter-april-2016.html V.P.

Planet Models is to release in November 2015 a 1/72nd Short SC-1 "First British VTOL Aircraft" resin kit - ref. PLT266 Source: http://www.specialhobby.eu/en/our-production/planet-models/1-72-short-sc-1-first-british-vtol-aircraft.html?cur=1〈=1&redirected=1 V.P.

Antarki Model Kits from Peru (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Antarki-Model-Kits-Perú/134774536570515) is designing a 1/48th Douglas O-38E/F/P resin kit for Planet Models. Source: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.625310974183533.1073741835.134774536570515&type=1 Some CADs V.P.

Planet Models is to release a 1/72nd SAAB 210-I Lilldraken "Initial Configuration" resin kit - ref. PLT263 Source: http://www.aeroscale.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=19397 Box art V.P.

Hi mates, I'm not entirely back to 100% after back surgery number nine, but let's see if I have enough in me to build a swing winger by July. I decided to have a go at the Planet Models 1:72 Grumman XF10F-1 Jaguar, one of the first attempts at building and flying a variable geometry aircraft. I won't give you the historical background, as it's pretty easy to find that on line, but the project has roots in the late 1940s, and the sole aircraft that was built first flew in 1952. Corky Meyer, Grumman test pilot, was the only person to ever fly the Jaguar. His best quote about the aircraft was that it "was entertaining to fly because there was so much wrong with it." So let's see what we have to start with: Amidst the clutter of my workbench, I've laid everything out so you can get an idea of the raw materials. First, this is an all-resin kit except for the vacuform canopy (and Planet included two - they must know me!). As you can see there are few parts, but I have a suspicion that doesn't mean it's going to be easy! The only other resin kit I built was the CMR Buccaneer that some of you may remember from last year. In one sense, that was probably an easier build because the level of detail was exquisite and it included all the extra multimedia goodies you needed. We don't have that here, I'm afraid. Here is a close-up of the box (nice painting!) and the decal sheet (gotta love those pouncing cats!): And a wee bit better look at the resin parts: Planet has cast the landing gear in a much stronger resin (denoted by the brown colour) and this will help support the finished model. The Jaguar was not a small aircraft, at 17m in length it was only 2m shorter than its descendant the F-14 Tomcat. And at 5m in height, it was actually a tad bit taller than the Tomcat's 4.88m. The first thing that I noticed when reviewing the parts was that the ejection seat looked, well, odd. What it appears to be, quite frankly, is an ACES II seat which I have this strong suspicion wasn't around when the Jaguar first flew in 1952. I'll take a close-up photo of it soon, so I can show you it and what I've decided to use instead. First up I dove right in and started cleaning up the edges of one of the fuselage halves, and to remove a small pour block on the inside of the nose. I cleaned up the edges the same way you would a vacuform kit. After I was happy with that, I took a photo of the finished half (closest to camera) and the other half unfinished. There was a little flash to clean up, but overall the resin parts are very well cast. Surface detail consists of finely engraved lines which are a bit deeper on the wings than the fuselage, but I don't think it's a problem. Speaking of the wings, there is no mechanism here to provide for working swing wings. You have the choice of building the model with the wings swept or spread. On the actual plane, the pivot for the wings moved forward when the wings were swept, and backward when they were spread. It wasn't until Barnes Wallis' pioneering work on a swing wing version of his beloved Swallow concept that it was learned that if the pivot points were brought outboard, off the aircraft centerline, then it was not necessary to move the pivots along longitudinally during sweep. Wallis pitched that design to NASA in 1958, who expanded on it and eventually it became known as the "NASA wing" and was used by the TXF competitors in their proposals. In a sense, the F-111 was part British! OK, I'll leave you for today with a nice shot of the real thing! Cheers, Bill PS. I'm going to do the wings swept. I gotta, that's what this prototype was all about, and besides the planform looks like lawn dart territory!

Planet Models is to release a 1/72nd Handley Page HP.75 Manx resin kit - ref.PLT262 Source: http://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=82665&p=1564226#p1564226 V.P.