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Here are my four 1/72 Fw 190s finished over the weekend. They are an Eduard A-5, an Airfix A-8, a Hasegawa A-8, and an Airfix D-9. They were all entered in the Granitecon show in Manchester, New Hampshire on Sunday. One of the A-8s won a second place in its category, I’m just not sure which one as they only announced it as an Fw 190A-8 not the make of the kit. I’m pretty sure it was the Hasegawa that placed as the Airfix has some seam issues. Hasegawa on left L-to-R: Hasegawa, Airfix, Eduard Hasegawa and Airfix Eduard Hasegawa Airfix Airfix D-9

This beast has been my first kit in about 20 years! The Eduard Superbug kit is a limited run redox of the Hasegawa F/A-18E in 48 scale bundled with some of their aftermarket bits and some nice decals from Furball Aero design (printed by Cartograph). The kit is out of production but there are plenty still in circulation at retail price. As I've learned this is probably not the smartest kit for a first timer or long lapsed modeller, but I was still able to get a solid 80% result. Someone with a little more experience would be able to take it a little further. This kit would probably be ideal for someone who's got 2-3 builds under their belt, nailed the basics and wants to take their skills to the next level. I learned a lot working with it and it's great for introducing you to intermediate and advanced concepts like filling gaps and trickier masking. It's well made and the moulding was probably state of the art when it came out. Minimal flash and pretty good fit. I did have to do some filling and fitting but mostly on the underside and places that are only ever going to be seen if you go looking for them, so if you're new to these things this is a good kit to try it out on without fear of ruining things. I should note that the plastic is for an early Super Hornet with the early ECS pipes but the schemes were for a late one, aftermarket replacements are available but it does require some minor surgery. I've also added some Eduard ECS pipes, AGM-65's and AGM-88's. The ECS pipe conversion is very achievable if you take your time. The detail on the AGM-88's is exquisite. However the AGM-65's's are really hard to work with. This is no fault of Eduard as neither I nor their competitors can see a better way of doing it better. Getting both halvs of the missile off the casting blocks and making a nice parallel join is beyond me so mine are a little crooked. I also mangled the seeker head glass so I had to improvise with some UV resin. Someone with greater skills than mine can make these look really good, I'm just not quite there yet. The 32 scale version is probably easier to work with. WIP thread for a blow by blow Scalemates Project link Kit Link Eduard ECS pipe upgrade Eduard AGM-65 Eduard AGM-88 And now some shots of the real thing!

mesdames et messieurs: the one and only, fantastique, unique sexy high-finned Mirage 2000 prototype 01: Mirage 2000-01 Prototype ESCI 1/48 + Eduard PE + Master pitot + Fonderie Miniature Magic missiles + Cocardes magazine for inspiration + BM GB support the first 2 Mirage 2000 prototypes originally had a differently shaped, higher fin. 01 got the series fin relatively quickly though! and is now in some French museum in the later white scheme ESCI very quickly released a Mirage 2000, but unfortunate, (or fortunately for me!) they tooled the original protoype fin and radom. (and also provide accurate and still great decals!! ) They relatively quickly noticed their error and updated their molds in respect to the fin. The radom is still the metal one with access panels that is only suitable for the prototpyes .... the wing leading edge angle is generally too big as well and is more representative of the Mirage III wing shape... the kit itself is great, incl. nice recessed panel lines. the Eduard PE adds exactly were necessary. maybe it is the best fitting Mirage 2000 kit out there! voila: work in progress in the still ongoing French Fancy GB (Gallery) how all started 3 month ago: the original in the air in ~1978 https://images.dassault-aviation.com/f_auto,q_auto,g_center,dpr_auto/wp-auto-upload/2/files/2017/05/M2000-01_1er-voli.jpg I am not sure if 01 ever carried any weapons or even pylons that is.... but they look cool and surely were a possibility for some airshow or display.... for those interested in details: 2 times ESCI Mirages 2000s, one peculiar, unfamiliar high fin, one series production fin (both without ECM on the wing rood trailing edge, but differently shaped! ) both of course have the slightly wrong shaped delta wing of the Mirage III series.... ESCI never corrected this... I hope you like it! merci! Werner

So here is (potentially) the start of part one of a dual/joint/two at a time build. Jury is still out in my head if to try two at a time having only completed two builds in 1/350 in the past 3 years especially as I still have a lot to learn and want them to turn out well. Also whether to do a joint thread or separate ones? As a kid I built 1/600 battleships, if it didn’t have big guns I wasn’t interested. A few years back I dabbled in 1/400 and built battleships, (you may see a pattern), now that I’m rather hooked on the hobby again I’ve started by building you’ve guessed it – battleships, specifically Zvezda’s Dreadnought and Hobbyboss’s Dunkerque (95% complete). As I looked at my stash of 12 and counting with a couple of those started I realised bar a modern Russian destroyer I needed to change it up. I settled on Aircraft Carriers, specifically 3, the bank said I could have 2 - fair enough I said. I wanted something unusual looking and Graf Zeppelin is certainly that. I’d actually discounted her as the aftermarket options aren’t great, Mk.1 do a set three times the cost of the kit which I personally think is too much. Eduard do a set in 4 prts, 2 prts of which are now discontinued. I contacted them about this and another set for Roma they have done similar with and they very bluntly said they wouldn’t bring it back into production even if demand went up which seems odd but that’s up to them. So I have coming on monday trumpeters kit of Graf Zeppelin in 1/350 with half of the eduard sets available, I did track down all four parts but when I compared the kit parts with those offered by eduard I found multiple areas when eduard merely replaced what was already included in the kit with little or no marked difference. I’ve also an extra set of six ME 109’s and Stukas. I plan to do my best with it, maybe scratch build a few bits, it won’t be jaw dropping in terms of PE but I think there is enough to lift the base model up a level or two. Part of the thing with Graf Zeppelin is of course she was never finished (about 95%) and in the process of not being finished she was changed several times. A brief history can be found on many a website, likely including this one on other builds but essentially, she had an Atlantic bow added post launch, was put on hold a couple times, had bulges added as well as changes to her super structure, AA armament, Aircraft complement and make up etc. You get the idea, the brilliant thing is it means you can’t really go wrong and where the line is drawn is any ones guess. As you’ll see from the following photos, Insert obligatory pictures (all from scale mates and Wikipedia) I plan to make minor changes to the super structure and funnel cap as I think trumpeter got it very very very wrong. I’ve no idea on paint schemes she’d likely have adopted, the Germans didn’t seem to do much up to early 42 which is potentially when she could have entered service had she not be placed on hold repeatedly. There is this picture on Scalemates that are supposedly GZ but to me I'm not convinced, the step/angle in the bow is gone, the tip of the bow is different as is the rake, as are the missing casemates (which is possible) but the bulge comes a lot further forward and the superstructure is stepped out to one side which would be massive work to undertake during the brief times she was actually worked on post 1940, I wondered if these are perhaps pictures of Weser but I don't think she got that far in construction? Now as for the second ship I may concurrently build – I’ll say nothing partially not to jinx it, Im told it'll be here in short order but time will tell. I'll be initially working to complete to a point of airbushing as the bank balance has taken a hit and so I can’t invest in an Airbrush right now. So any areas hairy stickable I’ll look to do and other areas be left ready for airbrushing later in the build. I'm not sure how easy to do as sub assemblies carriers are - but I'll guess I will fid out. Dunkerque has taken 10 months and isn’t huge but is nearly there so I doubt this will be a quick build initially but if you’d like to follow on and have made it through my inane ramblings I’d be glad of any input and suggestions as to: - paint schemes - paint sequencing given my Airbrish plan/delay - and modifications that may make her stand out. Photo's of the kit and PE to follow when they arrive, Thanks for bearing with me Sam

Eduard leaflet for May: http://www.eduard.com/store/out/media/distributors/leaflet/leaflet2016-05.pdf change digit in link for older issues

MIG-21 PFM out of the Eduard kit with some accessories (also from Eduard), slightly modified by adding 2 outboard wing pylons (same type and position as on latter versions, M, MF, bis, etc) it was a one-off Romanian “upgrade”; the plane was in service within Fortele Aeriene Romane till late 90’s. Decals (roundels and tactical number) are from spare box; painted with Mr. Color enamels. Any comment is appreciated. GX9A4237_031 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr GX9A4250_034 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr GX9A4252_032 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr GX9A4247_033 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr GX9A4249_033 by Iulian Macovei, on Flickr

Hi all This is Eduard's 1/48 G-6, built OOB and finished in the markings of Major Ludwig Franzisket, Gruppenkommandeur of JG27, from around 1944. Really enjoyable build, with no issues. First time, I think, using Eduard's new decals. Although I didn't try peeling off the carrier film as many are doing, they work very well. Having said that, I still used paint masks for the upper wing and fuselage crosses. Franzisket flew throughout the war, achieving 39+ victories, before surrendering with what was left of JG27 in Austria in May 45. After the war, he studied at the University of Munster, achieving a PhD in biology and finishing up his new career as Professor of Biology and Director of the Westphalia Museum of Natural History. Hope you like the pics...

1/48 Avia S-199 (post war Bf 109) is planed for next two or three years. source: http://modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=95280&start=4005#p1897662 downscale to 1/72 is planed too (like all Eduard projects) but more years in future.

So, the plan is to turn this into a model a model of this aircraft I've also got the Eduard single seater Ltd Edition kit, so "58" might also make an appearance to accompany "71" (and also have a standard Academy SU-27P kit which will become "711" the SU-37 "Terminator"). This won't be a quick build as I intend to return to it about once a week while other GB are in progress. The kit includes resin cockpit and PE but strangely the latter doesn't include the side panels so they will need to be painted. Digital camouflage to be done using Foxbot masks (and decals). Again I've also got their masks for "58" BUT they are identical to those for "71" despite the camo being applied differently to both airframes - anyway that stage is a long way off. Mike

Originally I intended to build this kit sitting on the ground, much as the real thing was photographed on the apron at Le Bourget airport, France, in May 1940. However, I felt that the main wheel struts’ attachments to the airframe were too dodgy. (Actually I did not understand how they were supposed to attach.) So I built it in flight mode with a home made transparent disc replacing the kit’s propeller blades and a pilot in the cockpit. The pilot came from elsewhere; the kit not being supplied with one. To see more photos and description, click the link in my signature and then click Escort to Le Bourget (indented under World War 2 plastic models part 1). That should comply with forum rule limiting links to personal web sites while avoiding duplicating content on different servers.

And my dad already starts my father´s day present, building a G-10 and a G-14. DSC_0007 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0008 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

And my dad already starts my father´s day present, building a G-10 and a G-14AS DSC_0007 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr DSC_0009 by grimreaper110, auf Flickr

Eduard is to release 1/48th Grumman F4F Wildcat kits: F4F-3 through F4F-4, FM-1 and FM-2 to Martlets. Sources: https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=95280&start=33705#p2449036 https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=95280&start=33720#p2449051 https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=95280&start=33765#p2449103 V.P.

Thanks HKR Eduard worked in secret on a new kit and tomorrow it will be announced 7PM (Warsaw Time) UPDATE - It'll be a family of 1/48th Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" Source: https://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=95280&start=33390#p2448351 V.P.

Eduard is to release a 1/48th Zlín Z-126 to Z-526 Trenér family. Source: https://www.facebook.com/EduardCompany/photos/a.122154977799458/3366784713336452 V.P.

Good day friends, I completed this Eduard Hellcat back in late August. Here are the highlights of the kit………. 1. Paint : Mission Models USN Dark Sea Blue, USN Intermediate Blue, and White 2. Built entirely out of the box including the decals. Depicted VF-38 which was land based at Henderson Field. 3. Added Eduard USN photo etched seat belts. 4. Replaced gun barrels with brass tubes. 5. Washes : white, black, light rust, brown, and gray 6. Pastel & paint weathering. 7. Uschi bobbin thread for the radio antenna. I enjoy Eduard Hellcats and have plenty more in my “stash” to build. The fit between parts is tight and care needs to be maintained. The wings need to be trimmed down in order to fit properly in the fuselage cavities. I need to correct the wing tip lights as Hellcat`s had clear len`s with colored light bulbs as opposed to what I did by painting the entire section. Highly recommended and thank you in advance!!!! Mike

Hey everyone I had a little rush of blood to the head earlier and I ordered the Brassin Tempest V Napier Sabre for the Eduard Tempest kit. So boyd by my Spitfire Mk.IXc (finished build) WIP I thought I'd get another WIP going in anticipation for when I get to start it. Box art.. And Napier Sabre... Cheers Iain

Hello all, Here are my entries for this GB - Eduard's 1/48 MK.I/MK.II dual combo. I picked this up for an absolute steal on ebay and glad I did as the plastic and detail throughout looks fantastic. Of course, being a dual combo, there's enough for two kits. I had initially just wanted to build a FAA Mk.II, but I then saw some lovely USN decals on Hannants (which were nearly the same as what I paid for this kit to give you an idea of the bargain I managed to get!) so I'll be doing a USN F6F-3 too. The FAA machine will be in the markings of 1844 Naval Air Squadron, flying off HMS Indomitable in the Pacific in 1945. Indomitable's Hellcats accounted for 40 enemy aircraft downed during their Pacific campaign. JX814 was flown by Sub Lt W.M.C Foster who became one of the few Hellcat aces in the FAA after downing 5 Japanese aircraft during Operations to secure Okinawa. JX814 was subsequently downed by AA fire from allied ships. (On a side note I'm a bit ashamed to say that this is my first FAA model, ever! I do have plenty in the stash to make up for it though - two Sea Harriers, Phantom, Sea King, Wessex...) The USN machine will be in the markings of VF-27, flying off the USS Princeton in October 1944 and flown by Ensign Gordon Arthur Stanley, who would be credited with 8 victories. This aircraft was lost when the Princeton was sunk by a Torpedo on 24th October, 1944. The lovely HGW decals for the VF-27 scheme: My first Hellcats too I should mention Cheers and stay safe Dave

Hi all This is my take on Fw190F-8 'Yellow 14' of SG2 - or SG10 (I don't think anyone is certain which), photographed at the war's end, standing on its nose in a scrap dump at Neubiberg. I had the usual and well-documented nightmares with the early Eduard kit, but most of the problems can be overcome with plasticard and/or filler.. I also used the kit decals, which mostly went on pretty well. Rather strangely, the kit did not come with the outer wing SC50 racks which are clearly fitted in the original pics (and are also pictured on the box art), but I had similar items in the spares box, so used those. Anyway, hope you like..

Hi all. Has anyone else ever had problems with Eduard kits? Or to be specific to my particular case, the Eduard Fw-190D-9 (Revell rebox). In addition to a fair amount of flash, parts have incredibly poor keying points, are overly large to fit, don't match the instructions or don't even make sense. I started assembly in the cockpit area and it was straightforward until the footpedals, which have such a poor connection point and appear larger in reality than the instructions depicts. Next up was the gun bay, which again had terrible locator positions for the parts so they had to be manually aligned. It then asked me to add in a pipe that was far too long, but as I looked ahead, completely disappears from the instructions and another part is added to the same place! To try and align things properly I test fitted this section to the fuselage, which has two tiny locator bumps, one at the front and one at the rear, and the rest is basically fitting by eye. It took a lot of force to get the parts to somewhat line up, and I still don't know if it'll fit correctly. I'll have to paint these parts before I continue, but so far this feels like such a chore, and so incredibly disappointing given how often I see people saying Eduard kits are amazing. I don't think I've had a kit with this much wing it construction since Airfix back in the 90s and 2000s, and I don't even think it felt that bad then Almost reminds me of my experience with my Miniart T-55 have similar shallow location points or parts that didn't fit properly. Oh, to have every kit build like a Tamiya one. Gaz

Tempest Mk.II Gun Bays (648638 for Eduard/Special Hobby) 1:48 Eduard Brassin After everyone finished jumping up and down with glee at the release of Eduard’s new Mk.II Tempest in 1:48 with its cylindrical cowling and massive radial engine, the detail hounds started to wonder what extras would be around. So far we’ve had a number of sets, and now we have the Gun Bay set. The gun bays on the model are moulded closed, so the first thing you'll need to do it cut the wing apart, making a T-shaped hole in each upper panel, following the panel lines shown in the instructions. You'll also need to chamfer the inner side of the landing light blister inside the lower wing, or your bays won't fit. On first looks, this set appears identical to the Mk.V bays, and to a great extent that is correct, but for the rear lip on the trailing edge of the wing, which has been changed, presumably to make construction easier. The whole bay frame is moulded as a single part per wing, and is given a PE floor with the lower wing internal structure depicted. The two ammo boxes fit into the top of the T each side of the cannons, which are added after, and plumbed in with some small resin parts. The rear of the bay is a mixture of resin and PE parts to obtain the correct thickness of the trailing edge once the bay is offered up to the underside of the upper wing. It fits within the hole, recessed to give a more realistic look and thickness to the bay edges, which are then lined with PE parts that replicate the lip and fastener locations, with the front sections inlaid with more PE to depict the hinges so that the new resin bay doors can be attached folded forwards, while the aft section is loose and usually laid upside down on the wing when removed. A CAD image shows their correct orientation, and Mr Hobby paint codes are called out throughout construction to aid paint choices. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Paul Tarascon was a French ace of WWI with 12 confirmed and 10 probable victories. Tarascon was an aviator pre-war and had suffered a crash while learning to fly in 1911 which resulted in the amputation of his right foot. He continued to fly with a wooden leg and achieved success firstly with Escadrille N.3, the famous storks, alongside the likes of Duellin, Hertoux and of course Guynemer and then with N.62 which he led. Flying Nieuports and later SPADs, he had most success with the little rotaries gaining his nickname of “the ace with the wooden leg”. Tarascon’s rooster badge was adopted by N.62 as its unit marking and Tarascon named his aircraft “Zigomar” after a fictional criminal popular in France at the time. Paul Tarascon survived the war, fought again in WWII with the French resistance, was awarded the Grand Croix of the Legion d’honneur in 1955 and passed away in June 1977 at the age of 94. For this group build I will be building Eduard’s excellent little Nieuport 17 as Tarascon’s Zigomar 4. A start has been made prepping parts for priming. Some of the parts are very fine and great care needs to be taken removing them from the sprue, naturally, being ham fisted I managed to break one of the aileron push rods. It should be fixable, but a timely lesson on the need for care! AW

F-4E Masks(for Fine Molds Kit) 1:72 Eduard There is no doubt the new F-4E from Fine Molds is a great looking kit. Eduard are here with masks for the new kit Supplied on a sheet of yellow kabuki tape, these pre-cut masks supply you with a full set of masks for the out side of the canopy, with compound curved handled by using frame hugging masks, while the highly curved gaps are in-filled with either liquid mask or offcuts from the background tape. In addition, you get a set of hub/tyre masks for the wheels, allowing you to cut the demarcation perfectly with little effort.

Hi Folks! Isn't it great that August is finally here and we can all get started on our Hellcat builds...What do you mean, everyone else started in June? I jest of course. I'm fully aware that I'm a little late getting started with this but I'm taking a new approach here. In my previous group build, I suffered a major mojo loss as the end of the build approached meaning that it was unclear until the 59th minute of the 11th hour of the build whether I'd actually get the thing over the line in time. For this build, I decided to get the period of demotivation out of the way early. Besides, an unexpected heatwave (and in Scotland, any heatwave is unexpected) had rendered my man-cave under the eaves of the house hot enough to boil a badger's bum so there wasn't much incentive to head up there. It was so hot even the cats were complaining. With the return of normal meteorological service, i.e. fog interspersed with torrential rain, I've finally got this puppy under way. Having been a little over confident in my last group build, I'm setting my sights much lower for this one and am tackling the Weekend edition of the Eduard 1/72 F6F-5. This one in fact This will be my first attempt at an Eduard kit. I own several of their products, all 1/48 WW1 fighters for some reason, but the combination of minute PE parts and rigging instructions they offer has always led to me shaking my head and gently, but firmly, closing the boxes, every time I contemplate starting one. No PE or rigging with this one so let's see how we get on! I'm sure most of you are familiar with this kit but here's a sprue shot anyway. At first sight, things look very promising with crisp sharp detailing and no flash or warped mouldings in sight. A little different to some Airfix kits I've tackled recently. The kit comes with two marking options and 2(!) decal sheets, the second packed with a worrying amount of stencils. I'll be doing the option on the right hand page above for no better reason than I'm also building a F4U which features a yellow ring around the front of the cowling and I thought the white ring on the Hellcat would match nicely. I have actually made some progress on this and am now at the stage where the cockpit is more or less complete, the multiple instrument panel decals provided being a great aid in making the office look sufficiently busy. Being the Weekend edition, the kit comes with decals to represent the seat belts. I was worried that these would appear a little two-dimensional so I thought I would be clever (never a good sign) and stick the belt decals to my favourite belt manufacturing material, tin foil sandwiched between two strips of Tamiya masking tape. How did this go? Well lets just say that the canopy is going to be firmly closed on this one. Next task is to close up the fuselage. While doing a dry fit, I was somewhat alarmed to notice that the fuselage halves feature no location pins whatsoever. Getting a decent join may pose a stern challenge to my modelling skills. More developments soon, hopefully. Thanks for reading, Craig.

Hey all, Here's Eduard's 1/48 P-51D-5 from their profi-pack kit. Attracted to the colour schemes, I bought this kit a few months ago when it first came out but I've only just got round to it now. It was definitely hard to choose what colour scheme to do her in! Hence why I might've bought a few of Eduard's Overtrees to go with it... Overall it's a very nicely detailed kit and cleverly engineered, however it's still no Tamiya, as I found the fit lacking in a few areas and the tolerences didn't allow for much play with the parts, they had to be put in spot on otherwise the next bit wouldn't necessarily fit. Being this is my first attempt at an NMF, I tried to play it safe with Tamiya Laquers as they actually have quite a nice selection of metallic tones that have been released. I pre-shaded first in black then went in with the metallic colours. Handily, Eduard actually provide a guide to the various metallic finishes that Mustangs wore during their service, and denoted where the aircraft was lacquered or left bare-metal. The Tamiya laquers were also quite hardy so took the heavily weathered effect I was headed for without damaging the finish. Saying that though, I still varnished the bird with Tamiya Semi-Gloss to make it a bit more uniform in appearance. Thanks for looking guys! Sam