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MPM Special Hobby is working on new 1/48th Piper J-3 and Piper L-4 Cub injected kits. Sources: http://www.cmkkits.com/index.php?cmd=show&imageID=75599&title= http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234934400-piper-cub-148/ V.P.

Piper L-4 Grasshopper Decals (48041) 1:48 Iliad Designs The Piper Cub was a light aircraft developed before WWII with production continuing throughout WWII and into the late 40s. In military service as a communications, reconnaissance, or spotter aircraft, it was known as the L-4 Grasshopper, and 20,000 plus were built due to its success in various roles, including trainer and glider tug. It was powered by a flat-4 engine, and despite the limited power it was agile in the air, with docile handling characteristics and a very low stall speed, which made take-off and landing a simple process, and let the aircraft use strips that were far too short for other types. This new decal set from Iliad in Canada depicts a variety of airframes in the service of different operators on an A5 sheet of decal paper. There are six decal options included on the sheet with side and top profiles printed on the instructions along with captions and arrowed areas that give additional details to help you make your model more accurate. They are intended to be used with the new Special Hobby kit, which is truly 1:48. There is an older kit available that purports to be 1:48, but it is actually closed to 1:50, so the sizing of the decals will be unsuitable in places. The underwing decals are shown as ghost images on the overhead profiles and vice versa, which both saves space and paper, which is always a good thing. From the sheet you can decal any of the following: L-4H ‘Miss Me’ flown by Lt. Merrit Francies & Lt. William Martin, who shot down a German Storch using their sidearms, 11th April 1945 L-4 flown by Maj. John Humphries, 546th Bomb Sqn., 384th Bomb Group, Grafton, UK 1944 L-4 stationed at Camp Clipper desert training facility, California USA, 1943 L-4 Free French Forces L-4H A-72 32e Section d’Observation d’Aviation d’Artillerie (SOAA), French 2nd Armoured Division US Navy NE-2, 29669 from Army stock in 1944-5 The decals are printed on a pale blue paper in good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. There are some large areas of carrier film between the lettering by necessity, but due to the extremely thin nature of the film it should disappear, especially if you ensure a highly glossy surface before application. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Legato/AZModel is to release a family of 1/72nd Piper J-3, L-4 Cub & Pa-18/L-21 Super Cub kits. Source: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234931186-azmodellegatoadmiral-wwii-aircraft-comments-questions-and-wishes/?p=1518104 V.P.

Here we go then! I'll be starting out with something simple and pretty much out the box. This the old KP L4 kit. Usual runner shot. It'll need quite a bit of weight in as many places as possible me thinks! That's four .177 pellets in each tiny float. There'll be some lead behind the firewall too. Well this is going pretty well: It's darn small and my magnifier lamp has blown! CPC to the rescue. This thing really is small, especially after concentrating my time on 1/32 so far this year: I must say I'm very impressed with this old kit. Very little flash and everything fits well. The instruction are a bit vague in places but nothing to taxing. The decals look a bit iffy too, but this will be done as a civvie with home printed decals anyway. Here's a taste of the other potential build: I hope I get time! Rick.

Hi Next WWII secondliner from my archive - Piper L-4 Cub. Markings are of personal airplane of General Arnold, a commander of 5th Army USAAF, Italy 1943-44, following profile of this exactly machine, which was published in a booklet on Cub issued in Polish TBU monographies series. Decals from drawer. I added some details, but practicly this is OOB model. Regards and comments welcomed Jerzy-Wojtek P.S. if I not mistaken this is the 101 model which I am presenting on BM . Here it is:

Back again with a plane! 1/48 is an unusual scale for me, I admit I only have ONE other 1/48 aeroplane (an F-86, will be posted at some time...), but I thought 1/72 was a bit small for the Super Cub! This is also my first civil light plane. The kit; it's poo. Only get one if you are used to short run! This is because the moulds are rather old - misaligned parts, one fuselage half shorter than the other (or maybe that was my fault...) and some rather nasty flash on what were originally very delicately tooled parts. Detail and scale "look" is good, so this is a shame. I read somewhere these kits were originally by Bandai. It's also a bit overcomplex, which would be ok if the moulding was good. The engine for example is a multi part kit in itself, but the parts are so out of kilter it's very difficult to fix it so the prop is on straight. You also will have trouble displaying the cowling open, as there is some crude "retooling" inside the doors. This is the case in many other bits too. "Made in Korea" has been partly ground off the sprues in places, replaced by "made in China" - obviously not the same factory as Hobby Boss etc.! Interior is basic but workable - two seats, control columns that look like old gear shift levers and slices of cake to represent rudder pedals... oh dear. Reference via the internet shows that no two Super Cubs are alike in the interior. I added typical T shaped rudder pedals out of rod, a new firewall, side throttles, new joy sticks and seat belts. I also detailed up the instrument panel a bit. And guess what? You can't see much of this because the transparencies are a bit thick... Moving on, the frame structure in the canopy is shown the wrong way round in the instructions. The V shaped piece goes in the windscreen. I realised this after sticking it in and making a new windscreen frame out of rod, fogging the inside of the transparency with the superglue in the process. As I say, moving on... The wings and fuselage have to be painted before assembly. I used Humbrol matt trainer yellow, then a coat of Klear. Side transparencies are tricky to locate, I used Perfect Materials glue 'n' glaze, which is ok but hard to get off once dry. Surprisingly the wings and struts went together quite nicely, although the tailwheel is fragile as I found out... Decal sheet provides markings for German, US, Canadian and Brit registrations, plus enough numbers and letters to make your own. Probably to compensate for what is a rather dodgy kit, like certain Revell re-releases... the decals are rather shiny, and as you can see didn't like the sprayed Klear surface and silvered. I should probably have used Humbrol decalfix, as this tends to wipe out the Curse of Silver. My usual decal solvent just dries things out! This is all a question of what you put the decals on, most of the time they only settle on a shiny surface - spraying Klear etc. usually gives you a granular one. Surface I mean. OK, there it is - was it worth the aggro? Yeah, it looks nice, and it's an interesting aeroplane.