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Hobby Boss is to release in late January 2020 a 1/18th Messerschmitt Me.262 Schwalbe kit - ref. 81805 Source: http://www.hobbyboss.com/index.php?g=home&m=article&a=show&id=151&l=en V.P.

The IAR 80 was a small-series Romanian-built WW2 fighter plane. Built with very limited resources and under many unfortunate circumstances, the plane behaved pretty well during its operational life, on all fronts. This little forgotten fighter is really close to my heart so I was very happy to see that Hobbyboss decided to offer a plastic kit dedicated to IAR 80. Now let's see what's in the box: Dry-fitting of the main pieces is very good and also the kit seems to be pretty accurate in dimensions. It really looks like an IAR80:) But this is where the good news is over, because the kit has some errors probably caused by sloppy documentation work (no wonder for Hobbyboss). Hopefully, with some love & tenderness, most of these can be properly addressed. I also acquired the separate PE instrument panel released by Yahu Models for IAR 80. It can be seen in the above picture with the canopy and windscreen. Although it looks like difficult to assemble (it is not the traditional just-stick one-piece IP from Yahu, this set consists of many small pieces that must be assembled together), I strongly recommend it for those interested in IAR 80, because it is a HUGE improvement over the kit's parts. The kit itself comes with a small PE fret containing the seat belts...but unfortunately these seatbelts are not correct for the early time-frame of the IAR 80 series. This type of seatbelts were indeed fitted to IAR 80/81 but only starting with summer 1943. They were also usually retro-fitted to earlier models of the plane, but of course starting with 1943. A 1940-1941-1942-early 1943 machine would not be fitted with such seatbelts. As said, the IAR 80 was produced in very limited numbers, only some 450 machines were built and it was used operationally only by the Romanian Air Force, mostly on the Eastern front and home defense missions. As an example, when fighting the Americans during the Ploesti oil fiend missions, it was usually mistaken with the Fw190:) Anyway, there is very limited knowledge about this plane and a very good reference work on the subject is the book "Romanian Hunter" authored by Radu Brinzan. Very solid work, it contains lots of details needed for an IAR 80 model. I greatly recommend it to anyone interested. One of the main problems of the Hobbyboss kit is that the original decals are almost unusable and the painting instructions are largely incorrect. There are decals for 2 airframes in the box: aircraft no.42 and aircraft no.137. But no.137 was a 6-gun wing model, while in the box we have the 4-gun wing model. Of course, some modifications could be made, but the idea is that OOB the markings for no.137 are incorrect for this model. The remaining variant, no.42 airframe, was indeed a 4-guns wing, but the King Michael's crosses are not the right ones for this model. But again Radu Brinzan came to help with this lovely decal sheet dedicated to early series on IAR 80, which is offering some very nice and correct markings and painting instructions for the earliest IAR 80 airframes. Another problem is related to the guns. As represented in the kit, they are not very correct and anyway under-represented. The early IAR 80 series were armed with 4 FN machine guns. These were some Belgian variations of the classic Browning 303. I looked to find some decent aftermarket for these and I found appropriate only this Quickboost set designed for the new Airfix P40B kit, which contains 4 browning 303 barrels. While not perfect, they are the closest match I could find for the FN's installed in the early IAR 80. Anyway, I intend to represent an early IAR 80 airframe, one of the machines built in the first series. The airplane was built in small batches, first series spanning from No.1 to No.20. I will probably go for a pre-war marking (1940 to early 1941 time frame), so the most probable candidates are no.2, no.9 or no.17 from Radu's decal sheet. That's all for the moment . Thanks for looking and cheers,

HobbyBoss is to release 1/48th Sukhoi Su-17M-4 & Su-17UM-3 "Fitter-K & G" kits - ref. 81758 & 81759 - in 2016-2017 Source: https://www.facebook.com/TrumpeterModel/photos/a.103538733138062.8169.103526326472636/537476479744283/?type=3&theater V.P.

I am finishing the Hobbyboss TA-7C Corsair and the wing tanks that comes in the kit are too skinny and long. A couple of questions as references are very few. Can anyone recommend a replacement ? Can l use the tanks from another aircraft such as the A-4 Skyhawk /A-6 Intruder ? Is there another A-7 that provides the correct shape and size of wing tank ? I have a Fujimi A-7 Corsair in the stash but they look too short. Regards Robert

Dear Modellers The ubiquitous Army truck in early 1950s' Russia was the ZIS-151. A largely reverse engineered Studebacker 6X6 which had so impressed the Soviets in WWII. The kit is a pleasure to build, and I could not stop myself detailing the engine and adding a new resin figure from TANK. The mechanic and officer are also from TANK and the resin wheels from Panzer Art hope you like it comrades? Andrew

Hobby Boss is to release in 2015-2016 a new tool 1/48th MiG-31 "Foxhound" kit: MiG-31 - ref.81753 and MiG-31B/BM - ref.81754. Bad news for the AMK project (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234946328-mig-31bm-avantgarde-model-148/?hl=foxhound#entry1401014). Source: https://www.facebook.com/TrumpeterModel/photos/pb.103526326472636.-2207520000.1418316818./393657967459469/?type=1&theater Still no 1/48th Yak-28 "Brewer" family nor (injected) Il-28 "Beagle"... V.P.

Something different for me, but nice simple kit Amazingly it starts with the cockpit Seems to have painted up quite nicely. Peter

German VK.30.01(P) Hobbyboss 1:35 The VK 30.01 (P) was the official designation for a medium tank prototype proposed in Germany. Two prototype hulls were made. The tank never entered serial production, but was further developed into the VK 4501 Tiger (P). The VK 30.01 (P) was sometimes known, and referred to, as the Porsche Typ 100. The requirements for the new development of a 30-tonne schwere Panzerkampfwagen included the ability to mount at least the 7.5 cm KwK L/24 main gun with a desire to fit the 10.5 cm KwK L/28 if possible. Later, in 1941, the German Army encountered —unexpectedly— heavily armoured enemy vehicles such as the Soviet T-34 and KV-1. Plans were then made to instead mount the more effective 8,8 cm KwK L/56. Krupp were directly contracted by Porsche to produce the turret to house the 8,8 cm KwK L/56 and the two teams worked together to develop it for the VK 30.01 (P) chassis. A fully developed drawing with the Krupp turret was completed, dated 5 March 1941. The Krupp turret would be used on both the Porsche and the Henschel Tiger. Uncommon for tanks at the time, Porsche selected a gasoline-electric drive. The front drive sprockets for the tracks were driven by two electric motors mounted forward in the hull. Two air cooled V-10 gasoline engines, mounted toward the rear of the vehicle, were each connected to a generator to produce electricity. The generated electricity was then used to power the motors. Each engine produced 210 PS at 2500 RPM; giving a total of 420 PS available to drive the generators. The model The kit comes in the standard stly of box we’re used to from Hobbyboss with an artist’s impression of the tank on the front. Inside there are four sprues and three separate parts in the Caramac coloured styrene, five sprues of dark, browny coloured styrene, a small sheet of etched brass and a small decal sheet. The mouldings are well up to their usual standards with no sign of flash or other imperfections, just a few moulding pips to clean up before use. The thinness of the instruction booklet shows that, besides the tracks the build will be a fairly simple one. Construction begins with a number of sub assemblies, notably the suspension arms, idler axles, road wheels, return rollers, drive sprockets and idler wheels. The suspension and axles, along with the drive gearbox covers are then glued to the lower hull which is a single piece moulding with some nice detail on the underside, which unfortunately you won’t see once complete. The road wheels, drive sprockets, idler wheels and return rollers are then glued into their respective positions along with two large tow piece brackets onto the rear plate. The tracks are now assembled from individual links,, now, each link is attached to the sprue by five gates, so there will be plenty of cleanup required before they can be glued together, 78 link per side. Personally I don’t like this style of fixing the links together and will probably by aftermarket metal tracks for when I build this. With the tracks fitted, I would normally leave this till the end of the build to aid painting, but since I’m going by the instructions will stick with it. Inside the lower hull just forward of the rear plate there is a support bulkhead fitted, while on the plate the two, six piece exhausts are assembled and glued into place. Moving onto the upper hull, the two track guards are fitted with PE sections on the inboard fronts before the guards are glued to the hull, as are the four hatches on the engine decking. Tow more large towing brackets are glued to the lower glacis plate and the additional armour plate fitted to the driver and gunner’s positions. On the engine deck there are four PE grilles to be fitted while and either end to the track guards, large angled support brackets are attached. The driver’s vision port and gunners four piece machine gun are glued into position. The turret comes as a single piece section to which the rof is attached, along with the commanders ten piece cupola and four piece gunners hatch. The mantlet is a two part unit which is then fitted with the co-axial machine gun and trunnion mounts and the whole assembly glued to the front face of the turret. The cartridge exit door is glued to the rear of the turret, and the three piece gun with another three pieces making up the fume extractor is glued into the mantlet. The completed turret is then fitted to the hull completing the build. Decals. The small decal sheet contains just a pair of German crosses and two sets of individual numbers from 0 to 9 so that you can make up your own identifying number for the turret side. Conclusion This would be a nice simple kit from Hobbyboss, if it wasn’t for the way the individual track links are assembled, that said the whole kit could be built in a weekend and would make a pretty good mojo reviver. While the vehicle never went into series production there are no reasons why the modeller couldn’t detail it up with pioneer tools and other equipment and use it in a diorama or vignette. Review sample courtesy of

French R39 Light Infantry Tank 1/35 HOBBYBOSS via Creative Models Designed by Renault, this was an interwar light infantry tank used by the French army in their unsuccessful defence of their homeland at the beginning of WWII, after which it remained in service with the German forces as a beutepanzer, where it was either used in second line service, or heavily converted to a makeshift gun carriage and used as a self-propelled howitzer. It was originally intended as a replacement for the diminutive FT-17, but due to the sloth in re-training their crews, they were still ill-prepared even on the eve of war. The R39 is a variant of the R35 but armed with the heavier 37mm SA38 L/33 gun allowing it to operate in an anti-tank capacity. When Germany pounced, there were almost a thousand R35s in service, although they had been found unreliable, poorly armed to combat tanks, and with too little armour. All the remaining vehicles were taken on charge by the Germans and more than a little tinkering with cutting torches began. Some had their turrets removed to use as small gun emplacements, while others were thoroughly butchered to become tank destroyers, although in doing so the original chassis was horribly overloaded, leading to slow, breakdown prone vehicles that must have been loathed by their crews. By the end of the war a small number were left and used by the French until they were replaced with more capable tanks. The Kit This is a re-boxing by HobbyBoss with a new sprue for the heavier turret on this version. The kit arrives in a fairly small box with a divider keeping the sprues from rattling about. Inside are seven sprues, upper hull in sand coloured styrene; two sprues containing the tracks; a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, decal sheet, colour painting guide and black and white instruction manual. The engine is first to be constructed, with a two part block that is heavily detailed with additional parts, a great many of which are absolutely tiny, which conspires to give you a very nicely depicted motor for your R35 chassis. Work then commences on integrating the engine with the lower hull, beginning with the sand-cast rear bulkhead, which has the idler tensioning devices and towing hook added, after which the radiator, cooling fan and ducting are assembled with the power-take-off wheel projecting from the rear of the box. The hull itself is made up from two side panels and a floor piece, into which the radiator housing, a styrene/PE stiffening plate and driver controls are added. The side panels are fitted out with three return-rollers and a final drive housing per side, and four bogies with two wheels per housing and a big suspension spring are built up. Two more solo bogies, two drive sprockets and two idler wheels are also constructed, and are installed on the suspension mounting points on the hull sides. At the same time the driver's seat, fuel tank and engine-mount bulkhead are ensconced within the hull, and the rear bulkhead closes up the rear. After adding a few more driver controls and their linkages, the drive-train is dropped into the hull, with a transmission housing added to the front, and driver-shafts to the sprockets complete the drive-train. Given their small size in 1:35, HB have decided to go down the link and length route with the tracks. The straight track runs are made up from six parts with a few links in between the curved lower sections, and twelve individual links at each end. Each of the individual links have three sprue gates, while the lengths have additional dead-end tabs that ensure against short-shot links, and also double as ejector-pin positions, saving the delicate detail from marring by miss-alignments. The upper hull is detailed inside with the driver's instrument panel, plus a choice of actuator for his vision hatch, which can be posed open or closed. The final drive inspection hatch is added along with some PE parts, as is the lower part of the driver's hatch, with the upper section added in the open or closed aspect, depending on your whim. The upper hull is then closed up and a host of pioneer tools are threaded through their tie-down blocks to be added to the sides of the hull together with the silencer/muffler and exhaust, the feeder pipe for which comes from the rear of the vehicle. Their is a large tail on the rear of the tank like those seen on the Renault FT-17 to assist on crossing trenches, a throw back from WWI. This is then built up and added to the rear of the tank. The new turret which is the feature of this boxing is then built up. The main hatch is added along with the vision opening on each side. The 37mm gun is quite detailed and is a full gun both sides of the mantlet. The rear loading hatch is then built up and added, The turret base can then be added and the completed turret placed on the tank. Decals Decals are provided for one rench tanks, and one re-used by the Germans. No details regarding units etc are provided. Conclusion This is a great looking kit from HobbyBoss and their attention to detail is to be commended, it is good to see more lesser known tanks being kitted. Overall Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Leopard C2 MEXAS Canadian MBT 1/35 HOBBYBOSS via Creative Models In 1978 the Canadian Army selected the Leopard 1A3 to be its new Main Battle Tank. These would be called the Leopard C1 in service. In 2000 it was decided to upgrade these tanks with the fitment of surplus German Leopard 1A5 turrets. At the same time armour protection was increased, and a new fire control system was added. In 2006 some of these tanks were sent to Afghanistan where they would be fitted with an additional upgrade, the MEXAS system. This stands for Modular Expandable Armour System which was developed n=by IBD Deisenroth Engineering in Germany. This is a new composite armour system which can be added to many vehicles include tanks to increase survivability in these modern conflicts where IEDs and RPGs feature heavily. The Canadians also fit a version to their LAVs. The Kit This kit from HobbyBoss is a re-boxing of the standard Leopard 1 with different parts for the Canadian MBT. Its worth noting the kit does not feature the thermal blanket and cooler fitted at a later date by the Canadians in Afghanistan. The kit looks good on the sprues with lots of detail parts. Moulding is first rate. Construction starts lower hull. Various suspension components are fitted, and the ends of the main torsion bar system and its arms are fitted. The wheels can then be built up and attached, followed by the tracks which are individual links. While at first glance thy look good and there is a jig provided in the kit to make short runs of track however it will take some work to get them right; and the end connectors are moulded to the links so will not articulate like the real ones when the runs go round the end sprockets. The next step is a surprising one in that it looks like a full power pack is provided. While the engine has many parts and looks quite detailed there is no detailing for the engine bay, and the actual block is missing all of its hoses and connector, though there is nothing stopping the modeller going to town here if they want to do an open engine bay. Then the rear bulkhead is made up. There is virtually no moulded on parts here with a lot of small detail parts making up this bulkhead. The rear mud flaps are fitted to the bulkhead at this point. The bulkhead can then be fitted. Moving to the top main hull the engine deck hatch is added, along with some side parts and the drivers vision blocks, the rear exhausts are then added along with quite a few detailed parts such as tools , mirrors etc. The lower and upper hulls can now be joined and the rear bulkhead fitted. PE parts for the engine deck are then fitted. The additional MEXAS armour packs are added to the sides of the hull and the front. The rear tow cables are then added. Work now moves to the turret which has good casting detail moulded in. The mounting points for the MEXAS armour are all moulded to the turret. After the turret is together the large rear mounted turret storage bin is made up and added to the turret, Next up the roof mounted machine gun and its mount can be added. The ECM system and MEXAS armour units can then be assembled and added to the turret. Next up the hatches and aerial mounts are added. The gun and its additional armoured mantlet are built up, There are two guns in the kit and the one with the mounting straps for the muzzle referent mirror on it. These are then added to the turret after it is assembled There is a canvas mantlet cover to add, this is a basic representative of the real thing and aftermarket detailed one are available to replace this one, in addition to would seem the Canadian's replaced the original covers with one of their own making. Like a lot of Leopard kits the kit barrel is not entirely accurate due to the complexities of the real thing and the limits of plastic moulding technology. The smoke dischargers are added to the turret and its then ready to be mounted to the hull Decals Decals are provided for 4 tanks in Afghanistan though there is no information on these provided at all in the instructions. Conclusion This is a great looking kit from HobbyBoss and their attention to detail is to be commended. Overall Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Ukraine KrAZ-6322 "Solider" Cargo Truck 1/35 HOBBYBOSS via Creative Models KrAZ is a Ukrainian company which produces trucks and other specialist vehicles based in Kremenchuk in the Ukraine. The 6322 is an 6x6 truck designed for off road use and in extreme conditions making it ideal for military use. Like many trucks is comes with a wide variety of body types, the "Solider" version being the general cargo truck type. It is powered by a V8 turbocharged diesel engine giving it a top speed of 75 mph. The Kit This is a new kit from HobbyBoss of the 6322. The kit looks good on the sprues with lots of detail parts. Moulding is first rate. and the kit looks comprehensive, with PE parts, window masks, and rubber tyres.Construction starts with the V8 engine. This has quite a lot of detailed parts, in fact the first 3 pages of the instruction booklet detail mainly with its construction. The gearbox is also built up and then attached to the engine. Transmission boxes are constructed at this stage for later placement in the chassis. The chassis is then built up from two major side rails with some cross components, the engine/gear box is added along with the main transmission box with a shaft linking it to the gearbox. A chassis mounted winch is then built up and added to the chassis along with its PTO shaft. Rear light mounts are added at the rear while at the front the main bumper is assembled and added. The exhaust is also then added. Next up we move to the rest of the transmission and suspension components. The front axle is made up and added (the leaf springs being moulded onto the chassis rails), the transmission shaft then connects this to the main transmission. Shocks are then added and the wheel hubs can then be made up and added. The steering box and connector shafts are then added. The two rear axles share a common mounting to the chassis and leaf springs are added for this. The individual axles are added to this and the transmission components added and connected up with their drive shafts. The fuel tanks, battery box, air tanks, and drivers steps are all then assembled and added onto the chassis. All of the wheels and tyres are then put together and added. This now completes the chassis. We now move onto the vehicle cab, The seats are made up and added to the cab floor and the floor mounted controls added. The dashboard, steering column, and wheel are mounted to the cab front and the front glazing is added. This sub assembly is then mounted to the floor. The back of the cab with its glazing is then added, along with the doors which can be open or shut as required. Lastly the roof is put on with its lights being added. The font wings are added with the grill then going on as well. The bonnet is added and the air cleaner made up and mounted to the side. Last up the mirrors and wipers are added to the cab, The cab is then mounted to the chassis. At the rear of the cab an equipment locker and spare wheel carrier are made up and added along with the spare wheel. Last up for construction is the rear cargo body. The underside stiffeners are added then four sides can be added to the main floor. Seats familiar to every military truck are then added to the sides, these can be raised or lowered as needed, Back on the underside the mounting points and mud flaps are added, The body can then be added to the chassis. If wanted a large one part moulded rear cargo body canvas cover is provide. Your truck is now complete. Decals Decals are provided for for one Ukrainian truck and one Russian one Conclusion This is a great looking kit from HobbyBoss and their attention to detail is to be commended, the only downside is the one part cover for the back, it looks too toy like, and there are no seperate supporting frames for the back to display the kit with the rear cover off. It is thought good to see more military softskin vehicles being kitted. Overall Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

SPz Puma German Infantry Fighting Vehicle 1/35 HOBBYBOSS via Creative Models The German realised back in the 1970s that the Infantry needed a Fighting Vehicle as opposed to just a troop carrier and the Marder was developed for this purpose. It was then realised the Marder was getting long in the tooth so development began for a new vehicle. The Schutenpanzer of new IFV came through a process of looking for the replacement. The new vehicle feature modular composite armour, a 30mm auto canon and a Spike LR missile launcher with 2 missiles. The optics and sensor are fully upto date with thermal vision and low light capabilities as standard for the gunner and driver, these even feed into the passenger cabin to provide situational awareness for the troops being carried. The in a new feature the rear door can partially open to allow a couple of troops to scoot out without exposing the rear compartment. The German Army has ordered 350 units which should be delivered by 2020, and combat effective from 2024. Other countries are looking at the Puma though to date none have been ordered. The Kit This kit from HobbyBoss is a new tool. There are the main hull castings, 6 main sprues, a clear sprue, 7 sprues of track parts and two smaller casting for the turret and its gun. Construction starts with the suspension components being added to the main lower hull. The drive sprockets, idler wheels, main wheels and return rollers are all then added. The tracks are then made up and added, these are individual links to each two track pads need to be added for each link. There are 71 links per side. Once the tracks are on the rear door is fitted to the rear bulkhead and this is attached to the main body. Work then switched to the top hull. The roof hatches for the troop compartment are added along with vision blocks and other fittings. The top hull can then be joined to the lower one. The large armoured skirts can then be fitted to each side, and the exhaust louvres fitted. Additional hull parts are fitted at the front, and mud guards at the rear along with the convoy light and tow hooks. For the main hill various additional parts are fitted as well as what seems to be slat armour protection for the vehicle and counter measure systems. Moving onto the turret, the gun is first built up with the barrel being added into arm casing, and then this being attached to the main body of the turret. Sensors are added along with smoke dischargers. The completed turret can then be added to the vehicle. Decals A small decal sheet gives marking for three German Army vehicles. Conclusion This is a great looking kit from HobbyBoss of the latest German APC/IFV and their attention to detail is to be commended. Overall Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Macchi C200 easy build kit from HobbyBoss. 362 Squadriglia, 22 Gruppo Russia 1941 This kit has pretty good shape, but skips many important details. I attempted to add the missing parts, and in the process picked up some ideas on how to build another one more efficiently, and with better detail. All out of box except the cockpit from a Hasagawa C202, with tape belts. Starboard wing cut and shortened to replicate asymmetrical design. Drop of canopy glue for rear navigation light. Styrene scratch built inner landing gear doors and (wire) retraction arms (none in kit). Styrene scratched top centre cowling piece (not in kit). Tyres flattened and bulged by heating. Machine guns (a bit too thick) made from steel wire (none in kit). Exhaust manifold (in behind cowling) made from bent stretched sprue. Air intake at bottom of cowling made from cut up Hasegawa C202 part and shaped sprue (not in kit). Wheel wells ground out to better represent the actual aircraft, a bit of detail added. Painted with Tamiya acrylic. Thanks for looking.

Bought this kit to try and build one of my most liked WW2 fighter the ME262. The kit had many detailed parts, which is good. It also comes with the nose wheel and nose cannon/machine platform cast as a single piece of lead for weighing down the nose. Decals are quite well done.

I was going to do a zvezda mi-24 p hind but i had trouble sourcing suitable decals,if i manage to locate some i may build it aswell in this gb ,but I'm going to build the mi- 8mt/ mi-17 hobbyboss kit instead,it looks a smashing kit , i have a decal sheet on its way that i belive will offer a couple of options 1 being an afganistan mi-17 so I'll wait till i can get a good look at the sheet before i choose,i want to apply the finishing touches to my sea king first with the deadline for that gb looming and I'm struggling to find the time at the minute so that'll be close , The box

A smashing little quick build, the hobbyboss mi-17 kit in 1/72 built in the 80s front line asia gb, It represents an afghan mi-17 from the soviet conflict, built oob exept for some old pe seatbelts from the spares box, btw, windscreen wipers to be painted when i get my new spectacles Cheers

Hi all, Number 8 for the year so far is the insectoid Fieseler Storch. Nice kit, the only let down being the transparencies which are not the best moulded clear parts I've ever used, and a pain to fair in to the fuselage. Paints are from Gunze for a change, as they had the correct RLM colours, but I've painted it up as a modern restored warbird. The painting guide from HobbyBoss was woefully inadequate, so I had to use a lot of online reference for the camo scheme, and that's where I got my inspiration to do a modern representation. Walk around first: A couple of closeup shots: And the traditional 'magazine shots' to finish: Hope you like it, Dean

This is my Hobby Boss 1/48 FW 190 D9, a nice kit and relatively trouble free build, I managed to keep the canopy moveable and the rigging wire drops down when opened which is a nice touch. Finished in MRP and Mr Color Lacquers and weathered with oils and pigments. Eduard belts and brass tubing for gun barrels were added.

Hi friends! Ta-152V-7 or Ta-152 C-0. HobbyBoss, 1/48. I recently restored this model. Brown wheels made like the FW-190D-9. Unpainted rubber. Too shabby for an experimental plane. At the end of the war, things could have been.

It’s been a while since I’ve completed a model and this has been due to some fairly serious family issues (enough said), but finally I’ve managed to do a quick build of what is probably my most favourite 50’s Jet, the Hawker Sea Hawk. This is the Hobbyboss 1/72 version of the Mk. 101 in German markings and as kits go the fit and finish of the parts is excellent, especially compared to the ancient Airfix moulding. The only mods I’ve done to the kit is the addition of a resin ejector seat and to replace the kit aerials with stretched sprue versions. I can already see one or two areas for improvement on my next aircraft build, but as ever any constructive criticism is welcome. P.S. I quickly made a base from plasticard to sit the ‘Hawk on so I’ve swapped out the original photos for these. Hope you don’t mind.

I'm building the Hobby Boss 1/48 LCM3 for a GB on another forum. I naively thought it would be a mostly OOB build when I started. But, I soon found myself pondering some of the parts, and that's when OOB left the building. As such, I thought this would be interesting to show, here, too. Here are the bits from the box As you can see, I added Eduard's PE for this kit. At first, this all looked OK. Since I would be building this for Overlord, I knew the Sherman wasn't a possibility, but I figured that a Jeep would be a fine accompaniment for the completed kit. The first steps are the hull. Turns out the very first pause came with the skeg and rudder The leading edge at the rudder hinge works out to about 4.3 inches thick! Also the rudder won't support any side loads, which I assumed would have been a strong consideration for a beaching boat... My Google-foo soon found an image with the needed detail. Turns out this enlargement showed an LCM aboard an M25, a.k.a., Dragon Wagon. Hm, if only Tamiya would release one of those in 1/48. But, I digress. Here's what I did to fix the kit. And the shot similar to my enlargement above That looks much better. Around this time, I found my subject vessel. Woohoo! A source of truth...and more questions... Details on LCMs are scant indeed. My best source of info have been videos on YouTube, which showed the next issue. I noticed that when the ramp dropped, there was some activity in that channel at the bow in the photo above. That guide is a C channel with the equalizing sheave shuttling from the aft end of the guide when the ramp is raised--as seen above--to the forward end of the guide when the ramp is lowered. HB was apparently clueless about that, as they just supplied a U channel for the part, with no other connection to the boat beside it being welded to the frames. As for ramp operations, HB guessed there were ramp winches port and starboard, and the cables ran from winch, along the deck to a sheave at the bow, and then up to a sheave at the top of the bow to padeyes on the ramp. Watching more videos and reading the contemporaneous Skill in the Surf: A Landing Boat Manual, led to a better understanding of the mechanism. There's a single ramp winch driven by the port engine, hauling on a cable connected to the eye on equalizing sheave. There's a single ramp cable (wire rope) running from a padeye on the port side of the ramp, over a sheave at the bow, down to a sheave leading into the equalizing sheave guide, around the equalizing sheave, forward to a 2nd sheave at the forward end of the sheave guide, around that sheave and aft above the deck to a sheave that transferred the ramp cable to the starboard side, around a sheave and forward above the deck to a pair of sheaves (bottom and then top) to the other padeye on the starboard side of the ramp. As the name suggests, this arrangement ensures that the tension on both sides of the ramp are equal, ensuring it moves freely. The green line in the image below runs from equalizing sheave to top of the ramp winch cover. The red line shows that port-side ramp cable. The yellow line shows what I believe is the ramp release cable mentioned in Skill in the Surf. I first made up a C channel from 2 strips of Evergreen C channel and strip material. Now that I had the equalizing sheave channel, I needed an equalizing sheave. This is a guess--the only part visible is the uppermost rectangular bar, which is what first caught my attention. With an equalizing sheave guide and equalizing sheave in hand, I turned my attention to the ramp sheaves. Here's HB's interpretation. I needed something more like this More searching led me to making these bits. The sheaves are disks cut from 0.01 in sheet punched using Waldron #6 and #4 punches. The rest of the bits are also 0.01 sheet. I used those bits to make these two assemblies. I first thought the winch cover was thinner than HB's part, so I thinned down the port winch cover. Turns out I was incorrect, and HB got the width about right. But the cable entered the winch cover at the top, not the bottom. I was able to refashion the unneeded starboard winch cover into a better shape. HB's winch drum looked more like a sheave. Also shown is the revised winch drum, which I corrected using my smallest square needle file, along with the mounting plate/box for the drum, which I thinned down considerably. Skill in the Surf indicated the LCM carried two 12 foot boat hooks. HB just had some unidentified hooks in the cargo hold. Eduard provided PE replacements for the hooks; they also indicated that plain 1mm rod, 95mm and 60mm long, were to be placed in the hooks. I made up two boat hooks from 0.04 rod, 3 inches long. I tapered the ends and mounted a hook fashioned from 0.026 brass wire into a hole drilled into the tapered end. I'm now working on the 50 cal mounts, shown in the enlargement below. I first noticed that the 50 cal Brownings are not mounted. Harrumph, and I just spent a couple of evenings tarting up the HB Brownings with the Eduard PE and Master barrels. Here's a before and after shot of the HB plastic. The remaining HB plastic, folded Eduard PE, and the marvelous Master barrels. And the assembled 50 cals Both HB and Eduard provide an armor plate shaped differently than shown in the photo above. This will be easy enough to fix. The hard bit, where I'm now stuck, is the elevation mechanism. My Google-foo has been unable to find anything like it.

This was my first Hobby Boss kit. I started it in earnest in the fall of 2012 and hit the first “snag” soon after. I had to repaint the seat several times to get the effect I wanted and stopped construction for several weeks. Then I took up the gauntlet again. The plastic in this kit was sort of odd; in some places it seems quite soft but it also seemed very brittle at times too. I broke several parts just removing them from sprues, and this sure wasn’t my first rodeo. The fore and aft sections of the fuselage presented the next challenge. There was a terrible fit between the two sections. After I had them together, I found that it looked like “a bear’s *ss sewed up with a grapevine” (old sheet metal saying there…). Out came the Bondo and I went to work evening the two halves up. Next step was re-scribing all that lost detail. The wing to fuselage fit sucked too, and I spent a few sessions wrestling that into shape. Then, I somehow lost one of the front gear doors and had to make another one. Believe me, I was quickly losing my passion for this build even though the MiG-17 was a long-time favorite of mine. I wanted a MiG-17 of the North Vietnamese Air Force. I had looked at several paint schemes for this plane and finally decided on one. The full-scale plane like this is at the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio. On-line research revealed that this scheme, along with 3 or 4 others all bearing number 3020, was claimed as being used on the mount of North Vietnamese ace Le Hai (7 kills). Hmmm…by this point though, the die had been cast, decals had been ordered and I stayed with the squiggly paint. I was worried that my Paasche H wouldn’t be able to do what I needed for those complex squiggles. I do have a double-action Paasche Model V, but I just couldn’t get it to cooperate at all so it was back to the Model H. At first I planned on doing a sort of “reverse” pattern. I would paint the darker color first and then use small blobs of Blue Tac to mask the squiggles and then spray the lighter color over those. Well, I had more than half of the underside done when I abandoned that plan. I don’t think I could’ve ever made that look right. So one fine Saturday morning, I fired up the CO2 and the Model H and just painted the darned thing. I wish my spray pattern had been a bit tighter but I finally justified my work by assuming that the original Vietnamese painter probably had a lot of over-spray too. So, it was onward through the fog! I custom-mixed the pale color from Model Master Sand, Flat White and Faded Olive Drab, while the green is MM SAC bomber green. The decals are a combination of kit markings and aftermarket. Weathering was done with Flory washes and pastel chalks, colored pencils and a bit of dry brushing with Humbrol Matt Aluminum. Cockpit features are mostly courtesy of an Eduard Color Zoom set. I did scratch-make the oleo boot covers on the front landing gear. The canvas boots were frequently found on the front and often on the main gear too on NVAF ’17s. My boots are tissue soaked in white glue and shaped around the oleo section. I broke both of the forward pylons/mounts for the drop tanks and had to wait for replacements, When they arrived and were painted, I had trouble getting the outside “legs” of both of these to fit tight against the underside of the wing. But, ah hah, a bit of internet research found several period pics that show the outside leg didn’t fit flush on the actual planes either. I took a few pics of the MiG-17 inside once finished around March 2013, just to document the actual completion and to get a few underside shots as well. After waiting several weeks for the wind to die down, I finally had a window of opportunity for a photo session at the Cameron airport. When I got out there and opened the box, the starboard pitot was laying on the bottom of the box. Arrghh! Well, I wasn’t packing it in just for that! It turns out that NVAF Pfc. Dam Dhum Phuc had backed a re-fueling truck into that pitot tube and knocked the damned thing off! Oh well, photography must march on! That was just one more SNAFU in what seems like a jinxed build from the start. At any rate, the MiG-17F was finished, and I like it alright now, I guess. Thanks for checking in and taking a look at her! As usual, comments welcomed! Gary The kit: And the inspiration for my paint job:

Also completed today is the HobbyBoss EasyKit version of the Curtiss P-40B. This kit looks the part, mostly, but lacks some details: the cockpit is very simplified and there are no doors for the landing gear fairing. But, it makes for a quick build and I had fun with it. Brush painted with Vallejo Air and finished in the AVG markings of Greg "Pappy" Boyington of later "Baa Baa Blacksheep" fame using Print Scale decals.

Corrected & improved HobbyBoss kit with Aires cockpit, Eduard Bullpups and EagleStrike decals. Hope you like it Best regards from Czech. Andrew

This latest completion was kind of built alongside the Heller P-39Q and I finally think I understand a little bit about the differences between the different P-39 variants. This is the HobbyBoss Easy Kit version of the P-39N in Soviet markings. HobbyBoss also sell this kit as a P-39Q and they seem to be as confused about the differences between variants as I was. The P-39Q has the underwing gun tubs but no guns in the wings themselves. The N has two guns per wing and no gun tubs. The HobbyBoss kit would have you fit the gun tubs to the wings which also have two guns per side. Leave off the tubs and fill the locating holes for an N, cut off the wing guns and use the tubs for a Q. The Q-25 and later had a 4-bladed prop, which is in the Heller kit, but not the HobbyBoss. I stuffed as much weight in the nose as I could, and sanded flat spots on the tyres to move the pivot point backwards and the model just barely sits on its three gear legs. This meant giving up any idea of having a spinning prop, it's glued on solid.