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"Czech wars" is not over. After the surprise re-release announcement from the AZmodel 1/72nd SMB2 kit (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235011686-172-dassault-super-mystère-b2-smb2-by-azmodel-re-release-box-artschemessprues-release-december-2016/ Special Hobby is to release, in cooperation with Azur-FROMM, a new tool 1/72nd Dassault Super Mystère B2 (SMB2) kit - ref. SH? Armements and fuel tanks will be included in the box. Different boxings will offer the opportunity to reproduce the original SMB2 as well as the Israeli re-engined variant. Source: http://www.specialhobby.net/2016/11/super-mystere-172-pripravovany-model.html CADs Special Hobby, do you hear me, true scale modellers need a 1/48th SMB2 kit... V.P.

Late entry. Due to time constraints I'm not going to be able to build the Aero S-105, so the little Vamp will have to do. Initial dry fit of parts looks fair, and a modest parts count and simple design mean it will hopefully go together without too many hassles. Time will tell.

My second contribution, the Special Hobby Vultee Vengeance in its target tug version. The plastic parts parts are relatively simple and they're nicely moulded although the detail is soft and the level is quite muted. Everything on a single sprue. A fair bit of resin, including a cockpit pit. Two vac formed canopies provided. Nice transfer sheet.

Thanks for accepting this late entry! This IS the Sharkmouth you were looking for! This is a super little kit. Really impressed by the quality and precision of the mouldings: Panels and rivet detail is a bit heavy but the detail just pops out. The detail in the rocket pods is really nice... The kit provides virtually every weapon the US Army Cobras used in the post-Vietnam era before the upgrade to the S-model, including the fearsome XM-35 cannon: The kit gives you options for different layouts, with and without XM-35, and offers both tail left and right rotor options: The clear parts are really well done, and give you the option of both canopy doors open or closed: The instruction sheet is nicely presented with full colour profiles of all the decal options: This is my choice for the groupbuild - obviously! On with the show... Alan

Hi all With work on the house going on a pace , I have not had much time for modelling unfortunately. However whilst waiting for the electrician to attend I have had to stop until he has completed his work so I have had some rare modelling time, so I made the most of it. I have made a start and progressed this little beauty, as well as doing some of my 32 Spitfire build also. I bought this some time ago and it will hopefully sit well with the Sea Fury T20 and Airspeed Oxford T2 I have already built. It is a nice Kit, although being a short run Kit some preparations are needed along the way for fit in later stages. The Kit has a combination of Injection moulded plastic, some resin parts and some Photo etched parts. Box shot The resin cockpit parts really do look nice under a coat of paint A Test fit revealed work was needed o the wing to fuselage joint at the front end to get it to sit right and all the mating surfaces were flatted to ensure as good a joint as possible. Resin cockpit pieces assembled wand glued in place, fitting was checked regularly and all went in fairly well, although the resin seemed to be resistant to CA at first. I have got a bit of a gap along the top of the rear cockpit area but I did not have enough hands at the time !!! Undercarriage bays in place, I thinned off the top of the bays until I daren't take any more off and then took a small amount off the bottom of the front cockpit floor lug and they now go together well. That's it for now, I can't wait to get on with some ore now. Thanks for looking All the best Chris

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Special Hobby P-40K in Russian markings. Built out of the box, painted with Gunze/Mr.Hobby acrylics. Photographs by Wolfgang Rabel. A full build review will appear in an upcoming edition of Scale Aviation Modeller International. With best greetings from Vienna, Roman

Despite the recent release of the Italeri's Sunderland Mk.I (review: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=234927542), the Special Hobby Short Sunderland Mk.V project seems going on. Some CAD drawings are proposed in ModelForum: http://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=97&p=1362198#p1362198 Future kit reference is SH72162. Wait and see. V.P.

All details are here: http://www.mpmkits.eu/2014/09/competition-guess-type-of-our-new-model.html V.P.

Source: http://modelweb.modelforum.cz/2013/08/10/172-pripravovana-novinka-od-firmy-mpm-production/?lang=CS V.P.

I got this a couple of weeks ago and rashly dived straight in. I do like Fulmar's and have quite a few done and more than a few in the stash. Although criticised as being a bit slow and not terribly aerobatic, it was a very effective fleet defence fighter. Remember, it was never designed to dog fight against fighters but defend the fleet against long range bombers and reconnaissance aircraft as well as acting as a spotter for gunnery. It did had a long range and could stay in the air for a long time, as well as being a stable and effective gun platform. Fulmars shot down more enemy aircraft than any other FAA fighter so it wasn't a failure and certainly was a major factor in the success of the Malta convoys. A nice set of well moulded sprues, although there is a little flash. Good cockpit and wheel well detail. There is a bit of paint on them already. I did say that I had dived straight in. Nice nice instructions but in traditional SH manner some locations are a bit vague. Clear sprue, a little bit of resin and some etch. Good transfer sheet from Cartograf for four versions I am going to do this version as it's a bit different. Happy modelling to come hopefully. I have also got a masking set. I recall the time it took to mask my previous attempts.

Hi mates, After building two USN jets, I need to model a proper naval aircraft - one with a propeller and some of that lovely Extra Dark Sea Grey (oh, that felt so good to spell grey correctly)! Since I have a psychological addiction to 1:72 scale, and a slightly masochistic frame of mind, I immediately reached for the Special Hobby kit of the Fairey Firefly FR.1, "with ASH radar." Woo hoo! (EDIT - and as we'll soon find out, my fellow Britmodellers have shamed me into concurrently building the TT.4!) I think this kit was one of many that I acquired from my friend Martin in Austria (occa) a few years back. It's a typical Special Hobby kit from the mid-noughts, containing short run plastic, resin, and photoetch. Let's have a look, shall we? First, the box and the grey plastic: There are not a lot of styrene parts as one can see. The panel lines are engraved but not all that consistent, especially as they roll away towards the edges of the parts. In some cases, they nearly disappear. As is typical with short run kits, there are no alignment pegs and the horizontal tailplanes are butt joins to the fuselage. Oh well, it's not like I haven't been down this path before! Now let's drool over the resin (we can just gaze at the photoetch). Although my amateur photography skills don't show it well, the detail cast into the resin pieces is very nice indeed. Since resin casting doesn't concern itself with things like blend radii and draft angles, details can be exceptionally sharp. The entire cockpit assembly is in resin (floor, bulkheads, sidewalls, instrument panels, radio and navigation equipment, seats, etc.). The cockpit floor is twisted a fair bit, and will require a dip in boiling water to flatten it out. Resin is also used for many of the landing gear actuator struts, the cannon fairings - even the arresting hook (but strangely just the hook, the rest of the torque tube is injection moulded). All of the wheel wells are provided in resin, with the main wells having some very nice detail. I have a sneaking suspicion that the main wells will need a LOT of sanding before they will fit properly in the wings. Like I said earlier, I've played this gig before! As you can see, the photoetch fret includes an instrument panel face, oleo scissors, mirrors, carburettor intake guard, pitots, etc. Not a lot, but sufficient finesse for the parts chosen. Lastly, we have the clear parts (unfortunately just for a closed canopy), the decalcomania, the instruction booklet, and a bag of Barracuda Bits. This last item is necessary since the resin tyres supplied with the kit are undersize, and the Barracuda resin replacements are more finely moulded. The aftermarket wheels are five-spoke, those supplied with the kit are four-spoke. My choice of marking scheme will be camouflage "B" from the kit, representing Firefly FR.1, MB464, 272-Y, 837 Squadron from HMS Glory in 1945. It just so happens that this very aircraft is the subject of one of the paintings on the back cover of the Squadron "Fairey Firefly In Action" book: If I can make the model look half as good as that painting, I'll be happy! Cheers, Bill (who has dutifully donned his hazmat suit, clenched his razor saws, gathered up his sanding sticks and is off to remove the resin parts from their pour blocks!) PS. If I do a good enough job on this one, Memsahib says I can build the Firefly TT.4 that is also in the stash. Oh, the joys of yellow and black diagonal stripes!

Two 1/72nd families of Cobra kits in view by AZ Models and another one by MPM A 1/72nd Bell AH-1G Cobra kit (early & late versions) is to be released in July by AZ Model. Soon also AH-1Q and TH-1G. Source: http://www.modelarovo.cz/fr/azmodel-a-modelbrno-2013/ Another family of 1/72nd Cobras (G and Q/S) is also to be released this summer by Special Hobby. Source: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234939769-new-72nd-scale-ah-1-cobra-available-soon/)1/72 V.P.

Vampire Mainwheels and Nosewheel (for Special Hobby Kit) 1:72 CMK It's a while now since Special Hobby did us fans of Cold War RAF types a favour and produced a new range of De Havilland Vampires in our favourite scale. Now Special Hobby have followed up with a couple of sets of resin slipper wheels, released through their CMK imprint. There are two sets to choose from. One is for the early mark Vampires, while the other is for the Mk.5/9 and T/.11 (and thus is also suitable for the Airfix kit). The quality of casting is excellent and the parts are as well detailed as they could be given the subject. All you will need to do is remove them from their casting blocks and clean up the pouring stubs. Overall these are a good addition to an already nice kit. Recommended. 1:72 Vampire Mainwheels and Nosewheel 1:72 Vampire Mk.5/9/T.11 Mainwheels and Nosewheel Review sample courtesy of

Loire 130CI "Colonial" (48173) 1:48 Special Hobby In 1933, the French Navy requested a new reconnaissance/light bomber seaplane able to serve aboard warships and be launched from their catapults. The Loire was a shoulder-mounted wing monoplane with a pusher engine above the wing and was produced in two versions. The Loire 130M (for Métropole) saw service in home waters while the Loire 130 Cl (Colonial) machines were sent to the tropical areas. The latter air frame was built to withstand more demanding climate, with a larger radiator and better crew protection. It was deployed on all catapult-equipped warships even before the outbreak of the war and also at shore bases in France, Africa and Indochina. The machines took part in the defence of France in 1940 and then with the Vichy forces. Several air frames were used by the Free French forces, too. Vichy France even ordered further production. Some captured machines were evaluated by the German Luftwaffe. The Loire 130s which operated from African bases struggled with the shortage of spare parts and in 1943, when French colonies in Africa were liberated as many as fifteen air frames were still airworthy and took part in war operations. Machines of the Loire 130 Cl version did their part in the French Indochina War and a handful of the machines flew till the end of the war, one was seen flying in Saigon as late as 1949. The Kit This is a re-box from Special Hobby of the Azur kit from 2006. This boxing has additional parts for the units operating overseas. The kit is a mixture of injected plastic, resin detail parts, and both injected & Vac Formed clear parts. Construction starts in the cockpit. Here plastic parts are embellished with resin ones. The basic structure is plastic with the seats, rudder pedals, side consoles, radios etc in resin. Once the cockpit sections (left and right) are built up these can be added into their respective fuselage halves along the mid & rear bulkheads, and walkway to the rear position. The side cabin windows are also added at this time. As well as the general instructions there are two detailed side views for positioning of all the cabin equipment. Once all of this is inside the fuselage can be closed up, Construction then moves up to the tail. The tail planes are added on and the small vertical parts towards the ends. A scrap view shows the positioning of these and the stays. Once these are on the engine can be built up. The radiator and exhausts as well as the propeller are resin parts fitting it to plastic ones. Once this is built up the small open cockpit area behind the main cockpit can be built up. Next up the main wings are added along with the cockpit glazing and the small open cockpit just built up. There is a single part upper wing with left/right lowers. There is a main strut to add to each side and some flap actuators. For the main strut there are two parts of rigging to be added. One each wing there is a stabilising float to add, this has two braces each side and again a small amount of rigging. There are also 2 main stays which attach to the main fuselage. Once the wing is on the engine can be attached. On the rear of the fuselage there is an open or closed in area depending on the decal option being modelled, this is where the vac form clear part can be used. Markings There are printed by Cartograf so should pose no problems. 4 marking option are provided; SHM2 Navy Hydrographic section Saigon late 1940. CNo6 Sqn 1/CBS operated from Vatchay, French Indochina 1944. 19S-1 19 Sqn Vichy Naval Service, Tripoli 1941 17S-2 17 Sqn Vichy Naval Service, Fort-de-France, Martinique 1942. Conclusion It is great to see this kit being re-issued. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Special Hobby is to release a new tool 1/72nd Fairey Barracuda Mk.II/.III kit - ref.SH72306 Source: http://www.ipmsdeutschland.de/Ausstellungen/Nuernberg2016/Bilder_AT/Special_Hobby_11.htm V.P.

Special Hobby working on SAAB VIGGEN scaled down to 1/72 metal mould made with 3D CAD-CAM CNC technology like Vampire, Gnat, Mirage etc.

After the 2018 newsletters (link) here are the Special Hobby newsletters 2019  n°1 - January 2019 - http://www.specialhobby.info/2018/12/news-from-special-hobby.html V.P.

Dear all, Please find below some images of my recently finished Special Hobby Vultee V1A in the colours of American Airlines. The build in itself went pretty smooth, but close to the finish line I wanted to respray the anti-glare panel and with the masking tape pulled off part of the decals... Special Hobby wasn't able to supply a replacement, but Arctic Decals came to the rescue. Of course Mika from Arctic also corrected some of the errors in the decal sheet, so 'kiitos' (thank you in Finnish) to Mika. On to the pictures! Peter

I thought it might be better to post this as a new topic, rather than take the two existing F-86H threads further afield. I had some time this morning to pull my Special Hobby H, Hasegawa D and a reference I had forgotten about: Modeler's Guide to the Sabre/Fury, by Jay Sherlock, plus Warpaint 1/72 scale drawings of the A through L variants. Up front, let me say that the Warpaint drawings do NOT match the F-86H dimensions published by NAA and the factory drawings that Sabrejet posted. The Sherlock modelers guide does have what looks like a good scale profile drawing of the H, but it is not to 1/72 scale. When I get a chance, I will get it enlarged to 1/72 scale and post my findings, if any of you are still interested. What I am going to comment on is based on a fairly quick examination and measurement of the kits mentioned, as well as a rough comparison to the Warpaint F-86H scale drawing, which is NOT to scale; I only used it as a general guide. I hope this will help @RidgeRunner @Sabrejet and @Courageous in particular, and that you three scholars will check this for accuracy, as I do not want to spread misinformation- there's enough of that going around already! In the Sherlock guide, he states in a kit review of the 1/72 Special Hobby F-86H kit that the nose is 3/32" too short in front of the cockpit and the cockpit opening is 1/16" too far back; the lower nose is a little too shallow, due to excessive taper from the nose cap to the fuselage; in addition the vertical stabilizer is a little too narrow in chord. ( This is paraphrased from the original wording for brevity.) Here's what I observed: The cockpit openings of the Hasegawa D and the SH kit are identical in length from the front edge of the windscreen to the end of the canopy fairing, with the exception of the length of the fairing in front of the windscreen, so a Hasegawa D windscreen should fit the SH kit. As is already known, the SH kit canopy has the fixed rear fairing attached to the canopy and the Hasegawa D has the fairing as a part of the fuselage, which is correct for both the D and the H. If you place a fuselage half from the SH kit against the Warpaint profile drawing, and line it up so that the wing LE and TE of the kit part match the drawing, the rear fuselage matches up very well in length, but the chord and taper of the fin is shallow along its entire length, but less at the fin cap- a pretty easy fix, if this is indeed correct. The chord of the wing root matches between the kit fuselage half and the drawing. The nose is 1 scale foot short between the LE at the wing root and the rear edge of the nose cap, with the lower fuselage contour being too shallow by about 3" at the nose cap. I think the metal fairing in front of the windscreen on the SH kit is too long, comparing it to actual photos and the Hasegawa D. It appears to me that you could make a vertical cut at the rear edge of the canopy opening of the H kit, then a horizontal cut along the panel line that runs above the wing root, then another vertical cut at the panel line behind the nose wheel bay to separate the fuselage into a front and rear section. A one scale foot extension could be inserted at both of the vertical cut lines and the two sections re-attached. (This would be much the same technique as has been published to show how the length of the F9F-2 and F9F-5 Panthers was increased and how modelers could make a dash 5 out of a dash 2 kit. See the Tailhook Topic on the subject for drawings and text.) Once the sections are re-attached, the gun gas vent locations will need to be changed as well as the location of the angled vertical panel lines under the canopy. This is all subjective, pending my finding some decent scale drawings which can be trusted. I hope this makes sense- I have got to learn how to post photos and drawings, but I hope my verbal description is clear enough to make sense. What do you all think? I have attached a link to Joe Baugher's webpage which has a detailed (accurate?) description of the changes made between the F-86F and the F-86H. I thought it might be useful to those of you wanting to correct the SH F-86H kit. Mike http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/p86_16.html Now, if Meng really wants to add to their USAF Golden Age jet collection.... BTW, according to a photo and caption in the Sherlock guide, that color photo posted of a QF-84H was originally a YF-84H-5, from the PMTC at NAS Point Mugu, taken in 1977, so it WAS technically a USN scheme!

Special Hobby is to release a new tool 1/72nd FMA (Fábrica Militar de Aviones) IA-58A Pucarà kit - ref. SH72389 Source: http://kitchecker.com/unterwegs_2018_1/toy_fair_2018_1.htm V.P.

Special Hobby is not only working on a 1/72nd Dassault Super Mystère SMB2 kit (link) but also on a 1/48th one! Yesss. The subsidiary question is when as the SH kits development delays are often really slow. Source: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235011761-we-need-it-in-148th-the-smb2/&do=findComment&comment=2570698 V.P.

Special Hobby is to re-release the MPM 1/72nd Breda Ba.88B Lince kit - ref. SH72397 Release is expected in May 2019. Source: http://www.specialhobby.info/2018/10/standa-hajek-new-paintings-for-sh72384.html Box art V.P.

My original plan was a couple of jet trainers but whilst perusing EBay came across the little Bestmann, a side by side trainer from the Luftwaffe. Turns out the Swiss had some interned ones which were painted up in their red/white neutrality markings, so I am going with that. https://goo.gl/images/Q6Q3eZ

Azur is to re-release the Special Hobby 1/72nd Vought SB2U-1/-2 Vindicator/ V-156B Chesapeake Mk.I http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?%2Ftopic%2F234950627-v-156b-chesapeake-mki-172-special-hobby%2F kit as a V-156F French Aéronavale Vindicator. Source: http://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=97&p=1534238#p1534238http://www.modelforum.cz/viewtopic.php?f=97&p=1534238#p1534238 V.P.

Special Hobby is to release 1/32nd Fieseler Fi.103 kits. - ref. SH32071 - Fi.103/V-1 - release in October 2018 - ref. SH32074 - Fi-103R/V-1 Reichenberg - release in January 2019 Source:https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1882174765210712&id=256992114395660 V.P.