Scale aviation modeller international

Sam

THE First Looks

• Airfix Victor K.2 / B(SR).2


• Pacific Coast FW190A-1/2/3/4
  
  
  • Blue Sky Schopf Tow Tractor
  
  
  
  

see page 42

October 2018 WORLD’S BEST MODEL NEWSPAPER ‘FREE’ http://www.sampublications.com

Victor K.2 /SR.2 First look at Airfix Victor K.2 /SR.2

OK.2 Air to Air Refuelling taker aircraft that was in service from ne of the most eagerly awaited release of the year was the Airfix Victor

1965 to 1993 and saw vital service during the first Gulf war and during the Falklands war was

pivotal in the Vulcans “Black Buck” bombing missions.manufacturer has previously Obviously based on this

released B.2 bomber in 2016 and this new kit has just one grey sprue extra that supplies

the modified short wing tips as well the as the underwing and fuselage air to air refuelling equipment. Special mention

must be made of the retracted refuelling basket, which with careful painting will look amazing.

mouldings is that the short wing tips do have some slight sink marks The only downside on these new

in them that will need filling.Markings are supplied

for two options.• HP Victor K.2, 57 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Operation Black Buck, Ascension Island,

May 1982. This aircraft carries the original scheme of white undersides, with grey and green

upper surfaces. Like all the RAF tankers this has a large number of Day-Glo stripes under the fuselage and wing and these are

supplied on the decal sheet. • HP Victor K.2, 55 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Operation

Granby, Bahrain, 1991. The decal sheet also supplies over 100 stencils, which should

keep you busy for a couple of nights if you use them all.But that is not all a surprise

addition was the inclusion of bomb bay camera pack and additional electronic reconnaissance equipment to produce the Victor

B(SR).2. One of the rarer variants with only nine aircraft produced these aircraft were in service

for less than nine years before being converted into tankers.• HP Victor B(SR).2, 543 Squadron,

Royal Air Force, Operation Attune, Lima Airport, Peru, 1971.This aircraft was used for the collection of Radioactive Samples

from French Government Atmospheric Nuclear Tests, between May and September 1971.

CONCLUSIONFollowing on from their superb Valiant, the Victor is just as good

in fact, so good that you really do not need any aftermarket sets. Certainly any added detail in the

cockpit will be mostly invisible.well with most Airfix releases I am Is there any downside to this kit,

sure this kit will hard or impossible to find in a year or two. So if you think you want a Victor on your shelf at some point lay one down sooner

rather than later. And can there be any doubt a new tool Avro Vulcan will appear at some point in the future? If it is to the same standard

as this kit I sincerely hope so. of Hornby, as always for My thanks to Emily Houghton

supplying the review sample.

Fw190AFirst look at Pacific Coast Models 1/32

Fw190A-1/ 2/ 3, Fw190A-1/ 2/ 3/4, Fw190A-1/2/ 3/4/4-U8

I bit different because no one has produced a high-quality tooling of the early short-nose can almost hear the groans at yet another Fw-190, but this one is a little

models of this outstanding Luftwaffe fighter in 1/32 scale. First released in 2010, the Pacific

Coast Fw190A-1/2/3 was going to be the start of a whole family of Fw-190s, but unfortunately these plans did not come to fruition, as

Pacific Coast Models closed and no further kits were released. In fact, actually finding one of these kits became a bit of a treasure hunt

for large-scale Luftwaffe fans. PCM have released the original But now under new ownership

boxing, as well as two new versions.PACIFIC COAST MODELS

This is the original kit, reissued with no changes. This means that FW190A-1/2/3

you have the same 76 high-quality grey plastic and five clear parts. The detail features a nice level of engraved detail that rivals more

established manufacturers (in fact, the plastic is supplied by Czech manufacturer Sword). It would not surprise me if

another Czech manufacturer had had a hand in the 24 resin parts that detail the cockpit and undercarriage

bays, as well as details like the

hollowed-out exhaust pipes. This is the type of set that you would pay extra for to detail

in a Revell or Hasegawa kit. pre-coloured brass supplies A small set of Eduard’s

the instrument panel and the seatbelts, and for a change I actually quite like the look of the RLM 66 instrument panel, which

is a more accurate colour than on other Eduard sets I have seen. The instruction manual supplies all

you need to know; you will need to do a few simple updates using the supplied parts for whichever version you wish to produce.

really nice decal sheet, which has a good selection of markings showing The whole package is topped by a

the range of colour schemes carried by the early Fw-190.FOCKE-WULF FW 190A

• Fw190A-1, W.Nr. 100, Lt. Horst Sternberg, 5./JG 26, Merseele (Germany) Fall 1941.• Fw190A-1, W.Nr. 027, Oblt. Walter Schneider, 6./JG 26.


• Fw190A-2, Nr.20 202, Ofw. Bruno Hegenauer, wingman to JG 26 Kommodore Major Gerhard Schoepfel.


• • Fw190A-3, W.Nr. 333, Lt. Jakob Augustin, 7. / JG 2 .Fw90A03, W.Nr. 2187, Lt. Heribert Hufnagi, 8./JG2, November 1942.


• Fw190A-3, W.Nr. 2181, 8./JG 2.• Fw190A-3, W.Nr. 2261, 2./JG 51.• Fw190A-3, W.Nr. 437, Ulfz. Johannes Rathenow, 10./JG 1

Holland 1942.

This boxing contains all the parts PACIFIC COAST MODELS FW190A-1/2/3/4

from the previous set, including decals and colour profiles, plus a further three resin parts, reproducing the late louv red cooling

vents (familiar from the later 190A-6 to A-8 versions), as well as a fin tip which includes the antenna stub.No instructions for this or the

U-8 version were included in our samples, so you are on your own with carrying out the conversions,

but most of it is pretty obvious – have a look at Eduard’s website for the instructions for their early models to give you an idea.

decaling guide which supplies marking for five A-4 models: an You do have a new full-colour

aircraft operating in a sand finish over the desert; one in white operating in mid-winter over Russia; one that features a mix of

at least five colours used in Russia during the spring and summer months; and if that was not enough, two classic 74/75 grey fighter

schemes, one with the full eagle marking of JG-2 along the nose and flanks and a second featuring

JG.1s black and white nosebands. • Fw190A-4 of 11./JG 2, flown by Group

Commander Dickfeld, Tunisia 1943 (W.Nr. • 0140750).FW.190A-4, flown by Ft.Otto Kittel of 2/JG 54, Krasnogvardeysk, February 1943.

• • Fw190A-4, flown by Ulfz. Karl-Heinz Cordes of 1./JG 54, Krasnogvardeysk, early 1943.Fw.190A-4, Jaboschowarm 1./JG 54


• Krasnogvardeysk, spring 1943.Fw190A-4 9/JG 2, flown by Siegfried Schnell early 1943, (W.Nr 746).
  
  
  • Focke Wulfe Fw190A-4, Lt. Eberhard Burath, Gruppenadjutant 1./JG1, Deelen, April 1943 (W.Nr. 140581).
    PACIFIC COAST MODELS FW190A-1/2/3/4/A-4/U-8If you read Floyd Werner’s article
    on the Fw-190 “Tip and Run” black-painted Fw-190A-5/U-8, based on Eduard’s 1/48 scale kit, you will be
    pleased to see this 1/32 scale boxing released at the US Nationals.parts for the kits listed above, plus This release includes all of the
    the faired VTr-Ju87 faired racks with their associated drop tanks, as well as an under-fuselage ETC 501
    bomb rack and a beautiful 500 kg bomb. All of these parts are cast in resin, although the bomb has etched brass fins and a cast brass tail ring.
    markings, both of which have their original colour schemes The decal sheet supplies two
    overpainted with various amounts of black paint. On one example nearly all markings except the overwing crosses are totally
    obscured. If you do not like decaling then this is the option for you.• Fw.190A-4/U8 Jabo of 1/SKG 10 Amiens
    
    
    • France July 1942. Hit and run raids over the UK.Fw.190A-4/U8 Jabo-Rei of SchG 10, Amiens France beginning May 1943.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

“IF YOU THINK YOU WANT A VICTOR ON YOUR SHELF AT SOME POINT LAY ONE

DOWN SOONER RATHER THAN LATER”

The resin looks a bit grainy in this photo but a coat of primer will soon sort thatThe three parts that maker the A_1 to A-3 into the A-4

The resin parts show detail that only resin can produce

42 • OCTOBER 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • OCTOBER 2018 •^43

FIRST LOOK! FIRST LOOK!

NEW TOOL TAMIYA SPITFIRE MK.1

WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM

Achtung Neu Spitfeur

I

n 2020 it will be the 80th

Anniversary of the Battle of

Britain and Eduard announced

at Nuremberg that they are

working on a Spitfire Mk.1 for

release in late 2019. So, it was

a bit of a surprise that Tamiya

announced an all new tooling

Spitfire Mk.1 to replace the existing

example in its range. Although at

the time of its release in 1993 this

was considered the best Spitfire

produced to date and has never

been out of production over the

last 25 years so must be one of

their best-selling 1/48 scale kits.

So why replace it? Well no kit

is perfect, and the Tamiya kit did

have a number of small errors that

bothered a very small number of

modellers and no doubt after 25

years of production the original

tooling must be getting a bit tired.

So, what do we know about

this new kit? Though only a

small number of computer design

drawings have been shown to

date we have managed to glean

quite a bit of information. To start

the kit will come with different

canopies the original curved type,

which was quickly replaced by the

flat panel style that was needed

when the reflector gun sights

were installed. A third option

will be possible by adding the

separate armour glass panel.

To go under the wind shield

you will have three gunsights,

for the curved screen we will

have the early ring and bead

sight. For the later canopies

there are two reflector sights.

The kit will include a nicely

detailed pilot and the cockpit

details look amazing out of the

box. An etched brass set will supply

seatbelts and radiator grills and a

few other sundry extras, but we are

not sure if this is included in the kit

or as with many Tamiya kits sold

as an extra. From the images we

have seen we can tell from the way

the kit is broken down that further

variants will follow so it is likely

that the original Tamiya Spitfire

Mk.V moulds will also be retired

and replaced by a newly tooled

version in the next few years.

Look out for this kit in 2019.

Looking Good

T

he odds are looking

good that the new 1/48

scale Airfix Hunter

F.6 kit may arrive in time for

Scale Modelworld at Telford

in November. Elsewhere

in this issue you will see

that Hannants have already

released two sheets for this

eagerly anticipated release

and now Airfix have supplied

images of the three options

that will come in the kit and

though I am sure many will

be built as the yellow and

black chequered tail example,

but I am strangely drawn

to the Dutch example.

A Sigh of Relief

F

ollowing the bankruptcy

of the American company

Hobbyco the owners of

a number of model companies

including

Revell USA

(Not the same

as Revell

Germany

which is separately owned) and

Monogram, many feared that

some classic kits like Monograms

1/48 Scale B-17, B-24, B-29 in

1/48 scale and the massive 1/72

scale B-36 would be lost forever

but now Atlantis models have

purchased the moulds that are

in storage at the former Revell

Elk Grove factory and have

preserved many toolings dating

back to the late 1950s covering

all types of plastic modelling

and hope to start releasing kits

from these moulds in 2019.

That’s Pretty

A

vailable by the time you read this is the very

attractive Revell Mirage IIIE/O in 1/32 scale.

This is of

course, the Italeri

kit re-boxed, but

what makes this

kit really stand

out is the truly

beautiful colour

scheme seen on

the box art. But if

you want something a little more

subdued the kit will also include

markings for a Mirage from

the Royal Australian Air Force.

Another re-box in 1/72 scale will be

a Yakovlev Yak-3 which originally

came from Zvezda, and again this

kit has been upgraded with a new

aftermarket quality decal sheet.

A real Spitfire Mk.1 flys at Duxford in April 2018

We hope to have more test shots

photographs after the Tokyo Hobby show

WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • OCTOBER 2018 • 35

035-41-News-1018.indd 35 14/09/2018 15:20