has the same upper colours but black undersides. There are two markings and decal placement sheets, in full-colour, and a 32 page A4 instruction booklet.
expect from ZM: the multiple views make it very clear what goes where, and how, with useful comments scattered along the way. The only The instructions are what I now
things I can take issue with at this stage are the colour instructions and the ordinance provided. Ordnance-wise, while youget four different AIM-9 variants (D/E/J/L) and two different AIM-7s (E-2/late F or M), and the suggested load out of AIM-7Es and AIM-9Es seems appropriate, 66-8812 was
one of the Long Range Navigation (LORAN)-equipped aircraft that was used for precision night-time navigation, so something more air-to-ground would seem appropriate.
guides show the side profiles with slightly differing camouflage patterns but with the upper As for the painting, the coloursurfaces identical, suggesting ZM have some reference material to support the side patterns. However, I have seen a picture of the right side of 66-8812 and it doesn’t match
the paint instructions, so I would suggest that the instruction to paint the whole of the wing tanks black is incorrect too; the pictures I found look like the top is still
green. Anyway, onto the build...Stages 1 to 7 covers the build and installation into the fuselage of I addressed the cockpit first.the front and rear cockpits, with detailed seats, side consoles and instrument panels, separate throttles, control columns, and canopy levers. However, these are
the same seats as provided in the F-4J kit and are, as such, slightly inaccurate – and I do mean slightly.survival pack and the oxygen The differences relate to the
bottle. On US Navy (USN) seats the bottle is in the seat pack with a pressure gauge visible on the seat, but the US Air Force (USAF) seats
Zoukei-Mura 1/48 Phantom F-4D by Peter MarshallIt would seem that Zoukei-Mura (ZM) are going to give us new moulds of a lot of
different Phantoms! First we had the -J and -S, now we have the -C and -D. I can’t see them stopping there, and while I initially questioned the need for
another F-4 in 1/48 scale, building their F-4J convinced me I was wrong. I was delighted therefore to be asked to review this kit, the fourth of their Phantom family,
representing the -D version. an improved version of the F-4C which, while being externally A little history: The F-4D was
almost identical to the F-4C, was very different internally. The first example flew on December 7, 1965 and deliveries began in March of 1966, with a total of
793 built. While the F-4D had the same basic airframe as the F-4C,the major difference was in the avionics, and the most significant change was the replacement of the APQ-100 radar of the F-4C with the smaller, lighter, and partly
solid-state AN/APQ-109A. Other improvements enhanced the ground attack aspect of the mission.
There are eleven sprues of mid-grey plastic and one of clear parts, all THERE’S A LOT MORE OUT THERE...BUT WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
with excellent detail. There is also a decal sheet by Cartograf, and though most of the sheet is devoted to stencils, there are markings for two Vietnam-era aircraft: the
first (65-0593) is in the standard Southeast Asia (SEA) colours of tan, medium green, and dark green over light grey, and the other (66-8812)PHANTOM
RevolutionaryKIT DETAILSMANUFACTURERPRODUCT NUMBERSCALE: 1/48: ZOUKEI-MURA: SWS 1/48 NO.
TYPEPANEL LINESPARTSABOUT 390. NOT ALL USED AS ALTERNATE WEAPONS ACCOUNT FOR ABOUT 150 OF : INJECTION MOULDED: LOTS (AND LOTS! I MAKE IT : RECESSED
THESE)
6 • AUGUST 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • AUGUST 2018 • 71/48BY SACCO DE VRIESPHANTOM F-4DBY PETER MARSHALL 1/set by Verlinden, but the Verlinden ones weren’t quite as nice so I used those from SAMi. Unfortunately they are out of production, though I hope Eduard might consider
them in their Brassin range. decals. Luckily, since I run Werner’s Wings, I have a decal artist – Mason Now all I needed were the
Doupnik – who is very gifted. place it was time to build it. Let’s get started and see what we can do. With all the components in
CONSTRUCTION Like most kits, this starts in the cockpit, and being a Profipack that means pre-painted PE parts. Eduard gives you the option of not using
them and just using the plastic parts, but with the exquisite detail on the PE it would be a shame not to. to adding the side consoles and I painted my cockpit priorthe instrument panel. The PE was easy to build up and was set aside. The entire cockpit was sprayed with Mr. Paint RLM-66. Then I wanted to try something
different for the wash. Roy
Sutherland from Barracudacast has been using this technique for years with spectacular results, so I thought I’d try it: a mix of approximately 50% water, 50%
Future, and a couple of drops of Tamiya Black to tint it. This is then brushed onto the paint and allowed to dry. It works remarkablywell and the surface is also now prepped if there are decals to apply. out with acrylic paint. I find it easier to add the pre-painted seatbelts The raised details were picked
before the seat is installed. Some
dry-brushing with RLM 02 and silver added the wear and tear of an operational aircraft. When all that had dried I added some Krystal Kleer to produce the
glazing to the instrument faces. the previous releases, including just the front row of cylinders The engine is much simpler thaninstead of a whole engine like the earlier kits (though detail sets are available if you want to go to town). The rest of the items were added to the fuselage and the assembly was
brought together for a near perfect fit; however, the fuselage halves had a slight raised ridge right at the mating surface. This was annoying
and required a little bit of filling with superglue and sanding. rivet detail was lost and had to be restored, so I used Dymo name- Now some of the restrained
badge tape and my Rosie the Riveter tool to do so. Finally, a panel line offset to the right, aft of the canopy, had to be added. Simple enough. The wings are very reminiscent
of the original release, with the main difference being that there is no exposed gun in the wing root. The wheel wells fit perfectly, as do the wings themselves, but don’t
Eduard 1/48 FW-190A-4 by Floyd S. Werner, Jr. forget to open the holes for the
Eat the A-5 version. The original toolings of the FW-190 by Eduard were beautiful models, duard has covered The Focke Wulf 190 series before but they stopped
but they were very finicky to build, while the short versions, such as the A-2 thru A-4, were never produced until now.Well, Eduard can’t be accused of
not listening to modellers. Starting with their Bf-109 re-engineered series, and now with these early versions of the Focke Wulf, they have gone back to the drawing
board and made these all-new toolings simpler and easier to build. That doesn’t mean that they are less detailed, just easier to build. The first of these new generation
kits is the FW-190A-4. Packaged in a sturdy top-opening cardboard box with exquisite artwork on the cover, this new kit is moulded in
five sprues of light grey plastic. A sprue of crystal-clear plastic is also included. As this is a Profipack, there is also a pre-painted photo-etch (PE) fret and a set of masks.five aircraft and are printed by Eduard. They are beautifully rendered with perfect register The two decal sheets cover
and colour opacity. Stencils are provided for one aircraft. is quite small, with less than 100 pieces, and there are many parts The parts count on the build
that won’t be used (so the spare parts box will be replenished). The detail throughout is exquisite and the plastic is perfectly formed with recessed panel lines and
rivets. Recessed rivets may not be to your liking, but Eduard has done them beautifully and kept them restrained. Under a coat of paint they are faintly visible
and to me they are the industry standard for this type of detail. “tip and run” raiders (for non-UK readers: “drop the bomb and get I’ve always loved the look of the
out” raiders) with their black-painted bellies and fuselage sides, so I went to my resin bin and found a set of the necessary underwing
drop tank fairings. This set was done by SAMi and I also had anotherKIT DETAILSIPMS NUMBERSCALEMANUFACTURERMANUFACTURER WEBSITE: 1/48: 26266: EDUARD:
WWW.EDUARD.COM MANUFACTURER’S STOCK NUMBER 82142 :BEAUTIFUL ENGINEERED KIT THAT IS PROBABLY ONE OF THE BEST “THIS IS A ABSOLUTELY
FITTING KITS I’VE EVER BUILT”
TIP ANDRUNWWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • AUGUST 2018 • 71/6 • AUGUST 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL1/48BY SACCO DE VRIESFW-190A-4BY FLOYD S. WERNER, JR.I-153 “Chaika” First look at ICM 1/32 I-153 “Chaika”
Toperations by pilots flying the Polikarpov I-16. This showed that the monoplane Polikarpov was outclassed by the more he I-153 was a biplane fighter developed following the experiences of
manoeuvrable Fiat C.32 biplane. The I-153 Seagull was developed to combine the power of the I-16 with the manoeuvrability of a biplane design and became the last Biplane
fighter to enter frontline service. producing high quality state of the art biplanes as less than a month ago we received a Bucker BU-131 ICM is on a bit of a roll in
Jungmann and this was very impressive and now we have the I-153. ICM has already produced a very nice 1/48 scale but this new 1/32 scale eclipses its smaller
brother in nearly every area.four framework pieces to which you add all the various levers, switch The cockpit is made up of from
panels, oxygen bottles and a flare gun. With careful painting and the addition of some aftermarket seatbelts this will build into a very impressive cockpit which will beeasily seen on the completed model.detailed though most of it will be totally invisible on the completed The engine is equally well
engines. All of the exhausts feature small recesses that can be deepened with some careful work with small drills and some needle files. You have eight
different shaped exhausts that need to line up precisely with the holes in the cowlings. ICM have come up with a simple way of making this possible you start by
attaching the only exhaust that connects to two cylinders. Once this is firmly attached in place you are supplied with a circular template (ICM call it a conductor)
which fits onto the pre-positioned pipe. The template has cut outs around its circumference that enable you to accurately position all the pipes. Once they are in
place the template can be carefully removed and discarded. This should make assembling the complicated exhaust system very simple. The rest of the assembly
should be quite simple thanks to the beautifully moulded gull wings and the large single support strut. Even the rigging is very basic with just four flying wires,
though one of these is so thick it is more like a rod than a wire.you have a choice of four bombs or eight rockets, the latter For the underwing armament
looking quite odd on a biplane.Markings are supplied for four aircraft:• Polikarpov I-153, Red 28, 15th- IAP (fighter regiment) Lithuania, June 1941, Overall silver finish.Polikarpov I-153,Red 26, 70th IAP, Khalhin-Gol, August 1939,
overall silver with a squiggle camouflage in dark green.- Polikarpov I-153, Red 6, 72d SAP (Mixed Regiment) North Sea Fleet, Vaenga,1941. Dark Green over Blue
camouflage with a white tail and rudder.• P o l i k a r p o v I-153 , White 102, Major P.I Biskup, 71st
IAP, Baltic Fleet, Lavansaari, Summer 1942. This aircraft has a black and green over blue
camouflage and is fitted with the rocket armament.
CONCLUSIONOut of the box and with minimal skill most modellers will be able to produce a good representation
of the last biplane fighter and if you go to town by adding some wiring to the cockpit and engine and some weathering and a nice base to display it on you could
have a real show winner. future issue and we thank ICM for supplying us with the review sample. A full build will feature in a
- Polikarpov I-153, Red 6, 72d SAP (Mixed Regiment) North Sea Fleet, Vaenga,1941. Dark Green over Blue
Vickers Wellington Mk.1A/C First look at Airfix 1/72 Vickers Wellington Mk.1A/C
Wannounced so most of you will know what to expect when you open the box, but there were still a few things to surprise me starting e have been following the development of this kit since it was
with the instruction manual. CAD style books that we have seen from Airfix for a number of years and clearly show where everything This is pretty typical of the
goes but there has been a major change as Airfix state on Page One. “There are many detailed parts within this kit which fit inside the fuselage, but which are not easily
visible on the finished model and therefore can be left out of the construction if preferred. These parts are highlighted in green throughout these instructions”
and they are not kidding over 20 parts can be left out if you want to simplify the build and you will still be left with one of the most complete
fuselages I have seen on a 1/72 kit.seen on the CADS and Test shots and in my opinion the portrayal of the Geodetic construction is very well Now on to the plastic, as we had
done with a special mention to the completion but this level of detail on internal bulkheads I is just a shame that most of it will be invisible after the inside means there is a price to pay in the shape of quite a few pin marks in hard to get at places. Filling these with Perfect Plastic putty then removing any excess with a dampened cotton bud may work. I think my preferred method would be to use the thinnest plastic card I can find cut into squares to fill the inside of the geodetic framework thus hiding the pin mark. Externally the fabric over geodetic structure looks just right compared to pictures, though a sand with wet and dry will make it even more subtle if you wish.
a nice touch is that you get two cockpit canopies - one is supplied closed up while the second has both the pilots and co-pilots The clear parts are perfect, and
windows slid back. This feature combined with the position able control surfaces can really make your model look more lifelike.The decals are well produced
and as well as some details for the cockpit also supply two significant schemes. Wellington AA-R inwhich Sergeant Pilot James Allen Ward won a Victoria Cross for climbing out of the aircraft in flight to smother an engine fire and R from 20th Operational
Training Unit which crashed into Loch Ness and is now on display at Brooklands Museum as the only 100% surviving Mk.1 in the world.
In my view this is the best 1/72 scale kit Airfix have released to date and I am sure we will ss many CONCLUSION
more variations on this boxing over the next few years and until then aftermarket manufacturers are already producing a wide range of alternative markings. Anyone else
for a B.O.A.C operated example?Wellington will be widely available but remember do not delay your purchase as it is rare that Airfix are producing By the time you read this the Airfix
second runs meaning that previous kits like the Avro Lancaster Mk.II are attracting premium prices on auction sites. And surely it cannot be too long before we get an all new Handley Page
Halifax or Douglas Hudson to replace the 1960s vintage kits that have been reissued so many times over the years.the review sample and a full build My thanks to Airfix for supplying
40 • AUGUST 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COMwill feature in SAMi later this year. • AUGUST 2018 • 41FIRST LOOK! FIRST LOOK!Special Hobby 1/32 Tempest MK. V by Ivan Taylor
Wthan happy to oblige, because I had heard many amazing things about it and its accurate representation of the Hawker Tempest MK.V. hen I was given the chance to build this kit for SAMI, I was more
Upon opening the box, you are greeted with one large bag of sprues, a box of CMK resin, a beautifully printed instruction The kit does not disappoint.
book, and some of the most beautiful decals I have ever seen. It has to be said, however, that the instructions are very busy; maybe a few more steps to break up the busy
images would have been helpful. a labour of love and the build should be appreciated for what This was always going to beit is. Kits like these are the ones that make you a better and more experienced modeller.
Like most aircraft kits, I started with the cockpit. This is a metal frame surrounded by fuselage THE COCKPIT
walls, which is very well replicated by Special Hobby, with plastic framing that looks accurate to scale. However, every single part needs cleaning of mould lines and
rather large sprue gates: but we are modellers, and this is what we do. media, including plastic, resin, and photo-etch; with this mix The cockpit is a mix of different
you are going to get a beautifully detailed cockpit compartment.A Tempting
TEMPEST But I wanted to be as accurate as possible, so to add some extra detail I also added some very fine copper wire to the framing of the cockpit. This was the cherry on top of an already fantastic cockpit.
distinctive late-war two-tone colours with Mr. Colour 364 Aircraft Grey Green and Tire Black. To The cockpit was given its
make all the detail pop I added a wash of Mig Enamel Dark Wash, and with some dry-brushing and fine detail painting most of the cockpit was complete.
and a resin seat, and the decision was not a hard one to make. The level of detail on the CMK seat is astonishing, and with the HGW This kit comes with a plastic seat
belts it is a match made in heaven. THE ENGINE Let’s talk about the CMK engine. I
have never seen a more exquisite looking piece of resin in mylife. The level of detail is out of this world and it would be any modeller’s dream to build it. model, I was fully aware of the When I was asked to do this
hard work that was going to come with the CMK resin engine. The Napier Sabre engine was one of the most complex engines that
the RAF had, up until the jet era. There were tubing, wires, and piping running all over the place, displaying an air of pure power. The engine in the kit is a kit
within itself; with nearly 43 parts, it alone would make a stunning display piece on its own. However, the front half of the fuselage is separate (for the different versions
of the Hawker Tempest), which makes the necessary plastic surgery much more convenient. This was a step that I wanted to make sure was as close to
perfect-fitting as possible. to cut from the exhaust cut-out. I With a fine JLC razor saw I beganremoved the plastic engine covers and replaced them with resin covers, which gave me an aid as to where to cut the plastic on the
forward fuselage. Special Hobby uses a very thick, hard plastic, so it certainly put the saw to the test. for the resin engine, the plastic Once the cut-out had been made
sidewall where the engine would go was far too thick and would have been hugely over scale for the model, so the walls of the engine bay needed to be thinned down.
I used the wonderful Ultimate Modelling Products sanders to do this and chamfered the panel edges with the same tools. The only time I had even
the slightest fit issue with the engine was its bulkhead. Because the fuselage curvatureneeded to be thinned down considerably, I needed to ensure that the inner arc of the fuselage retained the correct curve.
when looking for reference material for accurate painting schemes, as you may stumble upon some inaccurate restorations. But luckily In terms of painting, it’s hard
for painting the engine, SAM Magazines’ Facebook page shared one of the best references for this engine on the internet. With lots of tiny pieces of resin surrounding
the engine, I wanted to make every piece stand out, which I achieved by painting with an abundance of different paints. Gloss, matt, and satin blacks were used to show
WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COMthe different types of tubing and wires, as some were a heavy-duty rubber and some metal. All the • AUGUST 2018 • 71/6 • AUGUST 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL1/32BY SACCO DE VRIESTEMPEST MK. VBY IVAN TAYLORto break off. Above 15,000 ft the F-84 could be flown faster but at the expense of severe buffeting. troublesome against the faster The top speed limitation proved
Soviet MiG 15s in Korea. Slower than the MiG, the F-84 was also unable to turn as tightly, with a maximum instantaneous-turn load of only 3G, which if exceeded was
followed by rapid loss of airspeed. platform and the up-to-date computing gun sight aided in accurate gunnery and bombing, The F-84 was a stable gun
and pilots praised the aircraft for Republic’s legendary ruggedness. But on to the aircraft build...
THE KITOn opening the sturdy box, you’re presented with 296 injection moulded parts on seven sprues,
nine parts in white metal, somevery clear transparent parts, and vinyl rubber tires. The decal sheet is the only thing not state-of-the-art; it looked a little suspect on my example, with
patchy varnish in places. But I had already decided I was going to replace them with aftermarket decals so this was not an issue.
with the parts (which feature some lovely fine, delicate moulding all over), I decided to really go to town on the aftermarket. That seems to Because I was so impressed
be the fun nowadays, researching the aircraft and seeing what’s available to add those all-important (some would say) finishing touches.My list gradually expanded
and I settled on the following:• Eduard Big Ed set: Completely transforms the detail levels - well worth it, but not cheap at £37!• Quickboost resin seat: Beautiful!
The resin detail has to be seen to be believed and totally transforms the cockpit.• Zotz decal set: Nice, but in the end
I decided to mask and spray the markings, copied from a period colour photograph. I did use the stencil decals and national insignia, which performed well.- Montex masks F-84 set: I just used the USAF and aircraft serial numbers.
- Alclad metallic paints: • Lots (and lots) of Tamiya tape.Various shades.
The cockpit is lovely, large, and very visible on this kit, so it’s definitely worth taking THE INTERIOR
Hobbyboss 1/32 F-84G Thunderjet by Guy GoodwinI’ve mentioned before my love of high-end kits – Tamiya, Wingnut Wings, etc. – so a bit of time on it. If you get nothing else in terms of
when I picked up the Hobby Boss 1/32 F-84G Thunderjet from the editor, I thought I’d probably build it, but at some later point. But as I was on a run of metal-finished
kits, this one just seemed to be too attractive to pass by. I have not had any experience with Hobby Boss before and wasn’t really expecting too much, but
as soon as I looked inside the box I realised this kit is a beauty! HISTORY
The F-84 Thunderjet was among the first generation of jet-age fighters, coming to fame during the Korean War as a ground-attack fighter-bomber. Typical of most
early jets, the Thunderjet’s takeoff performance left much to be
- Alclad metallic paints: • Lots (and lots) of Tamiya tape.Various shades.
desired. In hot Korean summers with a full combat load, the aircraft routinely required 10,000 ft (3,000 m) of runway for takeoff, even with the help of Rocket
Assisted Take Off (RATO) bottles. off the ground at 160 mph with the control stick held all the way back. Landings didn’t prove to be Early F-84s had to be pulled
any less exciting and were made at a similar speed. Despite the high landing speeds, however, the Thunderjet was easy to fly on instruments, and crosswinds did
not present much of a problem.wing, the Thunderjet rapidly reached its Mach 0.82 limitation at Thanks to its wide, straight
full throttle and low altitude. The aircraft had sufficient power to fly faster, but exceeding the Mach limit at low altitudes resulted in a violent pitch-up and structural
failure, which could cause the wingsJACKET
Fu l l M e t alWWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • AUGUST 2018 • 71/6 • AUGUST 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL1/32BY SACCO DE VRIESF-84G THUNDERJETBY GUY GOODWINframe itself mounts onto the central lower wing section and forms a very strong V-shaped assembly, around which the wings are built. The only additions I made to
the cockpit were some etched harness and a colour etched control panel from the remnants of an Eduard detail set (which I found
amongst my spares and which was originally intended for the ageing Hasegawa kit). The multi-piece panel was slightly smaller in size than that provided by Airfix,
but it fit comfortably onto theoriginal once I had removed the raised plastic detail. It required re-painting, however, due to the spurious blue-grey shade in which it had been originally printed,
a common problem with early Eduard colour etched sets. I used Colourcoats RLM02. The For the main interior colour
fuselage closed comfortably around the assembled cockpit, and the control panel assembly (which also features the pedalsand clear bomb-aiming floor panel housing) slipped neatly through the open nose and into position as per the instructions. A separate firewall was added to complete the
fuselage and enclose all within. CRANK IT UP
Optional wing-mounted gun bays are included, which require that the integrally-moulded access panels in the single-piece upper wing halves be removed. The rigid
V-shaped box frame, mentionedabove, forms the walls of the gun bays, and to this the two outer lower wing sections are cemented. and ammunition container, and A combination gun mount
a separately-moulded machine gun breech are provided for both bays. However, these are simplistically rendered, so I madethe decision to leave the upper wings intact and the bays closed up. to replicate the leading edge mounted landing light, which A transparency is provided
benefitted from an application of Alclad Chrome on its inner surface before being enclosed within the port wing. (Locating
holes positioned midway along the lower wing sections need to be opened prior to wing assembly if it is your intention to add the underslung bombs or fuel tanks).
I found the representationsof the wing-mounted 250 kg bombs a little crude, so I replaced with items with more delicate fins from the spares box. This required that the bomb hangers
be modified by sanding the crude diamond-shaped originals into curved cradles to straddle thefour replacement bombs. housings are moulded separately and feature barrels with hollowed out ends, which is always a welcome The protruding wing gun
touch. But care must be taken if attaching them after the wings have been assembled, as they are easily dropped inside. This happened to
one of mine; I managed to shake it back out again, but in hindsight, attaching them prior to assembly might have been a wise precaution.separately-moulded rudder was added at a slight angle, as was the tail wheel. A choice of tail wheels To complete the airframe, the
is provided, one with a dust boot and one without. The instructions recommend fitting the latter, but photographs of S1+GK suggested otherwise, so I used the alternative.
sloppy fit and I found it necessary to broaden the mounting lugs with strips of plastic card. The tailplanes were then cemented in The tailplanes proved to be a
place, with the separately moulded ailerons posed at an inclined angle, but I Ieft off the supporting struts and added them later.
UNDER PRESSUREWeighted tyres are thankfully becoming more common in aircraft models these days, an innovation
that was in part influenced by Airfix. Their Stuka, as with all of their more recent releases, features flattened tyres and a clever system within the undercarriage housings
now-standard blue-grey styrene, Awith a new two-option decal sheet 2017, and those same sprues now get a second outing as the B-2/R-2, and a choice of underwing stores. Moulded in the manufacturer’s Luftwaffe dive bomber in irfix first released the B-1 version of the infamous into the correct position for a sitting or an in-flight model. by which the wheels can be locked If the model is to be displayed
the kit features all the features that we have come to expect in a new-tool offering from Airfix: soft, workable styrene, recessed panel lines, crystal clear transparencies,
impressive levels of internal detail (and options to show it off, such as separately-moulded fairings and access panels) – and lots and lots of ejector pin marks.
unwelcome when located in places likely to remain visible once the kit is assembled; almost as soon The latter are especially
as construction begins on the cockpit, pin marks in the centreof the floor panel, on the pilot’s seat, and amidst the sidewall detail require filling or removal. furnished with a two-piece pilot’s Even so, the cockpit is nicely
seat, which lacks harness detail, a control column, panel, and foot pedals. The rear gunner’s position includes a two-piece spent cartridge bin, a double row
of machine gun (MG) magazines on a rack, a nicely moulded three-piece seat, and a bank of radios.
moulded sidewall frames contain more MG magazines, an oxygen The separately
bottle and hose, trim wheels, levers, and fuselage ribbing, all of which assembles onto a rigid box-section frame. TheSTUKA
SicilianQUICKBUILDQuick Build of the Airfix 1/48 Stuka B-2/ R-2 by Jay Blakemore“THIS KIT HAS NO MAJOR PROBLEMS AND THE COMPLETED MODEL LOOKS EVERY INCH A STUKA”6 • AUGUST 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • AUGUST 2018 • 71/48BY SACCO DE VRIESSTUKA B-2/R-2BY JAY BLAKEMORE 1/Sikorsky H03S-1AMP 1/48 Sikorsky H03S-1 by Jon Howes
MANUFACTURERSCALETYPEDECAL OPTIONSNavy/Marines: New Tool, Injection Moulded: 1/48: AMP : 4 Decal options all US
PARTST: 70 plastic parts and 15 etchedhe Sikorsky H03S-1 is a variation of the Sikorsky H-5, one of the first
helicopter designed by the Russian born engineer Igor Sikorsky in the United state. Igor Sikorsky, a name helicopter enthusiasts will have heard a great deal about
with the company producing helicopters in his name even to this date. The H-5 replace the R-4 helicopter which was the only
allied helicopter to see action in WWII and was the second helicopter to be mass produced by the United States and also build by the British under licence and
named the Westland Dragonfly. brand AMP, but after my research, I believe they are a sister company to MikroMir who produce limited I wasn’t too familiar with the
run kits. So I decided to challenge myself and take on this review sample to see how it went. On opening the small flimsy box, it
is obvious that this will not take too long, with the low part count of around 70 parts and a small etched fret which adds some nice detail to the kit. I do needto thank Constantine from AMP for sourcing the clear sprue for me, as mine was missing on the review sample. The clear parts were OK, a little misty and you
could dip them into some Johnsons Klear if you have some, but I decided to go with what we had.
THE BUILDConstruction starts with the interior cockpit starting with thecontrol panel, which is a two-part plastic assembly to which you add etched brass and a piece of film which supplies the instrument dials. The panel was painted
interior grey and I then moved onto the pilot and passenger seats. These are straightforward build and once assembled are painted
black. Etched seat harnesses are provided but I decided to use some spare Eduard pre painted ones from the spares box. Apart from thecontrol panel, the cockpit detail is very sparse so if someone wants more detail then scratch building would be required. The cockpit floor was painted interior grey and then
the seats and panel were attached, along with the control stick. required the cockpit and cabin of Due to the number of windows
the aircraft are sealed inside two large clear fuselage parts. This was quite tricky as AMP did their best to add location pins to assist with this,but the pins seemed to be a little out of alignment. So the best thing to do is to remove the male pin and self align with the assistance of plastic card strips. Once these
where safely constructed the canopy at the front of the aircraft was attached. AMP does provide some vinyl masks, which were not too bad to be honest, the fit and
placement is simple, but removing them at the end was difficult. One interesting stage of the build which was quite hard to get right was the two windows directly above
the pilot, first there was no mask provided here and also there was no framing to indicate the location instead AMP provide two very fine
etched parts which represented the frame of the window and both are extremely fragile. These neededto be carefully placed to make sure they are symmetrical on both sides while at the same time avoiding the super glue damaging the clear areas of the window, a very tricky stage!
boom was made up of two halves which required attaching together, again the location pins were there, but it was still a case to remove The rear fuselage and tail
these and use plastic card tabs to assist alignment before attaching the tail boom to the fuselage. I now added the landing gearassembly excluding the wheel to the aircraft, again there was the same issue with locations not aligning with the inserts on the external parts of the aircraft, which seemed
to be becoming a theme of the kit. It felt like AMP where trying their best to turn a limited run kit into a mainstream kit but unfortunately this caused a few issues. Once
this stage was completed it was time to get painting.PAINTING AND DECALINGFirst of all, I went around all the joints cleaning up any flash left over and filling gaps with perfect
plastic putty. I then used Tamiya XF-19 sky grey as a primer and gave the kit a full covering, as this was also the interior colour and would be visible through the clear
fuselage. Once dry I now applied Tamiya XF-3 yellow on the small warning area at on tail. This was then masked and the whole aircraft was sprayed with Tamiya XF-
Sea Blue. Once dry I used my usual Tamiya X-22 clear for my gloss coat and then left it to dry for 24 hours. During this time I worked on
the tail and rotor blade. The rotor mast consists of a mix of plastic and etched parts. Unusually for a helicopter model the rotor andAND AS A RESULT IT IS NOT THAT “THIS IS A LIMITED RUN KIT
STRAIGHTFORWARD A BUILD”KIT REVIEWS58 • AUGUST 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • AUGUST 2018 • 59KIT REVIEWShouse years of the early 1930s were the Granville Brothers. Driven by the passion of Zantford Granville, the enterprise of designing and building racing aircraft soon
grew to involve all five Granville siblings, hoping to establish an enduring aircraft manufacturing business. It was not to be.The Gee Bee name became
established through a series of sport and amateur racing aircraft like the X-1, Type Y, and Type Z, but they came to the peak of prominence in 1932 when famous pilot Jimmy
Doolittle flew the radical Gee Bee R1 racer to win the Thompson Trophy at a speed of 252.7 mph. It was to be the R1’s only victory.sense; powered by the then-enormous Pratt and Whitney Wasp 9-cylinder radial of 800 hp, the airframe built around The R1 was radical in every
it was as small as possible with a short, stubby fuselage, relatively thin, 25-foot (7.62m) span wings, and a spatted, fixed undercarriage; normal race weight
was around 2415lb (1140 Kg). racers, with a fuselage of welded high-strength Cr-Mo steel tube built up to shape with plywood The construction was typical for
formers, spruce stringers, and a mix of aluminium and fabric covering. The wings had two steel spars, plywood ribs and a smoothplywood (Haskelite) skinning, which was allegedly finished with fourteen coats of hand-sanded dope for smoothness.The R1 was a monster to fly,
with appalling pilot vision, a cranky engine, and desperately poor lateral stability. Both the R1 and its longer-range sibling the R2 (designed for the cross-
country Bendix race and powered by a 575 hp Wasp Junior) crashed spectacularly several times and the parts were ultimately consolidated into a single lengthened airframe.
extraordinary machines, pushing boundaries that people didn’t even know existed at the time, and The Gee Bee racers weredriven by individual human effort and vision. Despite their short lifespan, they created a legacy that’s impossible to eradicate.
THE KITUkranian company Dora Wings have produced versions of both the R1 and R2 Gee Bee racers; the respective kits share many common
parts, with the cowlings showing the most significant differences. The R1 reviewed here comprises 55 well-moulded grey plastic parts, a single-piece clear part for the fixed
canopy, and a photo-etched (PE) sheet of 20 parts, with some cockpit details and representations of theDora Wings 1/48 Gee Bee R1 by Huw MorganThe so-called Golden Age of privateer air racing in America lasted barely a
decade, between the late 1920s and the advent of World War II. It was an inevitable consequence of the birth of aviation, as racing aircraft against each other
and the clock had become the norm barely ten years after the Wright Brothers had scraped over the dunes at Kitty Hawk. Several prestigious competitions
emerged, most famously theBendix Trophy, a cross-country race of 2500 miles from Los Angeles to Cleveland, and the Thompson Trophy, a free-for-all sprint around pylons set on a 10
mile course outside Cleveland. The National Air Races were a week-long extravaganza based around Labour Day, attracting tens of thousands of spectators, and flying
(literally) in the face of the dire economic circumstances gripping the whole country at the time. Front and central in the hotKIT DETAILSKITMANUFACTURERSCALE: GEE BEE R1: 1:48: DORA WINGS
PRODUCT CODEPANEL LINESSTATUSDECAL OPTIONS: NEW TOOL: RECESSED: 48002: 1The kit is presented on four sprues of 55 plastic parts and a small photo etched fret This is a small model, even in1/48 scale, being only around 10 cm long There’s a reasonable representation of the Wasp engine, although some extra detail would be useful given its visibilityKICK LIKE A
MULESting like a Bee,6 • AUGUST 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • AUGUST 2018 • 71/48BY SACCO DE VRIESGEE BEE R1BY HUW MORGAN 1/6 Revolutionary Phantom
Zoukei-Mura 1/48 Phantom
F-4D by Peter Marshall20 Tip and Run
Eduard 1/48 FW-190A-
by Floyd S. Werner, Jr.40 First Looks
ICM 1/32 I-153 “Chaika”64 A Tempting Tempest
Special Hobby 1/32 Tempest
MK. V by Ivan Taylor14 Full Metal Jacket
HobbyBoss 1/32 F-84G
Thunderjet by Guy Goodwin28 Sicilian Stuka
Quick Build of the Airfix 1/
Stuka B-2/R-2 by Jay Blakemore28 Sicilian Stuka
Quick Build of the Airfix 1/
Stuka B-2/R-2 by Jay Blakemore56 Sikorsky H03S-
AMP 1/48 Sikorsky H03S-
by Jon Howes72 Kick like a Mule
Dora Wings 1/48 Gee Bee
R1 by Huw MorganCONTENTS
35 The SAM News
37 Czech News
40 First Looks
46 Accessories52 Decals
56 Reviews
78 Books & Media
82 Show DiaryALSO INSIDE
20 Tip and Run
Eduard 1/48 FW-190A-
by Floyd S. Werner, Jr.72 Kick like a Mule
Dora Wings 1/48 Gee Bee R1 by Huw MorganWWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • AUGUST 2018 • 5
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