The molds for Monogram’s P-47D Thunderbolt date back to 1967, and it shows.
While the kit was considered world class when it was released, it can’t compare to the tooling, detail and fit of more modern kits.
Still, it’s far from bad, and though fit tolerances can be somewhat clumsy here and there, it’s altogether very competent. (more…)
Monogram’s P-47D Thunderbolt isn’t a great kit. In fact, it doesn’t compare well at all to the newer offerings by Hasegawa and especially Tamiya. But it’s a competent, fast-building kit, with surprisingly solid detail.
Well, except for the blast tubes in the wings.
I’m trying to build this one mostly out-of-the-box, but I just couldn’t abide these sad excuses for blast tubes. (more…)
Things have gone downhill with the Zvezda since the last post.
It began with the White Ensign AMT Black. It’s proven a very temperamental paint that either goes down somewhat translucent, or somewhat gritty. Well, I got the somewhat gritty version, so I went to do a wet polishing sand, hoping to remove the grit and maybe the marks left by the silly putty and tape.
The thing is, as you wet sand, you kick up a slurry of water and sanded paint. The AMT black basically just absorbed this slurry. I tried everything and couldn’t get it out. So I ended up going back and repainting the camoflage freehand.
As a kid, I never descended into the scrappy art of scratchbuilding. I was impatient enough as it was, and the idea of slowing down to play that game never entered my mind.
These days, I’m a bit older, a bit more patient, and far more in tune with my inner perfectionist. I still don’t go in for too much scratchbuilding, and honestly I’ll still spring for a photo etch or resin solution if it exists. But sometimes…it doesn’t.
Since my return to modeling, my scratchbuilding has consisted of seatbelts. I’ve been making them out of Tamiya tape, supplemented with buckles either snipped off of PE belts, or just fashioned from spare PE bits.
With the La-5, though, that’s starting to change. (more…)
The Lavochkin La-5 is very similar to the British Spitfire in that, with the exception of a marking here or there, one plane looks more or less identical to every other plane. These weren’t the flashy P-47s and P-51s of the USAAF, with elaborate nose art and squadron markings. Late-war Soviet fighters gained a bit more leeway, and a lot of them began sporting more colorful cowls and elaborate markings as they achieved air superiority. But the La-5 was a mid-war fighter, and you could pretty much get one in whatever color you wanted, so long as it was green, black and blue.
With main construction finished (see Eduard Yak-3 – Cockpit and Main Assembly) and the major fuselage seams filled and sanded, it’s time to move on to the fun stuff – painting!
When I was researching Zvezda’s La-5 prior to ordering, I kept coming across three broad areas of agreement.
Throughout the build process, I’ve found two of those three to be true.
Eduard’s Yak-3 may not compare to the detail and complexity of their more recent releases (the superb Hellcat kits come to mind), but for all its simplicity it’s still a competently detailed and engineered kit.
The first thing that strikes you about this kit is the extremely low parts count. The entire kit comes laid out on two sprues of a hard, shiny, somewhat thick-feeling plastic, and one clear sprue for the canopies and armored glass.
Overall, the detail level is solid. Some areas seem to have received more attention than others. There are a few major disappointments. The main landing gear struts, wheels, and lack of splitters in the intakes being the worst culprits. (more…)
REPOSTED FROM DAMNED IF YOU DOOGS. ORIGINAL POST DATES FROM SEPTEMBER 16, 2010. Crappy canopy alignment issues solved. Before: After: The solution? Aftermarket vacuform canopies. Which, let me tell you, are an…
REPOSTED FROM DAMNED IF YOU DOOGS. ORIGINAL POST DATES FROM SEPTEMBER 12, 2010. These Hobbyboss Wildcats have been staggeringly inconsistent. Some of the pieces are just perfect. Detail and fit are spot…
