Doogs Studios releases six new 1/48 P-47N Thunderbolt wheel sets, featuring two wheel types and three tread patterns. A fantastic upgrade for any P-47N and sized to precisely fit MiniArt P-47 gear struts.
It’s been a little over a year since my last build review – of Kitty Hawk’s maddening Su-17 Fitter. Why haven’t I returned to the well sooner? A few reasons.
Last year, Kitty Hawk released a 1/48 Su-35, and I was absolutely not interested in it, or in any other Kitty Hawk kit after the extremely sour taste the Fitter left in my mouth.
But then Great Wall Hobby announced that they, too, were going to be releasing an Su-35.
A plan began to form. A versus build, stacking two kits of the same subject against each other.
All I had to do was wait for the Great Wall kit to release. This week, the kit finally hit US shores. Orders were placed, and now here we are. (more…)
Every time a Shizouka Hobby Show or All-Japan Model & Hobby Show roll around, the modeling community gets all pins and needles in anticipation of the latest Tamiya release. There…
It’s weird how ideas can snowball. That’s exactly what happened when Jimmy D proposed an informal F-4 buddy build over in SMCG. What started as “huh” quickly gathered steam, and suddenly the start date for this informal affair was bumped up to July 4th.
I was just coming off Bandai’s A-Wing and a rather epic bench cleaning and reorganization, and uncommitted to any particular project.
So I decided “fuck it, I’m game”.
My kit of choice? Academy’s 1/48 F-4C Phantom II. With some goodies.
I think there must be some kind of modeling corollary to Murphy's Law that says "over the course of a build, something will go wrong". Looking back, I feel like…
NOTE: This is not a review per se. There will be no fondling of sprues or the like. Think of this more as an addendum - impressions from mid-way through…
Welcome to the second entry in the Contributor-Funded Kit Review series! This time out, the subject is Kinetic's new-tool 1/48 F/A-18C Hornet. Curious about contributor-funded thing, or want to see…
It’s been a while since I’ve done any kind of build log on here, so I decided it might be worth revisiting a few past builds to walk through the process and various encounters along the way.
In 2015, I was asked to build Kinetic’s F-5B Freedom Fighter for Model Aircraft magazine. I know Kinetic can be a bit…inconsistent…but the F-5B is one of those aircraft that just bristles with interesting schemes, so I decided what the hell?
As for schemes…I considered a few, but let’s be honest. It was always going to be a dirty Hellenic Air Force ship wearing the ghost scheme.
The kit itself is a mix of good and…less good. And proved a good workout for those “basic modeling skillz” everyone goes on about. (more…)
Part I | Part II| Part III | Part IV
Welcome to Part IV of the MiG-21F-13 build. At the end of Part III, the Fishbed was painted, chipped, and had just had the markings masked and sprayed.
Now, it’s time to continue the journey with some weathering.
Handling the MiG-21 with the nose strut only installed was becoming tiresome by this point, so I said f- it and installed the main gear struts as well. The fit of these into their mounts is frustratingly wobbly, but somehow my “CA-and-pray” approach worked just fine ,and the plane appears to sit level. Now…it does appear to sit taller in the rump than most images I’ve seen…but I think that’s a case of the oleos being at full extension or something.
In addition to strutting the MiG, I also applied Vallejo Light Gray Wash. Vallejo’s washes are something I’ve recently discovered, and used properly they are fantastic. The darker colors really have a much stronger effect, but the gray wash quite subtle and helps to bring some cohesion to a really visually disparate paint scheme like this one.
Like I said. Subtle. (more…)
At last! Welcome to this build’s big moment of truth. Making this:
Look something like this:
Or…similar. While I was tempted to go for 100% fidelity…the “AMS” side of the Force…I have found that stressing so much about complete accuracy doesn’t really do anything except suck the fun out of builds. So for my forays into 1/48 jets, I’m making a conscious effort to strive for verisimilitude over exactitude.
(more…)
