Jay Chladek

1/72 new tool T-38 (would even take a scaledown of Trumpeter's 1/48 as even with the flaws it looked the part when built). 1/72 new tool F-5B (Esci kits are getting hard to find) 1/72 or 48 early model B-26. All we have that I can see is the Monogram Snap Tite, which is a good kit, but the subject deserves the love of the B-25B/C 1/72 recessed panel line Vulcan bomber. Airfix kit still great, but old. This one could do with a great replacement on the level of the Airfix Valiant and Victor kits. 1/48 Grumman X-29 (this is a "dream" list afterall.) 😉

Voted. Already warming up the VAB.

The Hobbyboss is a U-2R, not a U-2A/B. The U-2R is very much a different airframe with a passing resemblance to the earlier aircraft.

Italeri's Warthog has a fair amount going for it and can be built well. Only thing is you are practically required to get aftermarket cockpit etch for it and resin engine fans as those are the biggest shortcomings of the kit. Thankfully Eduard's etch does the job nicely in the front while Quickboost's resin engine fans are a drop fit and both can be obtained for very little cash outlay. The nose issues can be fixed with some clever sanding.

I believe the term is "tough love." 😉 Most impressive!

I'm thinking the 135R engine molds probably came from the E-3 AWACS kit that Minicraft did in their alteration of the core 707 tooling. Those engines were done before the DC-8 work began. Nice to see them offering the DC-8 motors as those are beautiful!

If you are going to do a T-38N there are a lot more to it than a core kit with the new intakes and decals: 1. Cockpit- NASA jets with the color weather radar nose have a rather different front panel and possibly back panel as well (haven't found any good picks of the back panel). It is not a glass cockpit C panel and looks closer to that of the A with the round steam gauges. Instead of the four across rows on the right side of the panel (engine gauges) the NASA Ns use three three across rows. Probably because they doubled up the engine RPM gauges and are using a needle for each engine in a single gauge. This helps make room for the radar screen in the center of the pit. The rest of the panel is a weird scramble of other relocated round gauges. 2. Ejection seats- the stock seats can be used with the radar nose, but by the time NASA's fleet began converting to what became the C style intakes, the Mk 16 seats had become common except for perhaps a couple jets very early on in the conversion process. Reason being is NASA's female astronauts and shorter male astronauts flying in jets with the older seats had to wear ballast weights on their body to help prevent the more powerful "one size fits all" ejection seat rocket didn't cause spinal damage in the event of an ejection. The Mk 16 seat is rated for a lot more different body types. 3. The radar nose. The Funderkal sheet instructions talk a bit about the radar nose. The trickiest shape to pull off are the two subtle bulges on top and bottom of the nose. Trumpeter to their credit with their NASA T-38 kit has rendered the shape of the nose beautifully. The nose is unique only to the NASA fleet as I have never seen a USAF jet with it. The new nose was first added to the fleet in the early to mid 1990s. Not all jets necessarily got it, but it looks like those NASA jets that didn't appear to have been reassigned from the Ellington field fleet (9XX numbered jets) to mainly Edwards/Dryden (8XX numbered jets). 4. Det cord on the canopy- It looks like the front canopy on Mk 16 seat equipped NASA N jets has a diamond of det cord on the front canopy. It doesn't appear the back seat does. Replicating this could be a little tricky. Not sure if the USAF went this route with the C fleet either. So it will take a fair amount of work to turn a Wolfpack C into a NASA N model. To date, the Trumpeter NASA "T-38C" gives you a better starting point with its radar nose, but even it still needs some work. Nobody yet has done a T-38N kit that can be built right from the box. Wolfpack's NASA T-38A kit only builds into a NASA A model as used from the 1960s up through the early to mid-1990s (unless doing an Edwards/Dryden jet).

It looks to be some sort of general aviation prop. Perhaps cobbling blades from a cheap civilian aircraft kit or two. As an alternative, perhaps a cut down Jablo Mk1 Spitfire prop might work given that is pretty skinny, like a GA prop.

Fascinating...

Estes just came out with a 50th anniversary version of the Apollo Saturn V in 1/100 scale and they tweaked it a fair amount to probably make it the easiest building Saturn V kit ever... and also more accurate than ever. The big improvement... the SLA is now a nicely detailed blow molded cone. No need to do a paper transition wrap anymore.

Thinking about it... a lot. I have at least two Saturn V models I want to do. One, the new Estes 1/100 kit and second the monster Dragon 1/72 offering. Although I may scale that down to a Revell 1/96 or a 1/144 offering depending on how much accurizing I feel comfortable with doing on the Dragon kit. If I do the Dragon kit out of the box it looks like a very straightforward build. But I just can't help to tweak things a bit if I can.

One I would love to add to the Det cord wish list would be for the front canopy of a NASA T-38N. The rear canopy doesn't have it, but the front canopy does and I imagine it might be present on Mk 16 seat equipped USAF T-38Cs as well. I've thought about trying to replicate that on a 1/48 model I have and this thread is nice and timely.

Hey there guys. I just picked up the new 1/48 scale Spit Mk 1 kit (#61119) today and it has some very nice features in it. My main focus was on the interwar years Spit birds. If you plan to do a 1938-39 model Spitfire, here are some features which I think will be a nice surprise for you.: Pre-war ring and bead gun sight- Using a combination of some styrene and included photoetch, this is the first 1/48 Spitfire I have seen which includes the ring and bead sight. When I did my Interwar 19 Squadron bird years ago for a Britmodeler build, I had to cobble something together. Two pronged fork pitot tube- Again, it wasn't around when I did my build. Granted Tamiya isn't the first to do this style of tube as the Hornby Airfix 2015 Spit Mk I kit (A05126) also included it. But it is nice to see Tamiya noticed it as well. Gun heater exhaust vents in the wings- This is something I have never seen on a 1/48 Spit kit. Early Spitfires tried to use exhaust gas heating to keep the .303s from freezing in flight. Heating ducts were installed along with an exhaust port in each wing. Tamiya put those into this kit! The wing mount holes are flashed over for those who want to do BoB aircraft. But, it is nice to have that option in this kit! Unarmored glass windscreen- Tamiya did the windscreen un-armored with the simple frame. Two versions of armored glass can be installed over the top of this for WW2 birds. The shape of the windscreen looks beautiful and at a nice petite thickness for pre-war birds. The pre-war marking option is for K9906 of 65 Squadron, FZ-L from 1939. It has the later more traditional style bubble canopy and the 3 bladed Jablo prop. There is some debate about whether the Munich Crisis camoed topside aircraft had an all aluminium underside as the kit depicts of whether it had gone with the black/white wing paint (making sure to leave the control surface undersides aluminium if you go that route). Early square spine antenna- The antenna mounting for the early and late style antennas is very robust and designed to help eliminate a glue stain. The square antenna mount looks great and is less prone to flexing than the Hornby Airfix one. So, you can do the kit out of the box for a pre-war Spitfire easily. Now if you want to do one of the earliest birds, such as the 19 Squadron Duxford Spits from 38-39 you are on your own for the Watts two-bladed prop and the flat canopy. But the 2015 Airfix Spit Mk 1 and the earlier Humbrol Airfix Spit kits provide those to scrounge. The Hornby Airfix Mk I also includes the flat top canopy, but it is a bit too thick to use properly if you intend to pose it open. So I recommend acquiring a Falcon Spitfire vac canopy set for the sliding portion if you wish to go that route. As for other Spit features, all are nicely represented with the later gunsight option and a cockpit/seat with etched belts and features that can be used with or without a provided pilot figure. BTW, This Spitfire side door does not have the crowbar molded in (yay). There is only one feature left off, but it is not a show stopper at all. The elevators are molded into the horizontal surfaces. So you can't build the elevators drooped as found on a parked Spitfire. It is not a deal breaker given most spit models I have seen have level tailplanes anyway. I suppose if one wanted to they could scrouge early style elevator/tail planes from a Late Mk IX or VII/VIII Edward kit that uses the later tailplanes and graft them into the Tamiya tail. It will probably work fine as the rudder is molded separate in both kits. And I do see a couple possible other areas that might need some slight material removal to make it right for a specific variant. But I really like the looks of this and I think it can build quicker than an Eduard weekend edition. Is it the king of the Mk 1 Spitfires in 1/48? I'm not going to say that, not just with an initial look. There are a lot of things I like about this kit and a lot of things I like about the Airfix kit. If my intention was to go Pre-war, I would choose the Tamiya kit. But for a BoB offering... ? Let me just say it is nice to have choices and this kit is a very nice choice. But Airfix has a lot going for it as well, especially a lower price tag. I'm going to have a lot of fun with this model.

Considering how the Testors kit kicked my posterior when I tried to build it (even when trying to overcome the wing warp issues) I'll probably bite when I know these are out. Builds of the test shot look good enough anyway. One thing that would go a ways towards me deciding whether to buy it sooner than later would be knowing if the decal sheet had markings for all 21 jets since aftermarket for the Testors kit was limited. Sure, I have the IPMS USA KC con sheet, but while Spirit of Kansas is appealing to build, it is also the B-2 that crashed on Guam a few years back.

I am going to have to get me a couple of these me thinks. I could wait for 1/48, but display space issues have me looking more towards these smaller kits. Plus one of these will be a great compliment to me Special Hobby 1/72 F-86H (another subject never done in 1/48 styrene). Thanks for the link.