Robertson

One of the more badly needed kits out there... I'll bet we are going to get several more (post HiPM) of the assymetric Blom and Voss BV-141 recon prototypes before we ever get that widely used 1500 strong production type in 1/48th... Robertson

No it has nothing whatsoever to do with the best post-E Me-109 ever offered (the Zvezda F).... It is more like the ICM kit in the wrong squarish lower corners cross-section, but with a much worse canopy that is frosty and not clear at all, and thus unuseable... Why moulding machining work was wasted in such a strange fashion is unclear: The fuselage is about on par with ICM, but that is not very good owing to the square corners... Robertson

Neither of the kit noses has the outline of the nose correct for any version: Both kit noses are far too deep at their rear base, and also have an overall profile that tapers incorrectly towards the front from that too deep rear base. It does seem one of the Monogram noses is a little better, but any kind of accuracy is a major nose surgery with any of these kits to reduce the nose profile taper: The canopy probably lacks length and depth on either kits, and the GW kit added a completely fictional centerline frame on the openable roof panel, just to clarify to the unwary what kind of "real" re

Except for the above mentionned points, Hasegawa is far and away the best choice, in fact the only choice. The only real problem is the shape of the prop blades. Strong point of the Tamiya compared to Hasegawa: Prop. Everything else is inferior by a wide margin, except for Tamiya's thinner tailplanes. Worst current kit of the FW-190A is by far the Eduard. Tubular cowl, too thin tail with a too thick fin, wrong armoured ring and awful blown canopy are the highlights. The Dragon kit is a distant second behind Hasegawa, and looks strange because of a 1/50 scale cowl. Blown canopy is also

Maybe it's the colour, but these resin cowlings do not look quite as good as the Quikboost ones that are still available (with external exhausts only) AFAIK: http://modelingmadness.com/reviews/allies/us/usaaf/48b25y.jpg http://www.aviation-history.com/north-american/b25-9a.jpg R.

Don't forget the inner gear covers were not normally down when "cold" on Allison variants: Unlike Merlins, no hydraulic "bleed"... R.

Right on: And it is by far the best Bf-109 ever offered in any scale: Hasegawa and all others are all sad kits in comparison... On the Zvezda, there are moulding variations that make the center clear part sometimes bend a tiny bit narrower depending on boxing: Mould exit speed quality control... The rounded corner canopy has some flaws on the upper edges, but that is mostly irrelevant to an "F"... Robertson

I have no doubt Pilawkii made many mistakes, some of them egregrious, like the "Krakow Yak-3", which was in California and re-painted... But that does not necessarily imply fraud, just a lack of precise research methods... It does seem absurd to invent official designations for unofficial colours, but your outcomes are only as good as your sources... It could be what he was told or a wrong deduction... There are major aircraft colours absent from "Albom Nakrasok", yet they existed on thousands of aircrafts nonetheless... People who want absolute rigidity in colour designations overlook that

Thanks for your comments Massimo. As for the issue of "Albom Nakrassov", did anyone try to compare the color values in the two copies of the book? Even if they match perfectly (which would be interesting to see in photos in some of the weirder shades), There is also the problem of the acidity in the paper, as this is a major issue even today when merely putting up a backing for framing a painting, and especially a drawing. Paper of this vintage is not acid "neutralized", and although it does make the paper slightly more brittle over time, it in no way destroys the book: This issue has

Interesting related discussion on Britmodeller: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=72892&st=20 For the record, it seems to me the colors inside "Albom Nakrassov" are simply orders of magnitude too dark to be even remotely believable (this is even more evident in the blues!), and I share Fernando's disbelief that they are taken seriously at all... That does not mean new colours were not significantly darker and less contrasting new than depicted by Pilawskii... The book's colours compared to WEM paints: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-KU7M2k5KQBg/TJkaEd2MM

Thanks Massimo: No I had not seen the La-5 wreckage, and I find the photos very interesting for the value of the grays, which is slightly lighter and closer to what I would expect than the well-known Yak-9 rudder... I will actually use the bigger two-gray piece of this la-5 wreckage as the reference for my models now: The light gray does seem a bit darker and slightly more blueish than previous Pilawskii assumptions... Thanks! I do not know about the dark blue border to the La-5 numbers... It does seem possible, but little can be done with most decals... More of an argument to build those

You can bet that in twenty years there will be much more stuff available than today, by sheer cumulative effect, and modellers then will still be argueing: "Look how good the hobby is doing!: More choices than ever!" However I think a better a more objective yardstick, of how visible and relevant to everyone the hobby is, is still the visible presence of Hobby Shops... I know Antique shops have mostly disappeared because, with the greater reach of online shopping, things that used to be rare are now easily found... But this does not apply to model making: For the most part model building

I found the above post extremely useful, because it explains at a stroke several things that have always puzzled me about Hobby Shops with years-old price stickers on some boxes, and yet never offering a sale on them... The one thing I like the most about my Local Hobby Shop (Hobbyhouse in Ottawa), besides getting my supplies like paint etc, is that the owner is a nice level-headed guy who lets me unwrap the shrinkwrap and look at one kit per visit, no commitment to buy, which is precisely the one thing online shopping can never do... The other major hobby shops in my town do not do that, a

The Hobby Boss is slightly more difficult to build but has a much more accurate cowl, TBM prop, canopy cross-section and bomb bay roof. Robertson

This subject has evolved into complete confusion, but I lean more towards the Pilawskii side. Original color chips seem to indicate darker colours with much less contrast for the two top 11/12 grays, while in-service photos indicate lighter colours with more contrast... I think it is possible the original coulours were darker but faded so quickly the Pilawskii interpretation (more widely used), is more correct... This is I think the best start for forming an opinion: The photo is here visibly over-contrasted, looking at the tail's red, but look how different is the aircraft in t

Tamiya sells a 1/48th Zero for $50 and you think $70 is too much for a P-61? The similar or smaller-sized 1/32 Zero is $120... R.

Note that it's not just Hasegawa that I am using as an examplè: Tamiya as well, and it is by far the biggest of all makers. R.

I'm perfectly willing to believe you if you say it is a minority of complaints, but I would be interested to see specific examples. R.

The rise in prices is actually, in theory, a good thing for the hobby, because all other hobbies are so much more expensive, you could almost say high prices make this hobby a thing of the future... Plastic takes very little oil to make, and there might be other materials that could substitute anyway, so transportation is the main cost: Higher oil price would simply reintroduce closer-based, more national kit production: A more diverse manufacturing base... Outside of 1/32 and the often one-man based after-market, I don't agree there is great vitality on the manufacturing side these days, e

I agree the hobby has become much more sophisticated, but that is mainly due, first, to the after-market makers in most scales, combined with the availability of such AM stuff online (and thus, with the exception of maybe Eduard, mostly not from the actions of the mainstream manufacturers themselves). Second, to the advent of 1/32 scale's dominance, with the raised level of its quality, and the excitement this generates for aircrafts (This indeed most definitely the result of mainstream manufacturer's actions)... The bad news with that is that 1/32 scale is in fact a bit of an endgame f

As compared to when? How about ten years ago? In 1/48th scale WWII aircraft Tamiya was putting out 2 new releases a year, Hasegawa three, if not more previously. Since 2001-2 (around the 1/48th P-47D release time) Tamiya has dropped to about one new release in that area per year, Hasegawa maintaining steady for a few more years. After 2002 (around the Me-262 release time) that becaume bi-yearly, the He-162, Fi-156 and two Zero variants summing up what has appeared in WWII aircrafts in NINE years... After roughly 2005 Hasegawa slowed to one or two a year until the banner year of 2008,

The hobby will never die off completely, but when the the current "old" fifty plus generation dies off, it is hard to imagine what will be left... Look at your local club's attendance by people younger than 35-40 (a modest benchmark): That tells you how small it will get... Except for 1/32 releases, the rate of new mainstream relases is way down and will continue to decline, the phenomenon eventually reaching 1/32 scale as well, since it is not a versatile scale that can expand into larger non-fighter types... Fifty years from now, a large part of the non-1/72 Spitfire builds will sti

There's only one good B-24 in any scale. The Hasegawa 1/72 scale. R.

No, your argument doesn't hold: Back then there were many major new releases every week or every month, and the number of major brands was probably greater. You may not be aware of this, but the vast majority of a kit's sale are done in the first year after release, so it is in the new releases, and their initial production runs, that the state of the hobby can be determined... The large numbers of very old kits releases still on Hobby Shoppe shelves, and even online, is a clear sign the new releases have not replaced was what done in the heydays of modelling... Tamigawa new releases have s