Paul Boyer

Not your ordinary "snap kit" though. I'm building this right now. Yes, it can be press fit together, but that fit is excellent. Surface detail surpasses any other Phantom in this scale. And the parts breakdown and assembly is brilliant. Certainly not perfect though. There are errors in the instructions and missing items such as the face-curtain pull rings on the seats, harnesses, and no outer wing pylon stubs if you don't use the outboard tanks. Instead of using "flashed over" mounting holes for optional parts, the holes are open, even for the late-mod ECM blisters on the intakes (which were n

Hasegawa's kit is the best in this scale for any H or J model.

I just plopped the parts onto my scanner. For clarity sake, these are the 1/72 SCALE wings of the P-51B kits from Hasegawa (top) and Academy. Academy's kit has what I think is a better planform, but it may not be perfect. I've got questions about the shell-ejector treatment; there may have been different ones on the real thing.

No, the "V-14" was in Academy's 1/72 D kit which came out quite a bit earlier. The B kit is OK. In fact it comes with two different styles of exhausts (all with six stacks per side). In my opinion, it is currently the best B in 1/72, although I've not seen the new KP kit yet. Academy's Malcomb hood looks goofy, though. Academy's Allison Mustang (P-51) is also very good. I don't understand why they didn't carry on with more Allison versions like the P-51A, A-36, and Mustang Mk.I

UKPonchoman (a real name would be welcome ), If you're taking suggestions, something I have found lacking among generic marking sheets are the current low-vis style(s) of the U.S. national insignia. True, you usually get them with each kit, but sometimes they are printed in the wrong "gray" or are sized improperly. You can buy several brands of historical U.S. national insignias in every size one could need (pre-WWII, three or four different WWII styles, and postwar style), but try finding a sheet of black-outline style current insignias for transports in low-vis schemes.

No, Heller did the DC-6; larger aircraft and a simpler kit.

The ads say "Skill level 5" -- not that it matters, but I've never seen a "5" before. I'll find out soon enough.

Won't be much interior visible no matter what they give you. I think there may have been a different window arrangement. Roosevelt used Sacred Cow only once, I believe, for the trip to Yalta. Not sure if they used the elevator or not. Truman used the C-54 until the switch to the C-118 "Independence." He signed the National Security Act that formally created the USAF in 1947 aboard Sacred Cow.

Hope one of them is for "Sacred Cow." I fully expected Revell to include it as an option as it is relatively simple, but it's not on the decal sheet. "Sacred Cow" in wartime markings was unremarkable, and later as Truman used it would have had the post-war insignias and at some point a panel with the flags of the nations visited was added. Gonna need it for my "Air Force One" collection.

If we're talking 1/48 scale, you mean the Tamiya kit, not Hasegawa, right? In 1/72, then yes, the old Monogram A-1E prop is better shaped than the Hasegawa prop.

Well, let's hope no manufacturer falls into the trap that Esci did back in the '70s. They made a 1/48 Sabre kit, added a few extra parts and packaged it as an FJ-3 Fury. You can't really get a Fury from a Sabre; just about every part of the machines are different and significantly so. Sure, from a thousand feet (or about 20 feet in 1/48 scale) they look alike, but they're not gonna fool me!

Actually, there is little wrong with the Hasegawa 1/72 F11F-1, unless you qualify fine raised panel lines "wrong." I've built five or six of them over the years, and it's a fine kit. I would much rather see 1/72 model manufacturers pay attention to the Fury than to bring out an "improved" Tiger.

For Special Hobby/MPM, a 1/48 F11F-1 Tiger would sell great! For Tamiya or Kitty Hawk, or Trumpeter, maybe not so much. Let's just guess that the total world-wide demand and sales potential for the 1/48 scale Tiger might be 5,000 units (don't quote me on this, I'm just using this figure to illustrate the point). Five thousand units would be a success for Special Hobby; it would be poor for the big guys. To the casual modeler, the Tiger would have little attraction outside of a Blue Angel. There were no international users and only brief use by its sole customer, the U.S. Navy. As much as I lik

Also got mine. Excellent! Printing is perfect (Cartograf, so DUH!) and I hope to see more 1/72 scale sheets from Furball!

Don't know about this for sure, but it certainly would NOT be the first time that there was an error on a Superscale instruction sheet!!!

I ordered mine, too. If they are properly sized to 1/72 scale, they should fit any kit. Very little is "form fitting" or could be a problem on one kit and not on another. The mention on the art above of the 1/48 Academy kit is a leftover from the 1/48 scale sheet instructions that were probably used as a template. No biggie.

Wow! You have good taste in Cougars! Love the looks of the sheets. Mine are 1/72 scale, BTW:

The cowl "correction" was to supposedly show the cooling vanes/shutters in the open position, but whoever made the master put them in backwards; the narrow ends of the vanes would go to the engine hub. The set is designed for the 1/72 Hasegawa kit. Nice interior.

Effin YES!

I'm sending my set to Alleycat. I find the old Revell kit (depsite its raised panel detail) superior to the newer, recessed-detail Trumpeter kit. As far as I can tell, it was issued only twice: Once as a single kit, and as part of a combo packaged along with an early Ace kit of the A-6 Intruder. I have several of the Revell Thuds underway, but off the burners at present. One I am converting to a B in Thunderbird markings.

Alleycat, I PMed you (I think) but have not heard from you. You can send your address to me by emailing direct to me: pboyer2 AT wi.rr DOT com (replace the usual).

The kit scaled-down from the Monogram 1/48 F-105D was done by Revell, first issued in 1988. It has the "wedge-shaped" pylon molded with the MER and a brace of six Mk 117s. If you need all of that, Alleycat, I have a spare for you.

I seem to remember that the outboard tanks had their own pylons and that a different pylon was installed when carrying ordnance on the outboard station. Somebody out there must know for sure.

In that one photo, a black-nosed early A-6A is carrying four MERs with four Mk.82s on each. Empty MER on centerline. Could be mid-mission.

It wouldn't make any sense to make a Phantom mold without provision for several alternate parts. Like Hasegawa's 1/72 scale kit, I suspect we'll see a lot of different version from Academy. The wild card here is the "snap-ish" construction. Like Fujimi's 1/72 Phantoms, I suspect Academy will eventually offer opened and closed canopies, too.