Thorsten Wieking

out of sheer curiosity and since I have a partially built but unpainted one in the stash since 2003/2004 - what are the failings/downsides/problems of the Hasegawa kit? thanks Thorsten

I assume that its a temporary thing, in the past the Fujimi A-4 was generally available on eBay. .... okay, I checked my inventory.... that was 12-15 years ago. 😉 Thorsten

26,50€.... thanks but no thanks. Especially given HobbyBoss track record for error free kits 😉 Cheers Thorsten

I would have written exactly what Bob wrote. I once tried to replicate a MPM XP-55 Canopy - it did work. But instead of creating a new postive master as described above, I made only a negative mould of the outside, drilled holes in the deepest areas of the mold and vacuformed with the negative mold. cheers Thorsten

How or what would you use as masters? Regards Thorsten

While I would never add something to a new and/or still usable bottle of paint, I occasionally add a touch (not even a drop) of dish washer to water with which I thin paint before brush painting. The idea is to lower the surface tension of the water, nothing more. While the link posted above is interesting, I would like to add that even though my future (bottle bought in 2004) yellow in the bottle, there are no detrimal effect on the kits I use and used it on. Cheers Thorsten

Best would be if you would google what Unit HobbyBoss/EasyAircraft(?) wanted to depict with that model. Judging by the few instances I did this, they do get close to the look (if you squint really hard) and slap it on a broadly fitting kit. e.g. German Navy SAR H-34 never ever had .50 cals in the door. They weren’t even in the inventory to my knowledge. Cheers Thorsten

Reference pictures as you already mentioned, restored and unrestored survivors, written descriptions from people that used the vehicles, conjecture based on similar objects. E.g. I once built a 1/72 Academy OV-10A Bronco and wanted to know if the nose/front wheel well was hollow or filled with something (avionics etc). I drove 150km to a museum example (the Bundesluftwaffe target tow version) and checked it myself. Cheers Thorsten

Only the usually swapping of sprues, nothing to worry about. Cheers Thorsten

Honestly.... stay away from both since both are the old Italeri moulds. Revell released a new mold this year, I would go either that route or Hasegawa. Cheers Thorsten

If there is a chance of high humidity, even if only temporary (drying clothes) or seasonal, I would strongly suggest to store the unbuilt kits in plastic containers with a good lid. Buy something with a brand name so that you can buy identical boxes in the years to come, makes the storage and stacking of the boxes safer. I at first went the route of using cardboard moving boxes, stored unbuilt kits in the 4 digit range in our basement and had and still have to check they yearly for mold and foxing. Had to dispose the boxes of some kits, most of them HobbyBoss, followed by Revell and Italeri. D

Thanks for posting the pictures, I actually wanted to ask if you had done anything with the rotorshaft assembly. How did you cut the masking tape for the clear parts? Without any raised details I found that on my two builds (one still unpainted) quite a problem. Cheers Thorsten

Although my current bands are at least 2-3 years old, I habe the feeling that they changed to glue for the grit. My first set worked great doing wet sanding, the band bought a few years ago lost their grit the moment the got in contact with water. Cheers Thorsten

Whatever happens, I do hope for a good fit, especially around the canopy. Life is too short and goodfitting kits to plenty to spend time with putty and sanding sticks. Cheers Thorsten

A soft brush for the good models, but I even held some under running tap water and cleaned them with a brush. Cheers Thorsten