Kampfgruppe144 BBS

More amateurville from Yours Truly, when sat next to Darth's impressive work. ;)

This is two-kit-in-a-box gorgeousness and I want more! My last Platz for review was the P-47 Thunderbolt and that would certainly give Sweet a run for their money. These Skyhawks have set a...

More tiny goodness from Valom.

Yes! Lozenge decals in 1/144. Lovely jubbly.

Many of us will know that Welsh Models have, for some time now, been excellent providers of 1/144 vacform models, usually of the more esoteric british subjects.
What some of you may not know, is that they've recently begun to produce excellent resins.
For a vacform numpty such...

Manufacturer: Miniwing
Product Number: Mini326
Scale: 1/144
Make: Miniwing
Type: Resin
Status: New Tooling
Panel Lines: Engraved
Parts: 32 solid, 1 transparent canopy plus 6 photoetch.
Decal Options: N-258EM, Draken International, 2016

The Aero L-159E Alca is a single-seat...

In a sad attempt to try and regain some modelling dignity, I ordered a Jetstream from Welsh Models.
When I opened the packaged, I discovered it to be resin and metal! Not vacform!

RESULT!

Out came my trusty razor saw and off came the resin pouring stub...and then I remembered...

I'm so pleased that Welsh Models are converting to resin!

It's not a kit of many parts, but the casting is flawless and the decal sheet comprehensive...plus, there's a bunch of relevent papers to ogle at!

I thought I'd share my experience of Oz Mods.

Oz Mods 1/144 Martin B-57 Canberra

For starters, this retails at £20.54 from Hannants. (Fortunately, I didn't pay for mine). Given the cost and quality of Sweet, Platz and even the resin Czech models coming out nowadays, Oz Mods...

Compared with my childhood years, the modern RAF has very few subjects within it's ranks, so it should be easy to acquire and build all RAF types currently in service.
However, this is not quite the case. I was doing okay with my 1/144 RAF, until they went and retired the Nimrod...

Welcome back, old friend!
Like many of us, I had to put aside my modelling hobby for a time, whilst I sought fame and fortune in the World of Grown-Ups. When next I picked up my glue, knife and sandpapers, to say that the World of Modelling had changed somewhat would be a gross...

In-box review

Work begins in the cockpit is the traditional refrain for larger scales and it's great to be able to say the same of 1/144 kits today. Seat, instrument panel and an exquisitely moulded control column furnish the tiny office.

The Observer also gets a nice,...

They wait for me in the woods, you know? Hiding under the weasels!

Lovely kit to build, this one...very lovely indeed.

Revell 1/144 MDD F-15E Strike Eagle, 335th Fighter Squadron, Chiefs , 10,000 Flight Hours Milestone, Bagram Air Base, Iraq, January 2013

Remember when you were a kid and you just had to stick every available...

See for the In-box review.

The plastic bits fit into the resin fuselage very nicely. All I needed to do was to add some tape harness, a couple of control columns and some Liquid Gravity for the nose weight;

A bit of sanding was required around the intake-fuselage join...

I'll be building both the E1Y2 and the E1Y3. Differences between the two are slight; one has a larger tail and one a 4-bladed prop.

The Yokosuka E1Y was a Japanese floatplane of the 1920s and saw service in the Sino-Japanese conflict. The E1Y3 had a better engine than its...

In-box review

Although this is resin, the fit of parts is greatly assisted by well fitting slots and tabs for the flying surfaces.
The separate intake pieces are very finely cast and care was needed to properly remove these from their casting block.
The cockpit is, for this...

2 kits in the one box, which is especially nice, given that you get plenty of nicely produced decals with which to decorate your models.
That said, Sweet kits these ain't. Don't get me wrong...they're very nice and aeons ahead of the 90's 1/144 kits and, indeed, most of the new...

Actually, for us Brits, this should read as a GR1. Apparently, the Americans did receive GR1's, upgraded to GR3 status, but without the 'dolphin' nose.

This is a definite advance on their old Spitfire and looks as if someone actually thought it worth their while to create...

Algernon Product are associated with a range of other Japanese manufacturers, icluding those behind F-Toys, producers of gashopon 1/144 aircraft models.
However, the quality of these kits, whilst not as good as the latest Revell, are way ahead of the usual F-Toys/Big Bird...

Wherein Dragon re-package a pair of poor-mediocre kits, for us to enjoy!

Whilst early Minicraft 1/144s were the reason many modellers shunned the scale, their later kits are quite lovely. This Catalina is one of those.
This kit was later re-issued as the Black Cat and mine can be seen

I picked up this particular example from a big model show, long,...

Some of the initial building of this model can be seen within my

The F-16A was an old Dragon kit in a previous life and is somewhat inaccurate in many details.
I thought the canopy was on, back to front, when I first saw it...a dry-fit showed me otherwise.
The front of the...

Coming soon...