Fred Kennamer

Yes, it's been a great time for modelers, with all sorts of great kits coming out in that exquisite scale of 1/32. Still, there have been some frustrations, and sadly it looks like a couple of fine manufacturers are tripping over each other. Rumor has it--and I'd love to hear more about that rumor--that Roden is going to stop producing new WW I planes in 1/32 due to Wingnut Wings' fabulous line of products. If this is true, I would guess that we won't see a Junkers D.I from Roden as a follow-up to their 1/48th release. That's my big annoyance from this rumored impasse, and the WW I subject that interests me most. Does anyone have any insight about this? Yes, it's nice to know that a He-219 will be coming out, and it's rather ungrateful to bellyache about other neglected subjects, but it is sad to see one of two fine manufacturers opt out due to competition. Since I'm on the subject: will we ever see a Fiat CR-42, an SM-79, a Do-335 or a Tempest V? (I'd also like to know where that Wingnut Wings Fokker D.VII is, but I'm sure they're just trying to make it as perfect as possible; that's sure to be a winner.) Thanks in advance for any insight...

The Hasegawa Me-163, although 35 years old, is still perfectly fine. The Do-335, on the other hand, is something never released in this scale and is something MANY of us would buy immediately. That's MANY of us. Even though very few were made and none seem to have seen combat, it was an important plane and is just a hell of a great subject. Okay, so I haven't done a scientific study to see how many would be bought, and I'm prejudiced, but it would seem a worthy subject, and they seemed to be hot and heavy about releasing one. How about if I promise to buy two or more? As for the Komet, the Hasegawa version should be just fine. Many of us have just had our affections toyed with, and then the Pfiel suddenly dropped off of the release charts and left us pouting in the face of endless Mustangs and Bf-109s. By the way, a Fiat CR-42 would buy my silence for awhile... Etc.

Okay, I'll be easy: WW1: Junkers D.I and Junkers CL.I WW2 Italian: Fiat CR-42, Savoia-Marchetti SM 79 WW2 British: Hawker Tempest V WW2 German: Dornier Do 335, Arado 234, Heinkel 219

Craftworks makes two that are REALLY nice, in resin. (I have them both, and they're very well sculpted.) Their address is www.craftworks.com

Another handy characteristic of these "primers" is that you can put it on rather thick, wait an hour or so until it's skinned over, and then nudge the surface with a dental tool or toothpick or exacto knife and get the surface much closer to the final desired contour. The primer under the skinned-over surface will take longer to dry (say a day) but you may have very little sanding or cutting to do. I used this to extend fillets on the elevators of one plane that needed to extend farther back and end with a sharp cut. Rather than gluing plastic stock and sculpting, then primering and fine sanding, this worked very well. You can also "scribe" a panel joint in a similar fashion: fill with putty to below the surface, tape off either side of the mating surfaces so you don't spill onto perfectly good surfaces, then primer, wait 'til it skins over, and press a very fine piece of brass sheet into the soft surface to imprint a panel line, instead of actually scribing. The 1200 is very useful, too.