Darren Howie

Are you doing a combo with the bulged bomb bay doors s well? Great products!

What you only have one? Lucky for me the the Joshin Tamiya store cleared these 10 years ago for $50 each. It would be nice to see the big T re-release the kit as an Aggressor boxing ditch the Tbird stuff and put in sensor pods. It would sell hand over fist...

Quite a goid summary here on Tamiya F-16’s and what is needed depending on timeframe. http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/f16blockssb_1.htm you can add Cowl Gills to that list..lol..

The 48th kit didnt include the lawnmower blades but the 32nd kit most definitely did. You can see them in the IPMS review. https://ipmsusa.org/reviews/Kits/Aircraft/Tamiya_32_F16C_Thunderbird/Tamiya_32_F16C_Thunderbird.htm

Thanks for the share. Wonderful read about a fabulous model producer.

Aires, Eduard are both original size. You need Dmold, Wolfpack, GT resin or Sierra Hotel. They are the only correctly sized exhausts i know of. Highly recommend the SH and GT sets as i have used or test fitted and compared them. Ive said before having the right sized burners makes a massive visual difference to the Tamiya F-4. A base kit and modified one look noticeably different.. Well worth the effort.

If your having difficulties getting spares you can also find Tamiya sprues on Ebay. Several sellers are breaking kits down into sprues which is a great way to get extra bits and pieces.

With a fleet of great helo kits in recent years out in 35th now the choice of 32nd is if anything an interesting one. It also leaves the door open for 35th which itself would be popular for a Cobra. Interesting to see them bucking the trend and targeting the kit at aircraft only modellers rather than those who do both aircraft and armour/military or primarily armour/mil. After thinking about it i probably would of preferred it in 35th now as it would fit in with the remainder of the helo kits in my collection and not be an odd scaled outlier that fits in with fast jets but not its rotary cousins. If anything 35th for choppers still gets in aircraft modellers plus it opens the armour/mil market. Going 32nd kills a large market segment for ICM and a large number of accessories like figures that could of been used. Interesting choice by ICM and i guess they will be banging out a pile of their own figures and accessories to go with it. Trying to reopen the 32nd helo market maybe?

I must be an art snob as stuff by Robert Taylor, John Shaw and Nick Trudgian that has been painted always has so much more atmosphere to me. Computer rendered are of 3d models miss the entire concept of what art is about. Its not about rib spacing and rivets but portraying a moment in history not a technical drawing. Clouds etc are something you cannot render with any atmosphere ive yet to see on a computer rendered picture. The old Airfix box tops with the awesome art by Roy Cross to me are head and shoulders above the multitude of computer renders they use now. Likewise when an artist like Taylor has sat down with the men involved and gotten a feeling for the time, sky and atmosphere a painting just comes to life. Something a computer simply cant do. These are Robert Taylor a legend in the art world for his depictions of stories shared with him and great moments in history captured onto canvas. A print exhibition or canvas display is something to behold of his work and owning several of his prints they look magnificent on wall. Many of his prints came signed by the likes of Galland, Rall, Olds, Hartmann, Walsh, Bader, Tuck, Doolittle to name but a few. They are a great accompaniment to our hobby and an incredible talking point among friends and visitors. To me this is art. Sorry for the art spam! PS Nice to see another B-25 boxing from HK a truly lovely kit!!

Some guys posting here might want to go take a look at the very very long list of kits Meng has in their catalogue. Anyone thinking Meng “needs” WW information to release a kit is oblivious to the obvious. DId WW help with the Me163? Did WW help with the Me410? The M-1? The Bradley? The mentality thats very obvious here from many posts is that somehow a Chinese company cant do work of there own is blatant and clear ie without help they cant do it. Oh did WW help with the F-35, Jagdpanther, King Tiger, D-9, M911 etc etc. Meng are very capable of tooling anything they want and based off the line of excellent armour kits and the aircraft they have released and have made that very clear. If you think Meng cant tool something go look through their catalogue. http://www.meng-model.com/en/ .

Was incredibly impressed with the Quinta stuff i have so far. Photos just dont do the 3D effect justice. You will never go back to using etch again if this option is available. Such an awesome product..

Aftermarket options which are way better are out for multiple kits particularly big starships like Enterprise. They are miles better than label kits... Look incredible...

KH HH-60G from here...

These days id avoid a full cockpit replacement and the ensuing work and drama you can generate with nose gear bay fit issues. Ill be using Quinta panel replacement and a resin seat plus reskit burner can. Thats it..

If you do one thing get correct sized exhausts. Unlike a lot of mods when parked next to an unmodded kit it looks far beefier and the base kit looks quite anaemic by comparison. Quite impressed by how a couple of mm changed just how bulky the rear end looks now. If i add one thing to a Tamiya F-4 now its always correctly sized exhausts.

Wingnut Wings kits have identical issues. Designed and manufactured with extremely fine tolerances means layers of paint can cause subsequent assembly issues. Unpainted Parts which test fitted ok can creep out of position after painting and then assembly can create problems. Clean part contacts and painting after assembly where possible all reduce issues. Precision is important in construction.

Aires, Cutting edge burners are the same size with same issues. If yiu can track down some correct size burner cans it makes a very nice visual difference to the Tamiya F-4’s. It really adds to the look having the bigger exhausts.

If you cant get Hasegawa stuff where you live blame your distributor. Hasegawa 32nd stuff is widely available in Japan with at any one time at least 50% of the range available. If your shops dont have them as why. They are out there as are the 48th kits.

Yea we know that, but the guy is also after an “easy” F-4B option. You cant get any easier than flattening a C wing, banging in a Navy cockpit(resin or Tamiya J replacement parts are widely available)and your done. The easy option is to ignore the bottom as you cant see it anyway. The lower wing fix is far more work for in a quick build little reward to never be seen. Leave the speedbrakes up( they are different on the B and J due bukge)and unless you spend time looking at collections from below nobody will ever know. Or go down the GT route or CE/Realmodel route.

Modellers logic and posts from our past. ”Jeez why do ZM give you all that detail without a clear fuselage im not buying”. ”Jeez why do ZM give you extra clear parts to see all that detail im not buying”. The logic of modellers that choice is somehow worse. If anyone can ever make sense of it let the manufacturers know so they can. On the two kits if you want a simple clean kit id go HK. However given the two kits are basically around the same price and one offers you a staggering array of detail including engines etc for similar money its a no brainer. I bought a HK Destroyer and a Nightfighter as they are different and several ZM kits which are simply amazing. If you where considering opening any hatches id get the ZM kit anyday over the HK kit. Value for money ZM utterly annihilates the HK kit. Download the instructions for the ZM kit off the blog site its easily one of there best. Just depends what your after.

The GT Hobbies B conversion covers everything you need to do a B. The other conversions are good bases but miss many subtle differences as well. The GT one came out maybe 7-8 years ago. Its well worth getting if accuracy is a thing nothing was missed. Sitting it beside the CE conversion shows how much was missed in the CE set. Otherwise just get rid of the bump on the upper wing on the C and your half way there, throw in a cockpit J preferably and you will have something that looks like a B..

Ill take 3 or 4 please. I cannot fathom the model industry sometimes in that its taken this long to get a heavy combat usage gunship that carried some of the best noseart ever seen. Good for ICM they are killing it with a long list if great kits getting better by the month.

Given the booming diorama industry in 35th and quality of Borders armour kits stuff like the Ju87G is an interesting move. What a great irony it would be to get the best Stuka in a large scale suited for armour modellers. Given its role quite appropriate really..

Rxcellent job by HK tooling the new clear fuselage with none if the interior detail that would otherwise spoil the view. Pity they couldnt be bothered to fix the glasshouse and gave the blisters molded correctly. Having to glue them in place what where they thinking? Still the biggest letdown on both the Lanc and Nose kits.

Build either really id go with what i can get cheaper which will vary dramatically around the world. Assumptions that Revell are cheaper are a falsehood. Right now you can get the Trump kit for quite a bit cheaper here “if” can find a decent priced Revell kit. Ill be using my Trump ones for those produced late war which where reniwned by JG7 guys as being not even airworthy on delivery. Poorly finished, panel misalignments etc from the labour camp workers forced into production facilities. It took them several days to a week to get them into acceptable flying condition. Definitely recommend the JG7 book from Bochme with regard to just how roughly manufactured late 262’s where. Use the Revell kit for earlier production or one of the few well manufactured ones which seem to of been very few and far between. There are plenty of good builds of the Trump kit and now the Revell kit. Dealers choice..