allthumbs

Spectacular!

There’s at least circumstantial evidence that his drawings and research were referenced in the development of their 1:48 scale Phantom. He even alludes to the “coincidence” in his blog.

They look great! There are plenty of “issues” with Tamiya’s Sargent Fletcher tanks: oversized, lacking in detail and improperly located under the wing (leading to misproportioned pylons). These new tanks appear to correct most, if not all, of these problems.

Great looking jet!

Except for the decal sheets and instructions guides, the box contents for the Trumpeter A-4E and F kits are identical. Neither release offers a Topgun markings option.

As this photo suggests, there were versions of the Skyhawk windscreen with a truncated forward center pane. Maybe the kit manufacturers were right all along, at least for the variants they portray (later A-4E/F). Total conjecture, but perhaps when Douglas switched from a wiper to bleed air based rain removal system (with the E), heat was a problem necessitating the modification. From Akira Watanabe’s website

Way to go Ben…shaping up to be a real stunner! Rich

They’ve landed in Kansas City! I just received my shipping notice from The Brothers Sprue. Rich

Good stuff, thanks Jari!

USS Intrepid:

Great looking model, through and through!

Hi friends, Sadly, the big Intruder still hangs over me like an unanswered question. A friend of mine has the patterns for the nose and tail parts and has been making progress of late with mold set up and casting. I’ll be sure to let you know when there’s product available for sale. Meanwhile, I started another project, in another scale, on another website…a triple offense! If you’re interested, you can check it out here . All the best, Rich

More here …scroll down for detailed F-5A (a G airframe) drawings.

Disappointing. It’s clear that basic shapes and proportions are simply not priorities at Trumpeter, at least with their aircraft kits. Puzzling, as they’ve been around now for 25 years and invest heavily in state of the art tooling and prolific release schedules. Thanks for pointing this out Marcel. Rich

Nice collection!