Phantom2

The Interior painted British Interior Green (Hu.78)… ...and the "cage" itself... I painted the details Matt Black (Hu.33) and gave them a dry-brush with Extra Dark Sea Grey (Hu.123)… More to come soon! Stefan

I would get both as I´m a big fan of Japanese WWII aircraft! Stefan

Of these two, I´ll say KH, the Eduard kit is the old Kopro/OEZ plastic from 1995 with some etched parts and a few resin parts. The KH kit is good but have some strange build-sequences and several "forgotten" parts in the instructions. But an moderatley experienced builder should have no problems with It as the fit overall is quite good. The HB kit I can´t say so much about, but it is supposed to have some quite serious shape problems around the cockpit, fit should be as good as any HB kit. Kitty Hawk did several versions; https://www.scalemates.com/search.php?fkSECTION[]=Kits&q=fitter&fkTYPENAME[]="Full kits"&fkSCALENORMALISED[]="1:00048"&fkCOMPNAME[]="Kitty Hawk" Stefan

A SWEDISH J-28, Yay!!!! THANK YOU, Infinity! One (...or many!) for me, Please! Stefan

I would buy a 1/32 Kate in a second, but a 1/35? Not for me... What are they thinking? I wonder how many sales they are missing out on because of the scale? Stefan

Many Thanks, Thierry! I have this kit high on my build-list so this was extremley useful and at the right moment for me! Many Thanks once again! Stefan

It´s old, It´s sparce, It´s dated, and I´m having a ball! I love these old kits! Stefan

First I painted the wheels with Alclad Black Microfiller and then with my usual “tyre-mix”, Hu.123 Extra Dark Grey and Hu.33 Matt Black. The “pants” glued together, not the best fit, but quite OK after all. Then It got worse, much, much worse when I came to the landing light glasses….. I glued the landing gear "legs" to the spats, just to relax from the pats, and gled them to the spats, not a stellar fit here either! This kit is clearly showing It´s age now! I really hope someone (ICM, do you hear me...) could give us a modern kit of this classic aircraft! The glasses should be completely recessed and the glass should follow the shape of the spats! This will take some hard work! First step was to apply lots of super glue to be sure they wouldn´t come loose… When dry I attacked the glasses and the legs, with a sanding stick until I had a shape that followed the spats as good as I could. Not perfect, but much better then I started with…. After lots of polishing and buffing the lights was as clear as I could get then, the CA-glue had fogged them slightly, but It could have been worse. When I was satisfied with the clarity of the glasses I started masking them with some help from a Maketar Masking Set, wonderful stuff! …and I filled the rest with my usual tape cut in small pieces. Now the spats are as good as done! More to come soon…. Stefan

Beautiful figures, Janne! Cheers ! Stefan

Thanks, Maru! Stefan

The Landing lights, integrated in the spats, was up next. I made the reflector from a piece of house-hold aluminium foil, shiny side up. I glued the foil to the reflector with CA-glue and polished it with a Q-tip. When dry, I trimmed off the excessive foil and glued the reflector to the inside of the wheel well. Fit was almost non-existent so it took some tries (and a LOT of CA-glue!) before it stayed where it should. Looks good though... …and then I painted the inside of the pants with British Interior Green (Hu.78)…. As I usually do, I built as many small subassemblies as I can before I have to paint. The table was soon filled with small, and some not so small, builds; More to come soon! Stefan

Please do a WIP-tread on Your MiG-19 build! I have the same kit in the stash and I could use some inspiration. if I can do a WIP here, You certainly can, folks here are very kind and helpful, so give It a try! Cheers! Stefan

The cockpit cage is built; The fit was quite good after all parts had been cleaned up, there are quite heavy mold-seams on this kit! Please, excuse my bad photos, but now we have this build going! Stefan

I´m so very sorry to hear this terrible news. My condolences to Judy and the Crandall family. Jerrys contribution to our hobby will be sorely missed. Stefan

Thanks, Maru! Stefan

Ouch, 15quid! That´s more then I paid for the Lysander kit! But that engine really looks lovley! Stefan

Thanks very much, Paolo! I will go for an all IG interior, aluminium/painted silver (inner) cowling, sutton harness in front and lap belts in the back. The engine in the ICM Gladdy are on several big sprues so you´ll need almost a whole kit, a bit expensive just for the engine. I can´t find a AM engine (Vector makes one, but only in 1/48th) and I can´t rob my Gladiator kit either, so I will do with what I got in the kit, maybe I can spiff it up a bit. Dennis, all these old Matchbox kits are great builds, even tough the detail are very sparse and some kits have fit problems, but they are mostly quite accurate, old as they are. Many of these are still the only kit in the scale (Spitfire Mk.22/24, Lysander, Sea Venom, SA 330 Puma etc...) and they are still well worth building. Most of these kits are re-released by Revell, several times, altough many have been superseeded by better kits, ICM have done a great job here! Let´s say that today these kits are more of "Nostalgia-builds", and they come from a simpler era. For me the Lizzie is a must in my collection as I loved the old British TV-series "Secret Army", the Lysander starred in several episodes. So far the build have been quite fast and easy, no fit issues so far, but all parts have mould-seams that must be dealt with. I have started painting things now, an update is underway.... Cheers! Stefan

Yes, I remember your magnificent build quite well! I won´t do much extra on this one, It will be more or less an out-of-the-box build as I´m not that skilled in scratchbuilding. But Your build is a great inspiration and I´ll snatch an idea or two from You, that´s for sure. I do have some questions for you tough; What color are the inside of the fuselage, interior green or red dope, or something else? Did the Lizzie use the same engine as the Gloster Gladiator? Sutton harness for the pilot and lap-belts for the backseater? I´m sure there will be more questions for you as I go forward in the build. Stefan

I´ll play with this one; A three-color kit, crappy decals and very old instructions. This kit is from the Jurassic era of model building, 1978! But I won´t build that old, now a collector’s item, but this, much “newer” re-issue from 1998. No fancy colours, just Revell´s standard light grey and clear plastic. …very nice clear parts… …and VERY much better decals and instructions. This will be a really fun build! Let the darkness falll.... Stefan

I´m in with this oldie.... A Black, Green and Grey Special Ops. machine of course. Stefan

A Really Beautiful build, Paolo! Stefan

Nice to have you aboard, Rick! Stefan

The Swedish option is for me! But the Swedish crowns are awful, too bright blue and the proportions are off as usual. Also, the shield on the nose should be handed, the creature´s face and claws should be facing forward on both sides. There´s replacement decals so that´s not a problem, this kit is a must-have for me! Stefan

Stunning nose job! Stefan

Excellent customer service! Stefan