Dave Williams

Some places are taking pre-orders, and it’s available on eBay for $150 before shipping.

I’ll be honest, I’d rather do without the complete engine and would prefer a simpler build and cheaper kit, but it is what it is and I’m buying one because I really want an accurate and detailed P-40B/C.

Hopefully you can still find one at a reasonable price, since KH is out of business.

I very much doubt it. The majority of the naval versions (excluding the MH-60S) had a different fuselage (cabin, window, pylons, folding tail, cabin doors, etc.) and landing gear arrangement than the Army versions. I expect these changes won’t be included as it’s anticipated you’ll use the KH naval H-60 kits as a basis, which already include all of those changes. It’s likely you’ll need the KH HH-60H kit specifically as it’s the only one that has the correct left side window arrangement used on the CG Jayhawks.

Any unused parts in there for a US P-40B/C, like the straight pitot tube, or is the included plastic only for a Hawk 81?

Received the kit today, and was disappointed Italeri took a significant shortcut for the marking option that I was really interested in, the Italian ECR with the low-viz sharkmouth. It’s actually the same aircraft as the other Italian option, just at a later time in its life, and the rear IP changed pretty significantly. Instead of giving you a new rear IP, you have to sand off all of the detail on the center part of the lower IP, and add a decal with the correct instruments and panels. Also, you have to modify the the upper center display by cutting and reshaping using sheet plastic, and again using a decal to replicate the new MFD there. It’s all not that hard to do, but it won’t look right mixing in the flat decals with the nice raised detail on the rest of the IP, and throughout both cockpits. For the price of the kit, Italeri should have just molded a new rear IP and center display box. It’s especially galling since it would only be 3 or 4 new parts they would have to mold, but they chose not to, instead they went to the trouble of molding a bunch of unused and inappropriate weapons. A guess there is a chance that aftermarket will provide the correct parts, but it seems a bit of a specific setup. Bad Italeri! Think about what you’ve done!

Given that the F-4E set was only released a month or two ago, and the F-4J set was just recently released, I’m sure the F-4C/D set will be out in a month or two. If you really, absolutely can’t wait, you can get a set from Red Fox Studio.

Don’t know about the minigun barrels as I haven’t seen a high resolution closeup of the parts. I did get the Live Resin barrels in the other day, but their tips are also solid, but at least they are individual tips, instead of the solid 6 leaf clover of the kit part. I don’t know if they can actually make the tiny nubs in the mold to make holes in each barrel tip, and have the mold last for many castings. At worst, it may be possible to use a pin and make the holes yourself. We’ll see when someone actually gets the SH kit. I do have the RB barrels, and they look very nice, but they also look like a pain to get assembled and aligned, and glued without making a mess.

Actually, a lot of stuff has been done for the kit over the years. CE did a cockpit (pre-LASTE), exterior detail/correction set, wheels, dual Sidewinder rail, and engine set. Black Box did a LASTE cockpit. Master did a gun barrel set, I believe. Squadron (Falcon) did a canopy. Sierra Hotel did an engine set and wheels. GT resin did an engine set. ResKit does the dual Sidewinder rail and wheels. Quinta and Red Fox do the 3D instrument panel sets. A bunch of companies (too many to list) make weapons to replace the poor stuff in the kit. I’m sure that I’ve forgotten some, but there is/was a ton of stuff out there that you can buy for the kit. About the only things not covered by aftermarket are the basic airframe (wings, fuselage, and tail). Like Thierry, I’ve been collecting a ton of stuff over the years, and would like to see the pylons too, but at some point my wallet will say enough is enough for this old kit. That point will be when someone does a proper A-10C conversion.

Instructions up for the SH release https://www.specialhobby.eu/out/ftp/media/SH32082.pdf A lot of VERY nice upgrades for the kit, especially for the cockpit. I think I’ll use the Quinta set for the IP and seat belts, though. Price is decent, although Hannants preorder price seems better. https://www.specialhobby.eu/en/our-own-production/ah-1g-cobra-early-tails-over-vietnam-hi-tech-kit.html I wonder if they’ll do a similar boxing of the Late release too, although all of the plastic parts, except for the XM-35 gun system, are in the box already.

The only reason they have all of this material is because the entire process was being filmed for a documentary at the time. I doubt that anything like this exists for any of the previous records. Also, while overall this may not have been their best music, it is very interesting for seeing how and why the Beatles broke up.

I watched the first part last night. It’s good, but I thought it was very long. Watching the guys create was interesting, for a while at least. I just think it went on a bit too long when the most interesting parts were a few key scenes during the process. Could also have done without hearing Yoko screeching at the end when the guys freeformed after George left. I was very surprised at the clarity of the video. I wonder if it was digitally enhanced since I didn’t think that 1969 era cameras were capable of what looks like 4K resolution in the documentary. Also, it seemed that in some scenes, the lip movement didn’t match the audio. Overall, I thought it was very good, and you can really see some of the personalities and tensions in the group at the time. Was a little surprised how passive Ringo was. He mostly just sat there behind the drums the whole time. I know he wrote very few of the songs, so a lot of the back and forth was between Paul and John, and George to some extent, but didn’t expect Ringo to be that inert.

Hadn’t heard that they were actually being sued, but the company (and their various subsidiaries) have had a bad reputation on numerous forums for quite a while. I’m amazed anyone still deals with them, but I guess most modelers don’t participate in forums. Looking at their BBB complaints, they really seem to have gotten even less reputable in recent times.

What is the difference between this new Flying Tigers sheet and the old EC69 and EC70? Are they sized differently? TIA.

I’ll just leave this here. https://www.themodellingnews.com/2021/11/preview-more-of-old-mans-blog-shots.html