IPMS/USA

Normally I don’t build 1/72 scale. The armor is too small and my eyes are too old. There is a guy in our club named Scott who only builds 1/72 and because I thought how funny it would be to enter something into our upcoming contest in 1/72 scale to surprise him, I picked this kit to review.

It is a Village House, which is molded in color (although it still will need to be painted), and it is awesome. I’ll admit that building this kit was a lot of fun, my son helped me because it went together so easily, and it is going to look cool once I add in the extras.

You get a few extra pieces, and have two choices for the front door. There are full gutters and rain spouts, which I left off so I can take the roof off to finish the interior. The roof and bricks are well done, and mine had no flash at all. Crisp, clean plastic that went together very well. re are full gutters and rain spouts. The roof and bricks are well done, and mine had no flash at all. Crisp, clean plastic th

In less than two months, France lost 290,000 men killed or wounded and 1,900,000 taken prisoner in its massive defeat that heavily relied upon a strategy based on solid defensive fortifications.  Germany’s leaders were not going to fight the First World War again, in spite of all appearances.  After their successful Blitzkrieg through Poland in September 1939, they seemed to have run out of steam, settling down to wage a “Sitzkrieg” or “Phoney War” (dôle de guerre).  While the world waited through that first bitter, particularly severe winter of World War II, France began calling up reservists.  Confident that their investment in the Maginot Line stopped the Germans in their tracks, and in their superior quantity and quality of French armor, French generals became overconfident while morale in their conscript army wore thin as time ticked by.  “Observers, including the British general Brooke, were shaken by (the French army’s) insubordination and slovenly appearance.”¹  Soldiers, especially citizen soldiers, hate to “hurry up and wait.”  Finally, on 10 May 1940, Germany launched its lightening war of combined arms driving through Belgium, Nethe

The Fokker D.XXI single seat fighter was developed in the late thirties to replace the Fokker biplane fighters serving with the  Dutch Army Aviation Branch.  Although used in relatively small numbers by the Dutch, and quickly overwhelmed by the Luftwaffe during the German invasion,  the type was also adopted by the Danes, but its major operational use was with the Finnish Air Force in the Winter War and afterwards .  Faced with shortages of Bristol Mercury engines, the Finns also produced a variant powered by American Pratt & Whitney R-1535 Twin Wasp Junior engines.  These aircraft had some additional modifications, and were operated on both wheels and skis, quite successfully against the Russians, who didn’t fare too well against the highly trained and experienced Finnish pilots.  Later replaced by more modern equipment, including Hurricanes, Brewster Buffaloes, and Curtiss Hawks, and later Bf-109G’s, the D.XXI’s continued on until the 1944 Armistice, being used primarily for reconnaissance and  ground attack.  A few survived postwar, and were used for training, operating with the blue and white roundels replacing the light blue swast

MMPBooks (Mushroom Models Publishing) has a proven track record of offering some of the best publications on the market and this latest addition to the collection is no exception. Written by Robert Peczkowski and illsustrated by Artur Juszczak, this book is another example of the excellent publications coming from MMPBooks There are 33 books in the “Yellow Series”, featuring a wide range of aircraft from before WW II through the end of that conflict, and this book, featuring the Lockheed P-38J-L is a welcome addition becoming the 34^th book in the series.

MMPBooks offers a “preview” of the book online. Point your browser to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0FCm6RlzkA and watch the preview, featuring images of some of the content. The preview runs just over 4 minutes and gives the viewer a comprehensive look at the contents of the book. While on the MMPBooks website, take the opportunity to download the Stratus Catalogue. It is 28 MB but is well worth the short download time.

Volume 111 in Osprey’s Aircraft of the Aces series presents the interesting story of Russian Aces of World War I.  The 96-page soft cover book is the result of author Victor Kulikov’s lifelong interest in Imperial Russian aviation in WWI.  He is a recognized expert, having written articles on the subject for Windsock International, Cross & Cockade, Avions, Aero Journal and Over the Front, and co-authored Flying Machine Press’ massive hard cover book Imperial Russian Air Forces.  In Osprey’s Russian Aces of World War I, Kulikov draws from recently sourced Russian military and private archives to detail the exploits of each of the aces in a thoroughly researched and well-written narrative combined with a number of previously unpublished period photos. 

The Aircraft

The Mitsubishi Ki-46 Dinah was a reconnaissance platform for the Imperial Japanese Army.  The crew of 2 were in separate cockpits, with the pilot and observer separated by a fuel tank (shudder!)   The Ki-46II version was faster than any Japanese fighter in the 1940-41 time frame, and the IJAF thought it should be immune from interception.  The advent of the P-38 in Pacific combat caused rethought of this idea.

The solution to the speed problem was more powerful, fuel injected Mitsubishi Ha-112 engines, which pushed the top speed to a respectable 391 mph.  The nose was redesigned to be more aerodynamic, with no step for the canopy, but a full bubble instead.  Also, fuel capacity was raised by putting another fuel tank in the nose in front of the pilot (shudder again!). 

Building the Kit

This is a simple kit which has no interior as such.  The front and rear crew areas are merely flat fuselage sections.  I painted them metallic blue, along with the wheel well interiors.  Someone will probably (hopefully?) come up with detail sets for these interiors. 

Plusmodel has introduced a wheelbarrow diorama piece that should provide some opportunities to be creative in deciding what the wheelbarrow will be carrying.

Opening the Bag

First, a little background on why I selected this kit. Previously, I had written over a dozen IPMS reviews across several scales and categories. Then I took a break from modeling, and when I returned a couple of months ago I wanted to start with something easy. This subject looked like a good start.

The contents of the bag include 6 resin pieces and an instruction diagram. The pieces are a light grey resin with very light flash around the wheel. The wheel and axle were deformed.

Upon opening the box, you will find 3 grey sprues, plus one clear sprue, instructions and a medium size decal sheet stencils included, for two finishing options, one in overall high speed silver and a camouflaged one.

The part count is, relatively speaking, low with a total of 59 parts. The only real assembly option is the external tanks type, either conformal tanks from the Mosquito or drop tanks. You have to either choose which one to install or to fill in the holes in the lower wings.

Perhaps the “main” issue with this kit is that the Vampire Mk.9 had an asymmetrical wing root (to accommodate an internal AC unit), but the plastic parts have symmetrical wing roots, making the kit a Mk.5. Personally, I am not all that worried about that, but some modelers might want to take note of it, or get aftermarket decals for a Vampire Mk.5

History

The Macchi C.200 had its origins in a series of Schneider Cup seaplane racers designed by Mario Castoldi during the early thirties.  The prototype C.200 first flew in 1937, and was an all-metal, low wing, radial powered monoplane possessing extremely clean lines. Its main drawbacks were its low powered 870 hp. Fiat A.74 engine and its meager armament, two fuselage mounted 12.7 mm. machine guns.  Nevertheless, its flying characteristics were excellent, and it was selected for mass production, and a total of about 1,200 were completed by Macchi, and also Breda between 1939 and 1943, when it was replaced on the production lines by the C.202.