Kits

The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, or colloquially known as the Evo is a high-performance sports car manufactured by Mitsubishi Motors that is based on the Lancer.  There have been ten official versions to date, our subject review kit is the forth generation of the series.  All EVO’s use two litre, turbocharged and four wheel drive systems.  EVO’s were not officially imported into the American market until 2003; therefore this model represents the “home-market” version of this car,

The Kit

Our subject kit comes from Hasagawa imported by Hobbico and is part of their extensive line of the Lancer GSR series. All of the kit parts are crisply molded; since this is an EVO, there are additional standard Lancer parts included in the kit that would not nessarily be used but are available.  The kit comes with a complete set of decals, window painting masks and mesh material for the front intercooler intake. 

On the heels of all the other great releases, Frank Winspur and Moebius have added a "Deluxe" version of Bela Lugosi as Dracula. IPMS reviewed the kit here: http://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/bela-lugosi-dracula-broadway

I'll concentrate this review on the differences and there are quite a few. The first obvious one is that our friendly neighborhood vampire has found himself a lovely female victim. She is passed out from fear in a lovely gown and fits right up against Bela. This did necessitate a change in the position of Dracula's arms and cape to accommodate the second figure. last, the base has an added column and a bat and rat.

The Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik is perhaps one of the most famous aircraft of World War II, especially since more IL-2’s were produced, 36,163, than any other military combat  aircraft of this era. Appearing in numerous versions, including single and two seaters, the IL-2 was probably the best close support and anti-tank aircraft used during the war.  Any serious modeler should be aware of this plane’s history, so I won’t repeat it here.  The model presents a rather unusual variant, the one with 37 mm. NS-37 cannons mounted in streamlined fairings underneath each wing.  Flying characteristics suffered, caused by the CG shift rearward because of the cannon installations, but the aircraft was available in adequate numbers for the Kursk Battles, resulting in the destruction of many German tanks and other vehicles.   Shortages of cannons kept production numbers small, and previous variants with the Way-23 mm. wing mounted cannons were by far the most common types.  Towards the end of the war, an improved variant, with NS-45 45mm. cannon was tested, but it was never produced.

A sincere “THANK YOU” goes to our friends at MMD for providing this most excellent combination for IPMS to review… This was the build of the year for me.

This was a truly pleasurable effort on many levels.  First, the size is agreeable… I’m getting older and if a kit is larger it’s easier to work with.  The only drawback is where to put it!  (The office wins again; most of my IPMS builds are given to the folks there…  Most are VERY appreciative, as they can’t do it themselves).  Second, I have not built a 1/32 kit like this in quite a while.  I never worried about breaking the basic kit because of my ham-fists… Engineering is first rate!

The kit has over 400 parts; if the number excites you like a jigsaw puzzle, buy the kit, because you’ll be busy.  If you want a 1/32 spider, buy the kit!  Judging by the “out of stock” level, many have… Let us go over the highlights…

As a bit of background, and from Wikipedia,  the Maschinen Krieger universe is a science fiction universe created by Japanese artist and sculptor Kow Yokoyama in the 1980s. The franchise originally began as the science fiction series SF3D which ran as monthly installments in the Japanese hobby magazine Hobby Japan from 1982 to 1985. To develop the storyline, Kow Yokoyama collaborated with Hiroshi Ichimura as story editor and Kunitaka Imai as graphic designer.

The Product

The kit arrived in Dragon’s standard smaller box common for a kit of this size. All the parts were well protected in the typical Dragon poly bags. Also included was the standard  instruction sheet, a photo-etch fret and a small decal sheet. The kit features 2 crew figures, newly tooled condenser w/modified engine grille, Vickers K machine guns, jerrycans w/photo-etch details and photo-etch sand channels.

The Build

Starting at step one; Building up optional tires. Steps two and three; Chassis, suspension, drive-train and exhaust system. Steps four, five and six included building up the engine and radiator along with adding a lot of the major body part items. Steps seven and eight cover more parts for the interior of the jeep. The last steps, nine thru twelve, finish up by building then adding the jerrycans and machine guns followed by mating the chassis,engine and body. Last were the crew figures as optional items. I encountered no problems in the construction or fit of the model and it only required minimal clean up using a sanding stick.

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 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.