Scale Modelling news, reviews, features and more...
Rebel Defender
Andy Davies has fun adding aftermarket extras to Airfix’s re-issued 1/48 Boulton Paul Defiant, adding rivets and chipping for good measure.
TACTICAL SUPPORT DOG
Christian Lupu takes a ‘desert dog’ into the woods, as he applies a camouflage green livery to Meng Model’s 1/35 Husky TSV.
Blockade runner
Massimo Santarossa finds out if Special Hobby’s newly tooled 1/72 Short Sunderland Mk.V sinks or swims.
Transport Workhorse
Garry Tobiss builds the heavy-lift version of Sabre’s 1/35 Schwerer Plattformwagen armoured vehicle transport railcar, and creates a diorama for display.
KNIGHT OF THE AUTOBAHN
Nick Shuttleworth replicates a continental load-carrier with Revell’s superb 1/24 Büssing 8000 S13 truck.
V Bomber Trio
This photo evocative captures air-to-air the RAF's potent Cold War trio of V-bombers - the Avro Vulcan, Vickers Valiant and Handley Page Victor respectively.
Marvellous Markings
Decals can supply the finishing touch to a project. Here we offer advice on how to get the best from kit markings.
REGIONAL PROPLINER
Airfix’s Vintage Classics series now includes aircraft subjects and one of the first re-releases is the lovely 1959 Heron Mk.II, with markings for the original Jersey Airlines livery.
WIDEBODY CARRIER
This new-tool offering from Zvezda is the first 1/144 scale model kit of the Airbus A350-1000 airliner, representing the longer version with a greater passenger capacity and extended range over the A350-900.
SOVIET-SUPPLIED SWALLOW
ICM’s 1/32 Polikarpov I-16 Type 10 returns, this time representing fighters nicknamed ‘Lastochka’ (Swallow) by its Chinese Nationalist operators between 1938-39.
SPECIAL OPS 'WOKKA-WOKKA'
Italeri’s CH-47 has been around since 1995, and this Revell re-boxing features the former’s US Army’s Special Operations MH-47E, with an option for an RAF HC.3 machine.
TACTICAL RENAISSANCE
Many historians cite the Spanish Civil War as being the testing ground for the Luftwaffe’s tactical development in the years preceding World War Two, and Osprey’s latest Air Campaign volume examines the earlier conflict in detail.
'EMIL' RETURNS
This styrene-only Weekend Edition of Eduard’s 1/48 Bf 109E-3 comprises three runners common to the firm’s ‘family’ of quarter-scale Bf 109Es, but Runner C represents cannon-fitted wings and Runner F the early-style canopy, replaced by a squarer design on E-4s onwards.
EAST ANGLIA TO THE MIDLANDS
While the firm is arguably most famous for its Defiant turret-equipped fighter, this Fonthill Media volume reveals the Boulton Paul company has a far richer history than just this one somewhat unsuccessful type.
THE PEOPLE'S FIGHTER
It may be small, but Special Hobby’s newly tooled He 162 is perfectly formed and is easily the best 1/72 offering of the type in this scale.
MISLABELLED STEALTH
Modellers wanting a YF-22 shouldn’t be misled by the title on MisterCraft’s re-boxed Aeroplast offering – the contents are actually for a full-production F-22, which has a considerably different shape.
BUFFED TO A SHINE
ACHIEVING A showroom-quality sheen on auto models can be challenging, but UMP’s four-stage system should make this a much easier process.
Formidable Flying Boat
Malcolm V Lowe describes the later operational versions of one of the most famous and successful military flying boats: the Short Sunderland
‘JUMPING’ JET ACCOUNTS
The first of two Jet Age series volumes dedicated to the Hawker Siddeley Harrier covers its introduction in 1969 to the end of the Cold War – judged to be 1990, when the first of the second-generation British Aerospace machines entered service.
FRESCO IN DEPTH
The latest Warpaint volume is dedicated to the Soviet Union’s first supersonic-capable fighter, the MiG-17, NATO nickname Fresco.
FROM LAND AND SHIP
Whenever DK Decals tackles a subject, it always ensures that modellers have plenty of options to choose from.
FRESCO FEET
Here’s a quick and simple upgrade for Airfix’s newly tooled MiG-17 Fresco, in the form of resin replacement wheels and a nose undercarriage leg.
FORTRESS BOOTS
This is a complete set of replacement resin main and tail wheels for Hong Kong Models’ newly tooled B-17.
BIRTHDAY BUMPER PACKAGE
This package is a slightly different release from Model Art Decal System as it focuses solely on RAF markings, rather than its usual Royal Navy/French subjects.
ARMED WORKER
ToRo Model’s splendid Silesian Uprising figures are joined by a resin four-piece armed railway company worker, complete with a styrene two-part rifle, courtesy of a collaboration with ICM.
RAILCAR HAULER
Here’s something completely different from Brengun, in the form of a four-axle version of the German pre-World War Two Culemeyer trailer (an eight-axle, 80t version is available as BRS144048).
BUSY INTERIORS
Revell’s recently tooled Beaufighter gets the Eduard treatment with this well-designed two-fret photo-etched metal package.
EAST SUFFOLK MUSTANGS
Exito’s latest additions are for a trio of P-51D Mustangs based in East Suffolk at RAF Leiston (also known as Yoxford), all assigned to the 357th Fighter Group.