Quad-City Scale Modeler Society’s
August 2007 Newsletter
The Meeting Minutes:
Well folks, we had us a nice time in beautiful downtown Dubuque at the club barbecue. Thanks again to Keith Johnson and his family for hosting the event, it was a beautiful day. Keith had his garage set up for the festivities and we had a pretty good feed. Keith had something that was a new addition to the barbecue food list, brat burgers. These were really good and came from a local store. They are bratwurst in burger form. I should go to Dubuque more often, they have wondrous things there. Speaking of wondrous things, I went up early and stopped at Fagan’s Hobby shop, it’s less than half a mile from Keith’s house. It’s a nice place with a good selection and is one of those places that you need to walk around several times to make sure that you’ve seen everything. I picked up a couple of interesting items, some of which I have been looking for for quite a while. Mr. Fagan is a friendly guy and fun to talk to. He sponsors a hobby show up in Dubuque in the fall that includes a small model contest. I plan to go this year. He donates everything the show brings in to the Make A Wish foundation and has donated over $34,000 to date. Anyway, back to Keith’s house. We had a nice selection of completed models on display. Keith won the Christmas challenge as he brought in his 1/24 scale Revell 2006 Mustang that he got at the Christmas raffle. The club contest was won by Richard Riedesel’s 34 Ford pick up by Lindberg, Second was my 1/72 Revell Panzer Haubitze 2000 and Keith took third with his Mustang. Earl brought his huge International space station metal kit that he picked up at Fagan’s, it was an impressive looking kit that comes in a large box and has a killer instruction book. Speaking of Earl, congratulations to Earl on his engagement and his upcoming wedding this Halloween. Best of luck to you both! Besides the food, one of the other highlights was the 2007 Basement Tour stop. Keith not only has an impressive basement full of car models, his man cave is to die for. This is really a model room as the wall is covered with posters of swimsuit models. I don’t know how he manages to finish anything, my mind certainly started to wander. It seems that it would be easy to get sidetracked. So anyway, lots of models, some where plastic, but all were impressive. Some place I had written down all of the models that were there on show and tell, but know I can’t find it. Sorry, but I can tell you the food was delicious and the raffle kicked butt. For the August meeting, we will meet at the Rock Island Arsenal Museum. We now have two display cases to use at the museum. The theme will be “Got History?” we can bring in anything that is historical and in good taste. This is a museum, after all. So classic muscle cars, planes, ships; military and civilian, plus spacecraft. A little something for everyone. BY the way, I was cleaning up the basement and found my old Atomic Cannon that I built probably around the 9th grade. I am working on restoring it for the display. This was the old Renwal kit and was actually pretty good for its day. It’s going to take a fair amount of putty and I’ve already done some serious sanding trying to clean it up. I would dearly love to find an unbuilt one to start on from the ground up. I have arranged a tour of the Rock Island Arsenal museum for the August meeting, so we will meet at the museum. Due to the fact that we have a tour guide coming in, I need to stress that you need to be at the museum at 1:00 so we can start on time. To get to the museum, enter the Arsenal at the Moline gate. Unless you have a DoD registered vehicle and military or government ID, this is the only gate you can enter. The on ramp for the Arsenal Viaduct in Moline is located on 3rd street, AKA River Drive. Stop at the Guard Shack and present photo ID and tell them that you are going to the museum. Once you leave the Guard shack, continue straight ahead, you will be on Rodman Avenue. Turn right at the second traffic light (East Ave). Just before you get to the second traffic light, you will see Memorial Park on your left; it’s full of artillery pieces and some armor. Don’t worry; we plan to visit it before we leave. After you turn right at the light, take a left at the stop sign (North Ave). ¾ of the way down the road on your left is the museum. There is ample parking in the lot across the street from the museum. We will get a tour, plus fill up the display cases, so bring the models that you would like to display. The research area is not open to the public without prior arrangement, but we will get a tour to see what is available. Once we finish with the museum, and fill up the display cabinet, we will head down to Memorial field and take a look at the items on display there. This is a great museum and I hope you can make it. If you have any questions, please call me at (309) 523-3671. My oldest son and club member Christopher will be flying in from Camp Shelby on his deployment leave on Saturday and should be joining us for the tour if you want to stop by and say hi. He returns to Camp Shelby on the 18th and flies to Iraq about two weeks later. Sounds like an excuse for German food Saturday night. Some of you may have heard that Bob had an unplanned trip to the hospital in July. He is doing really well and should be at the meeting. Bob is working on getting Sergeant Major Bowman to come and speak at one of our upcoming meetings. His first installment on his huge truck project is in this issue of the newsletter. If any of you have ideas for upcoming meetings, please let me know. A usual, I am always looking for articles for the newsletter. It really cuts down on the amount of typing I have to do and generally improves the content of the newsletter if I’m not writing a lot of it. For those of you interested in both ships and history, LST 325 will be docked in Henry Illinois on31 August to 3 September. This LST was purchased from the Greek navy and sailed back to the US by a crew made up of former LST sailors. Quite a remarkable feat. Because of the size and draft of the vessel, the farthest up the Illinois river she can go is Henry, about 25 miles south of Princeton. For more information, go to www.lstmemorial.org or www.henryil.com. That’s about all I have for now, see you at the meeting.
The Dates:
August 11: Chapter Meeting at the Rock Island Arsenal Museum and Museum Tour
August 22-25: IPMS/USA 2007 National Convention hosted by IPMS/Orange County; Anaheim Marriott, Anaheim, CA; details at www.ipmsusa2007.org
September 8: Chapter Meeting
September 15: IPMS/Gateway; Gateway to the West Invitational; First Baptist Church of Harvester, 4075 Hwy. 94 South, St. Charles, MO; contact Chris Merseal at CRM@InlInk.com
October 13: Chapter Meeting
November 10: Chapter Meeting – at the Butch O’Hare show
November 10: IPMS/”Butch” O’Hare; 25th Annual Open Model Contest and Swap Meet; Lakeview Junior High School, 701 Plainfield Rd., Darien, IL; contact Marco A. Fernandez at mfchi@sbcglobal.net
December 8: Chapter Meeting. Christmas party and annual “What If? Contest. The $20 challenge will also be held. Bring in the completed kit you bought for $20 from Ed and get your money back.
Hello Region 5,
I am making a quick update for you all. It has been a few weeks since I last rattled your cages (Thank goodness most of you are thinking). So before I get into much of IPMS stuff, I want to give you a Mike update. I have had some testing done and will have an outpatient surgery on Wednesday July 25th. As a result of the ongoing testing and such I may have missed an email or not gotten a request from you handled. If this is the case I apologize and will get on it as soon as I am feeling up to it (about a week they tell me). So if something really urgent comes up that you don’t feel can wait a few days, the DLC Dick Montgomery will field you emails and attempt to help you. I really expect to be back dealing with emails and stuff within a few days though. Next item. IPMS USA has an election going on currently. Please take the time to vote as you feel appropriate but please vote. The society is only as good as the input it receives. I will be leaving for the IPMS National Convention in about 3 weeks or so. We are having an RC meeting at the Nationals. I also attend the IPMS Business meeting as well (I have for many years now). So if your chapter has issues you wish IPMS to know about, please forward your thoughts to me. I am your representative to IPMS USA and I want to communicate our Region’s issues to them. I can only do this with your input. I am a firm believer in if you see an issue or a problem you feel needs to be addressed, speak up. However, I don’t believe in just venting, try to have a solution to that said issue. This type of thought out process goes quite a way in convincing folks of your side of an issue or problem. My Region 5 webpage/site is VERY, VERY close to being up. The webmaster has been adding things for me and getting my approval on how that turned out. We want to make sure it is right before turning it on to the public. I would say it is 90% done. Along with this website, I am from time to time having issues with AOL, and I will have a new email address for Region 5 email. Both will be announced together. I will still answer AOL for a while but to be honest, not all my emails are making it to me and not all my emails I am sending out are get to the folks I want them to go to. So, for best results, when you receive the new email address please begin using it ASAP.
Take care,
Mike George
Region 5 RC
A note from Bob Horton
Hi gang: Anyone noticed the new hobby store down on State St. in Bettendorf. It is in the old Bakery surplus store building...north side of street about a block east of I-74 bridge ramp. I think it is called Victory Lane RC hobbies...seems to apparently mostly RC stuff.
Diary of a scratch build project. Part I. January 2007 thru May 2007.
By Bob Horton
Hard as it may seem to believe, this modeler/writer is tackling a project that wasn’t military ordnance related, and/or built between 1900 and 1920. Yes it’s true. It takes a bit of storytelling as to what preceded the point where this project actually got off the ground. Everyone probably has that pet project that sits in the back of their mind and sometimes eventually comes to life. This story begins back in mid summer of 1992. Our plant was setting out on a program of 12 year overhauls of its major electrical rotating equipment. We did not have the facilities or the technical expertise in-house to tackle this job. This was going to require shipping the removed equipment to a repair shop in Chicago and then return it to our plant. You need some pretty hefty hauling equipment to get an oversized piece of equipment over the road and this is where the subject of this project came in. During the summer of 1992 shutdown the main mill motor armature was removed and ready to be loaded onto a flat bed type of an “over the road heavy hauler.” The truck tractor unit and trailer arrived at our plant site. Since my crew was part of the team that had removed the armature, I went outside to see what this rig was that was going to carry the equipment over the road. I wasn’t prepared for the sight that faced me. This rig was immense. It had a total of 70 wheels counting the two front steering wheels of a huge Mack tractor unit. From front of the tractor to the rearmost bumper it was well over one hundred feet long. The Mack tractor unit had 3 sets of rear wheels and the remaining 56 wheels were supporting 5 sectional wheeled dollies and a flat bed carrier platform that carried the armature. The actual load carrying center section flat bed carrier was about 30 feet long. It was then supported at each end by large goose neck shaped beams that ended in a type of 5th wheel surface that would allow the whole rig to be steerable. To spread out this immense load, there were two other flexible dolly type trailers that were goose necked onto each other that attached at the rear of the load. I was impressed enough with this whole rig that I thought there is a possibility of building a model of this thing some day. Back in 1992 I had taken several pictures of the rig and had acquired some other promotional literature that described the Chicago trucking company that had contracted this job at that time. Very minimal reference material to support a pretty involved model project. So a good deal of time passed and we now find ourselves in late 2006 and this project had been all but forgotten until a couple of unrelated events took place. First, there happened to be an article in a local paper that showed a truck-trailer combination much like the one I remembered. The story and picture dealt with a rig similar to my recollections, pulling a huge load out of a local machinery manufacturer’s facility. That sparked some thoughts that stirred the sleeping giant. But there were an awful lot of questions to be answered. I just simply knew about as little about truck technology and trucking in general as anyone possibly could. Then the second event; I had just recently became acquainted with a local gentleman whose business is closely tied with the trucking industry and trucking technology. So I now had an authority figure to help with the many, many questions I had concerning trucks. Obviously the complete trailer load carrying rig was going to have to be scratch built. That was understood. First, though, I needed investigate the model scene and see what actually was available for the truck tractor unit. I knew from my sparse photos and material I had gathered that the tractor unit was a Mack truck; a model 613 or 713 Superliner. I had hoped to find a kit, something in perhaps 1/48th or no larger then 1/32nd scale. I searched thru eBay and all of the online kit catalogs to see what was available. Nothing suitable was available in a conventional tractor in those scales and I finally decided I might as well give up the smaller scale idea and settle on a model in 1/25th scale. The Mack truck was not available so I figured I would go for a Peterbilt Model 359 tractor unit. I settled on the fact that to try to at least duplicate the mechanics of this big rig, I would need two kits yielding extra parts as my “example” as the truck in use was a tri-axle unit…3 sets of rear axles. But man, did I have a lot to learn!!!. I actually started working on the layout of the trailer units at this same time. I would have to take the available photos and the meager information I had and try to translate that into working sketches of these 5 individual wheeled trailer dollies and the main cantilever load platform. But for the moment, rather then to confuse project progress, we’ll follow the work on the tractor rig. I will return to the construction of the trailing units in a later article. The tractor unit obviously would take some conversion work itself. My aim was to try to do the best I could to duplicate what I had seen circa 1992. In other words, I wanted the Peterbilt 359 to represent what the Mack looked like in layout and equipment placement. In actuality, after now tracking down at least five or six actually oversized loads thru the quad cities, I find that the make of tractor selection can vary widely. In some cases these tractors are company owned but also, many are driven by owner/operators contracted by these heavy hauler specialists. A considerable amount of time was spent going thru copies of pictures of actual trucks that were advertised for sale on an internet website. See (www.truckpaper.com) which supplied a lot of examples and statistics as to wheel base lengths and equipment layouts on the chassis of about any model and make of truck imaginable. It became quite apparent that there is a lot of latitude for a truck buyer to mix and match equipment placement. The other issue that soon became quite apparent was the fact that I had no details concerning the mechanics of this third axle installation. Eventually I found a couple of trucks locally that were set up with the third (front axle. ) These axles are usually unpowered and mounted with an air lift suspension system. (Please keep in mind that I am using the Revell/Monogram Peterbilt kit and all comments are based on that model kit. I have yet to see the AMT/Ertl kit to compare details.) The first hurdle: proceed with the kit modifications to make room on a slightly lengthened chassis for the third axle mechanism. I began by trying to lengthen the existing kit chassis frame sides. I soon discovered that in the lengthening/splicing process I was going to end up with a chassis channel that really looked bad. Truck chassis are by and largely a channel shaped piece of steel roughly 3” on the legs and about a 9 ½ to 10 inch deep web. Usually this is a one thickness piece of channel steel but I have seen a couple that were actually a piece nested inside a piece and just very recently ( July 07) we found one that was an oversize truck tractor, a Kenworth, that was a triple thickness nested inside one another. Now we know, “where’s the beef?” To try to correct the terrible appearance of the kit supplied chassis frame, I simply sawed off every piece that was attached to the original frame; the steering box, front suspensions, rear suspensions, hood mounts, motor mounts, cab mount, fifth wheel supports and all of the cross members of the chassis. I then took a piece of Evergreen square tube # 256…3/8” square tubing, and slit it down the middle and sanded the ridges to make a channel approximately a scale 2 ½” x 9 inches. I cut these channels to 13 ½” lengths in order for the truck to end up with a lengthened wheel base of 250 scale inches. The original kit truck model wheel base is 203”. (As a bit of a technical note…truck wheel bases on trucks with two rear sets of wheels is measured from the centerline of the front wheel to the center point BETWEEN the two sets of rear wheels. Another little fact that confused this neophyte for a time.) Now we have the new, lengthened chassis ready and in this process I removed the portion of the floor board of the truck that served as the floor of the sleeper cab. At this same time I had sawed off the sleeper cab portion of the cab unit and added a piece of plastic with a window hole cut in it to make a day cab style cab. Some truck kits seem to come with the cab as a two piece assembly and the modeler can choose to add the sleeper or leave it off….not so with this Revell kit…it is a one piece unit. Without going into a lot of detail, the other changes made in this conversion were: 1- The diesel fuel tanks and the battery boxes were reversed in position under the cab; 2-There is a new section of tread plate over the top of the rear chassis to cover the additional space taken by the new third axle; 3- For the new rear tri-axle a new Hendrickson air lift suspension was fabbed and added on a 50” axle centerline, ahead of the existing dual axles and a new cranked axle built. (On these trucks this front axle is not driven so there is no differential housing and the axle actually loops downward to miss the main drive shaft going to the front set of drive wheels.) 4- The old kit air tanks replaced with new fabbed sets of air tanks and repositioned under the chassis; 5- A new lengthened drive shaft to accommodate for the lengthened chassis length; 6- A new mounting plate for the fifth wheel unit. 7- I made up brake shoe mounting plates for all four axles and made up and installed the brake cylinder actuators and bell crank rods. 8- I added the air brake lines to these operating cylinders. (A couple of the other truck kits I have, AMT especially, seem to include these brake cylinders but Revell/ Monogram doesn’t.) 9- a new deck plate and revisions to the location on the chassis and the mounting of the 5th wheel plate. (If you get a good close up look at the rear deck of an empty tractor unit, there is a real maze of air lines & electrical cables running along the chassis. I am going to include some of these before the chassis is painted. In most cases, although some of the tubing lines are color coded, all of it seems to get a real heavy coat of black paint. I find almost every oversize load tractor unit seems equipped with some additional equipment on the rear deck behind the cab. I fabricated a large equipment box and headache rack to install on the chassis behind the cab. One other last detail item is the maze of flexible hoses and electrical cables that connect from the cab to the front trailer unit. These are supported on an upright stub pole like attachment that suspends these lines so they won’t catch on the truck chassis. To conclude part one: As a kit review the Revell/Monogram Peterbilt 359 is basically workable. I think that eventually I probably will build the second kit that I obtained and did not use. If that happens I will probably do the same process to the chassis…cutting everything off and remounting on a decent channel shaped chassis. I would, though, leave all of the other mounted equipment in their original positions and not do any major conversion work. One last note of criticism. I did not like the overall run of the instructions. They really need to do a better job of outlining what paint schemes to use on the engine and cab equipment. I would tend to believe that a lot of folks building that model have no good ideas of what the colors should be. Last point for this time that I would make is in the suspension units on the rear duals. They seem a little toy like and need extra work in adding the brake systems. Next time around we start working on the monster rear trailing unit.
The Elephant Engine
By Brian Mason,
courtesy of Spare Parts, the IPMS Richmond newsletter
Background:
In 1971 Chrysler Corporation shoe-horned a 426 cubic inch hemi fitted with a “shaker hood” into a Barracuda and called it the Hemi Cuda. The Hemi was aptly dubbed the “elephant engine” because of its brutish horsepower and massive torque. Producing 425 horsepower and 490 foot-pounds of torque, the Hemi nearly hit the magical 1 horsepower per cubic inch. However, due to high insurance rates, rising emission standards, and a hefty option price (nearly 1/3 of the base price) 1971 saw the last year of its production.
The Kit:
Revell’s 1:6 Plymouth 426 Hemi Cuda (85-1442) is a molded in color, glue and screw kit. The kit contains 88 die-cast metal, plastic, rubber, and vinyl parts. All the parts are packaged in several sealed pouches. The larger parts such as heads and manifolds are packaged in pairs and the detail parks are packaged in groups. You’ll also find four pouches of tiny screws. The block is die-cast metal with a metal rod connecting the harmonic balance to the fly wheel. All of the engine components; block, heads, oil pan, and intake manifold are molded in Chrysler Hemi orange. The shaker is neatly labeled with a silver Hemi Cuda badge and a Mopar label is applied to the oil filter. The shaker hood and starter are a realistic low sheen black. The headers however are a very unrealistic gloss black.
Construction:
The directions are exploded isometric drawings. They are fairly straight forward with a few caveats. No part numbers are given. Instead, heads, and valve covers are lettered “L” and “R”. The instructions have the builder install the alternator and bracket in step 7 and the fuel lines in step 8. I twisted and fussed with the fuel lines for about 30 minutes attempting to fir them behind the alternator and bracket. I then removed the alternator and bracket, installed the fuel lines and replaced the alternator and bracket. Another minor issue is the power steering belt. Due to a slight alignment problem the belt rubs on the lower portion of the fan pulley.
Conclusion:
I like the detail put into the kit. The in-line fuel filters are white, the fuel lines are bright silver and the finished piece looks like a miniature Hemi. The molded plastic parts look authentic and do not posses the “swirl” found in most styrene kits. With the exception of the thermostat neck, the oil dip a few minor detail parts everything was either press fit or screwed together. Other then the gloss black headers the only detail that detracts from the kit is the finish of the block. It’s smooth and glossy as opposed to the factory semiglossy pebbled finish. Aside from that it’s an excellent fit that can be completed in an hour or two. I would recommend this kit to build with little experience to the advanced modeler looking for something different.
The IPMS/USA 2007
National Convention Update:
North America’s
Largest Model Contest and Vendor Fair, August 22 - 25 2007
Anaheim Marriott Anaheim
California, www.ipmsusa2007.org.
Here we are, after three years of work, counting down the final month until the 2007 IPMS/USA Natonal Convention and Contest. We are truly pleased with the response and support we have received from the membership. We are convinced that the 2007 event will be one to remember.
Event Hotel
The 2007 Convention will be located at the Anaheim Marriott located at 700 West Convention Way, Anaheim, California. This world-class event hotel will host the contest, vendor rooms, presentations and awards presentation. To make reservations you may either use the link on the 2007 website - www.ipmsusa2007.org, or telephone Marriott at 1-800-228-9290 and use the special event code “ipmipma”. Though rooms at the event hotel are still available, should this hotel sell out, we have already made arrangements with an adjacent hotel to offer the same room rate to our attendees. Should using this hotel become necessary we will let you know though updates on the web adn through your local chapter
Conference Program
The 2007 IPMS/USA National Convention will feature nearly 60 hours of presentations of interest to modelers. Please check our website at www.ipmsusa2007.org for a schedule listing of the programs and presenters.
Tours
All tours depart the Anaheim Marriott at 0900. The Chino Air Museum tours will return about 1500. The Armor Museum tour on Friday will return to the hotel about 1300.
Regretably, the tours to the NHRA Museum and the Peterson Automotive Museum have been canceled due to lack of participation. The few who signed up for those tours will be receiving refunds
DragonExpo 2007
Dragon Models USA will be hosting their DragonExpo in association with our event. IPMS Members registered to attend our convention will have complimentary access to their displays. You may also register for their event and receive the special kits that are part of their program. More information on DragonExpo may be had at www.dragonmodelsusa.com
To and From The
Airport
There is a regularly scheduled bus to and from LAX and John Wayne airports to the Anaheim Marriott. For fares and schedules call 714-978-8855. There are also shuttle bus companies that can be arranged at times convenient to the attendee. These include
Super Shuttle 1-310-222-5500
Prime Time Shuttle 1-800-733-8267
In both cases, identify yourself as attending the 2007 IPMS/USA National Convention to receive a discount off the standard rates.
Event and Trophy
Sponsorships
Event and Trophy Sponsorship opportunities are still available. Please check our website and the IPMS/USA Forum for more updates and the latest news as it becomes available
Tours
All tours depart the Anaheim Marriott at 0900. The Chino Air Museum tours will return about 1500. The Armor Museum tour on Friday will return to the hotel about 1300.
Regrettably, the tours to the NHRA Museum and the Peterson Automotive Museum have been canceled due to lack of participation. The few who signed up for those tours will be receiving a refund.
Kit Review: Italeri 1/35
Scale Kit No. 6233; Chevrolet 15 CWT Truck -
Limited Edition.
By Cookie Sewell
168 parts (155 in olive drab styrene, 10 in black styrene, 3 in clear styrene); price US $35
Advantages: old friend makes a welcome reappearance; molds appear to have been cleaned up a bit.
Disadvantages: Expensive kit for value received
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommendation: For all Commonwealth and softskin fans
Italeri is re-releasing some of their better old favorites
that have not been seen for some years as "Limited Editions" this
month. This kit is of a WWII Canadian-built Chevrolet 15 CWT 4 x 4 GS truck
(even though the directions and box blurb have it as a "4 x 2" it is
a 4 x 4.) For anyone not familiar with British-style rating systems the truck
is rated as having a capacity of 15 hundredweight in cargo cross country, or
about 1,680 pounds (762 kg.) The US Army would simply have called it a 3/4 ton
4 x 4 truck. Ah, the joys of
oft-traveled kit molds and their reappearance. I recall when this kit came out
back in 1975 from Peerless Max that it was head and shoulders above many other
kits on the market at the time, and actually better in many respects than the
Tamiya Ford "Quad" which came out at the same time with their 25 lb
Gun set. Over the years the molds have moved around a lot - first to Airfix,
then Italeri, then Bilek in Poland and now back to Italeri where they have been
cleaned up and show they still produce a very nice kit. Compared to the first
release, the molds as noted look very clean and the kit is relatively free of
ejection pin marks. Some are cleverly concealed (such as the one in the center
of the "starburst" stiffener pattern on the inside of the doors but
some are in truly awful places
- two of the five wheel/tire parts have theem right on the mold line for the
side wall right above the size markings on the tire, so will be nearly
impossible to cleanly remove. Most are relatively well designed but the then
typical for its day erected tilt has a nasty mold line that runs around the
front end, but anyone wanting to use it should be able to clean it up without
too much grief. Missing from the kit are "Curley, Larry and Moe" -
three rather portly and unimpressive figures that were apparently supposed to
represent a Commonwealth soldier, an Australian with ANZAC campaign hat, and a
Sikh in a
turban. No loss. I recall this kit as
being a joy to assemble other than Peerless had a truly nasty mold release
agent which took a lot of scrubbing to remove. The latest Italeri version has
none of that and the parts are crisp and clean. The chassis does not come with
an engine but has many very nicely done parts to it, and the front wheels may
be posed if the modeler is careful about assembly and has some modeling
experience. The tie rod ends, shocks and drag links are all separate parts. The
leaf springs have a centerline seam and some minor sink marks, but these aren't
bad for a 32-year-old kit. Oddly the kit comes with a full radiator, even
though the solid grille makes it sort of redundant. The cab is the Canadian Military Pattern (CMP) No. 13
("backward slant windshield") type and is nicely done; this feature
was shared with two other kits using this basic chassis and produced by
Peerless, with one having a full cab and the other a "Quad" type
body. The new one is identical to the original and has a false hood, turn
signals, mirrors, separate seat brackets and seats, and control levers in the
cab; pedals are "molded on" and should be added. Clear windows are
provided for the windshield and side vents, but the rear window here has a
pass-through panel (part 90B) which appears to be correct. The
windows are fixed and will take work or replacement to move if desired, and the
screened vents are solid. The body is a
British "GS" (General Service) type or cargo body in
American parlance, and comes with four padded seats, three top bows, four
stowage bins with separate lids, a spare tire mount and holder, and the
aforementioned plastic tilt. The tail gate may be made to work with care as may
the spare tire brackets. Three finishing schemes are included, and what I
believe to be new decals (or at least redone ones) are provided for them. One
version is Australian Army (the box art for this release) with an early war
roundel on the roof listed to be in sand yellow, but oddly enough (and with
many recent Italeri kits!) the box art shows it in khaki drab; one is British
in a two-tone camouflage scheme of dark green and sand yellow; and one is
Canadian Army in dark green and black (not "Mickey Mouse")
camouflage. I am not sure on the units but the selections seem far more
complete than most Italeri offerings. Overall this was a nice kit when it came
out and it does not appear to be too badly dimmed with age. The price of course
is now a lot more, but then again it would seem a good deal over some of the earlier
re-pops as it has been cleaned up. Thanks to Bob Lewen of MRC for the review sample.
Hobby Boss 1/72 A-7A
Enzo Matrix, courtesy of RMS
This morning, a parcel arrived from Hobbylink Japan, containing the new 1/72 A-7A from Hobby Boss. Seven days to be delivered from Japan to the UK - that's excellent service! I've been rather excited over this the thought of this kit and I've been pouring over it all day. Sadly, I have to say I'm a little underwhelmed by it all. The word which sums it all up is "meh!" The kit comes in a box that is very reminiscent of those provided by Academy. In fact the whole product has a very Academyesque feel to it: the instruction sheet, the decals, the painting sheet, even the color of plastic. The box top claims there are 186 parts on 8 sprues. There are 186 parts, but there are only 6 sprues. The aircraft itself consists of 90 opaque parts on three sprues, with a further 6 transparent parts on one sprue. However, not all the parts will be used for this version. The remaining 90 parts are used to provide the weapons load on two identical sprues. More on this later.
The plastic, as I stated above, is the same light grey-green
color as used by Academy kits. The surface finish on the parts is excellent
with no ejection pin marks on visible surfaces. Panel lines are engraved, but I
feel that they are a little too deep. The Academy F-8 had deep panel lines that
I felt were acceptable after priming with cellulose car primer and sanding. The
Hobby Boss panel lines are even deeper. However, they may well look good under
a coat of paint. The surface is given texture by a number of raised panels
which look quite nice. The big problem that I can see is that Trumpeter's
phantom riveter has been moonlighting at Hobby Boss. There are lots and lots of
indented rivets that stand out like sore thumbs. Although I could get to live
with the panel lines, I really don't like the looks of these rivets and I would
fill them as a matter of priority. Ten parts make up a nicely detailed cockpit
- tub, rudder pedals, control column, ejecttion seat rails and rear bulkhead all
have detail and the cockpit sidewalls are detailed on the inside of the
fuselage halves. The instrument panel and side consoles are flat with the
detail provided by decals. This seems perfectly acceptable, in this scale, but
there is plenty of scope for the aftermarket companies. The panels seem to be a
challenge to Eduard to provide some pre-colored PE components. There are two
seats supplied, which are both slightly different. As there are two sets of
rudder pedals supplied as well, I think this is intended to provide for both
seats of the forthcoming TA-7C and A-7K, rather than different seats for later
variants. Sadly the seats have no detail whatsoever and are best replaced with
aftermarket resin items. The fuselage is molded with the electronics bays on
both sides open for inspection. The detailing here is excellent and with a bit
of added wiring and some careful painting will look stunning. Likewise, the
undercarriage bays are well detailed and once again are very reminiscent of
those in the Academy F-8. There is a complete nose gear bay, which makes a nice
change from the Fujimi kit. The intake trunking is well engineered with a lap
effect over the joint which will prevent any cracks appearing. A dry fit shows
that the joint line won't be too obtrusive and will probably be easy to clean
up. There are two sets of intake lips - with and without cannon troughs, to
provide for the later variants. This brings me to the first problem. The early
A,B and C variants had twin 20mm Colt Mk12 cannons on either side of the lower
forward fuselage. The D variant onwards had a single 20mm Vulcan cannon on the
port side. The kit
provides for the early cannon troughs but it is quite clear that the mould has
an insert that will be changed for the later variants. Sadly the panel that is
produced by this mould insert has a very pronounced sink line around it. It can
be filled but some of the nice detail in that area will be lost. There are
other areas that also have sink marks, notably on the base of the rudder. The
wings are molded in two parts: complete upper surfaces and outer sections, with
lower surface inner sections. The flaps are molded integrally with the upper
surfaces. This is slightly disappointing as, given the high parts count; I was
expecting separate flaps and slats and maybe even outer wings which could be
assembled in the raised position. It was not to be. The outer wing sections are
easily as thick as the rudder but this time there is no evidence of sink marks.
The wing is ingeniously engineered with the location tabs on the lower half
while the upper half laps over and but
joints to the fuselage. This is intended to provide the slightly faired look
seen in this area. It's a good idea in principle. Sadly, it doesn't work
and there is a gap of at least half a millimeter which will need to be filled,
with again the prospect of losing detail in this area. Having assembled the kit
using masking tape and blue tack, I can say that apart from the aforementioned
wing fit problems, the rest of the main airframe fits together perfectly. The
transparencies are thin and clear, however there is a vary prominent
mould line down the centerline of the canopy which will have to be carefully
sanded away The rear section of the canopy, which is metal on the real
aircraft, is lightly etched. There are two HUDs provided, presumably one for
later variants, as well as two transparent panels intended for the FLIR pods
included in the stores. There are two
identical sprues which each have two MERs, one tank, one Sidewinder, one FLIR
pod and no less than nine 500lb MK82 iron bombs. The bombs are each in three
parts - two halves and optional fuses. Sadly, the two halves don't fit well and
so there will be an awful lot of very tedious filling and cleaning up involved.
Given the fact that there are
some hideous trenches masquerading as joint lines (where there really shouldn't
be any) I have to wonder whether it's worth all the effort. The MERs are built
from three components, the main assembly with the two lower Ejector Release
Units as separate components. The main bar of the MER looks to be far two
flimsy to carry the weight of a full bomb load. Even worse is that there are
only three of the ERU components on each sprue, when there really should be
four. I wonder if the original intention was to have one
MER and one TER on each sprue. The fuel tanks look dreadful. They are far too
slim and there are some bands around them that stand at least half a millimeter
proud of the surface. The Sidewinders are each in five components. They are
acceptable (if a little skinny) as an AIM-9L, but they are certainly not the 9B
variant as described in the instructions. Again there are some raised bands on
the missile body that really should be sanded off. There's also a spurious and
deeply etched panel line around the seeker head that should be filled in. The
FLIR pod is of a design that I've never seen so I couldn't comment as to
whether it is accurate. The decals provide for two aircraft: 153228 NG/312 of
VA-147 operating from USS Ranger (CVA-61) in 1968 and 153214 NJ/201 of
VA(F)-122 "Corsair College". The sheet provides all the main
markings, but very little in the way of stenciling. In addition, the red is far too bright and is out of
register
on the national insignia. On the positive side, the decals appear to be very
thin and are again very Academyesque. Whether they will have the same
adhesion problems as Academy decals remains to be seen. So that's an overview
of the kit. Rather nice it looks too on first inspection (if you can ignore the
hideous rivets and the abysmal stores). So
let's deal with the major problem with this kit. There are some quite dreadful
shape errors. I have compared the parts against photographs and plans in
"US Navy A-7 Corsair II Units of the Vietnam War" by Norman Birzer
and Peter Mersky. I also compared the shape against the old Fujimi kits, which
may or may not be a reasonable comparison.
The length seems to be just about spot on, but the wingspan
is a scale foot too short. The wing shape is actually very good but the tips
provide the problem. When seen in plan view, the rear fuselage has the slightly
bulbous look reproduces quite well - slightly better than Fujimi's effort. The
big problems are at the nose. The forward fuselage is wide - at least 15% too
wide. It then tapers rapidly until it is too narrow ahead of the cockpit,
again about 15% too narrow. This gives the forward fuselage an almost pointed
planform. The radome is subsequently far too small and skinny. In fact it looks
more like the radome of an F-8 than an A-7. The shape problems (with the
exception of the radome) are masked somewhat in the side view due to the effect
of the intake. In plan view, they are very noticeable. The problem will be
highlighted on the finished model by the canopy, especially if it is left open.
The canopy is so wide that it almost looks as though it could fit on an F-111.
In fact, the canopy from a Fujimi kit actually fits inside the Hobby Boss
canopy! As it is a transparency, there is nothing that can be done about
this. Even if the modeler replaces it (and the pointy windscreen) with a
vacformed part, it will look odd because a correctly shaped canopy will not fit
the fuselage. The dry assembled model looks somewhat like a caricature of an
A-7. You can see what it is meant to be, but it just looks odd. If you were
going to build a collection of A-7s, then it would be worthwhile sticking with
Hobby Boss ones, because you certainly cannot display this next to a Fujimi
one. I did and had to say "Ewwwwwwwww!" Overall this is a nicely engineered and presented kit which is
badly let down by the shape problems. The detail is excellent, would I would
still prefer the older Fujimi kits, even with their lack of detail in the
undercarriage bays. In fact, I've had an outrageous thought. It may well be possible
to graft the gear bays from a spare Esci A-7 on to the Hobby Boss fuselage, so
saving the nicely detailed HB bays for use in a Fujimi kit. How naughty is
that?!? So.. good try, Hobby
Boss, but I'm afraid you've missed the mark by quite a wide margin. I will be
building this kit, but I won't be displaying it with any Fujimi models and I
won't be buying any more - apart maybe from the forthcoming two-seater. If
Hobby Boss had a school report card for this kit, it would read "Must try
harder".