Table of contents for December 2019 in FineScale Modeler

Bandai does great Star Wars kits, including some small-scale options in its Vehicle Model series. These kits don’t cost much, appeal to inexperienced modelers, and often model subjects not available elsewhere. A good example is Bandai’s 1/1000 scale Rebel Blockade Runner, or Tantive IV, from Star Wars: A New Hope. Finished, the model is only 5 inches long but it’s an accurate model of an important ship. While easy to build, these kits have one feature that deters many a serious modeler: stickers instead of decals for the markings. They are well printed but just won’t contour to the raised detail on the model. However, there’s a way to get around that and produce a good-looking model. Building Bandai kits Bandai engineers its kits well to snap together and fit…

Battle of the Bulge 75 years As the tide of war turned against Germany, its focus shifted to producing defensive weapons including the Jadgpanzers (tank hunters). While perhaps not as well-known as some of its cousins, the Jagdpanzer IV L/70 was a formidable weapon fitted with the same 7.5cm gun used on the Panther. Produced in two distinct designs, the Vomag (or V) design was the more common and more than 900 were produced between August 1944 and March 1945. During the same period, the Germans introduced factory-applied “ambush” or “disc” camo often associated with the Battle of the Bulge. I’ve always wanted to tackle the scheme but held back until the time was right because of its complicated nature. I was keen to build a vehicle that served in…

Battle of the Bulge 75 year Has this ever happened to you? You open a kit to discover it’s missing crucial parts. That happened to me when I went to build Tamiya’s 1/48 scale M4A1 Sherman — half the parts for the track, bogies, and running gear were unaccounted for. If, like me, you don’t want to wait for replacement parts, go ahead and build the tank before disguising what’s not there beneath ice and water.…

With both AMT and Polar Lights in its stable, it seemed like Round 2 was the natural place to produce kits from the latest Star Trek TV series, Discovery. The company didn’t disappoint and has now produced kits of the USS Discovery and USS Shenzhou. At 1/2500 scale, they are smaller than many of Polar Lights’ Trek kits but match the Cadet Series which has expanded to include many of the franchise’s major vessels. Molded in color and designed to snap, or more accurately push, together, these kits feature low parts counts and will be easy for new modelers to build. The complicated surface patterns, often referred to as Aztecing, would be a challenge, but both kits include a full suite of decals that cover virtually every inch of the…

We are onto a string of World War II anniversaries, from Pearl Harbor to the Battle of Kursk last year, then D-Day’s 75th this past summer and now the Battle of the Bulge. Growing up in the late 1950s and 1960s such battles didn’t seem so far off. Nearly every adult male in my Indianapolis neighborhood was a veteran. One of my friends’ dad had what we’d now call PTSD. He drank. Herman, the man who lived diagonally across the street from us, had enlisted as a teen, lying about his age to join the Navy. My dad, who had been in training to be an Army medic, was quickly transferred into the infantry after the Battle of the Bulge. He was soon on a ship heading to Le Havre,…

Help for an Airfix Blenheim Q I am in the middle of building Airfix’s 1/48 scale Bristol Blenheim and am using Andy Keyes’ review (October 2019) as a reference. He mentions the fuselage assembly needing widening to accommodate the clear parts and says he used a “piece of tubing disguised as part of the cockpit structure to spread (the fuselage).” Would he please elaborate about how he went about doing this? I’m trying to remember that this is a “relaxing hobby.” Thanks! – Jim Sloan, Louisville, Ky A We forwarded Jim’s question to Andy, figuring he knew better what he did than we do: Thank you, I'm humbled that someone would use my review as a guide. I assembled the fuselage using clamps to make sure the cockpit floor was tight…

I STARTED BY CLEANING up the various wheels. The Jagdpanzer IV’s first bogies were fitted with all-steel wheels to cope with the weight of the gun and the 80mm thick front armor. This required a slightly different approach from the rubber-rimmed wheels that had mold seams down the center to be removed. I also assembled the sprockets, idlers, and return rollers. On the hull, I partially assembled the rear plate with just the idler mounts. Then, the nose and glacis plates were added along with the fighting compartment bulkhead to stiffen and align the hull sides. Now I could detail the hull with exhausts and tow hitch at the rear, and brake hatches and vents and the gun travel lock up front. I assembled the bogies and installed them. While the…

Of all the space vehicles featured in Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Discovery One remains the most iconic. All the ships were built as scale models, although they were used in various ways during filming to achieve in-camera special effects. Kubrick had two models of the Discovery One completed: a 55-foot behemoth and a smaller sister ship that still measured a whopping 15-feet long. The 1/144 scale Discovery One from Moebius Models isn’t nearly so big (a little more than 40 inches), but it assembles into an impressive model with 500 parts and plenty of detail. However, there’s still room for improvement, even though Moebius has created a stellar reproduction.…

Matching the full-size Hellcat’s robustness and heft, Airfix’s 1/24 scale Grumman F6F-5 is loaded with detail and options, including four complete marking schemes. The kit comprises more than 570 parts and manages an astounding level of detail solely with injection-molded plastic, including a full set of seat belts. The fuselage goes together the same way no matter what build option you choose, but an early decision is required about folded or spread wings. Careful study of the instructions helps keep track of options and assembly sequences. There are ejector-pin marks on a few visible surfaces, understandable in such a large, detailed kit. All parts required attention to remove seams and true mating edges. Test-fitting was essential — this is a complicated kit, and good part fits and alignment was critical.…

The MH-60L is a special-operations variant of the UH-60L Black Hawk that can be used as a gunship, known as the Direct-Action Penetrator or DAP, as well as a troop carrier. Used by the U.S. Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment in just about every American military action from the early 1990s, the helicopters may be best known for their role in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu told in the book and movie Black Hawk Down. Kitty Hawk’s 1/35 scale MH-60 will make a good diorama with matching vehicles, but you’ll need room as the rotors are 18-inches in diameter. The 40-page instruction booklet is detailed, but there are a few minor mistakes to be aware of as it guides you through 27 steps. This is not a quick build;…

Battle of the Bulge 75 years The time is December 1944, in Bastogne, Belgium. Here, the 101st Airborne Division made its stand, fighting for access to a critical junction of roads. The siege lasted from December 20-27. On the 22nd, the German commander Gen. von Lüttwitz submitted a demand for surrender to his American counterpart, Brig. Gen. Anthony McAuliffe. This was McAuliffe’s reply: To the German Commander.NUTS!The American Commander When the siege lifted, war correspondents reporting about the action said that Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army had relieved the paratroopers. From what I understand, many men from the 101st did not care for this statement, claiming that they never needed rescuing. Follow along as I create a snowy scene depicting the last day of battle. I start with a MiniArt…

Battle of the Bulge 75 years See more online! Want to see even more submissions? Go online at FineScale.com/BattleoftheBulge for a full gallery (plus more shots of the ones here).…

Vultee Vengeances are a common sight, usually camouflaged in the distinctive U.S. and Australian sand-and-spinach scheme. So, imagine my surprise when I found a color profile and a black-and-white photo of an A-35 in an overall intermediate blue with white scalloped trim. Named Fillette Yvette, the aircraft was assigned to the 384th Bomb Group as a target tug and squadron hack. It crashed due to fuel starvation on September 2, 1945, just outside of Wollersdorf, Austria. The aircraft was included as an option in AZ Model’s 1/48 scale A-35 kit, but I prefer 1/72 scale. So I bought Special Hobby’s Vengeance (No. SH-72040) planning to piece together the markings from spare decals from my stash. The only exception was the Fillette Yvette nose art that I painted on a clear…

Ryefield rumbles into the crowded Sherman market with a brandnew M4A3E8 “Easy Eight.” Molded in tan plastic the kit features excellent detail, including fine cast texture and casting numbers where appropriate as well as delicate weld seams. All of the hatches, including the engine bay, can be posed open or closed. The tracks are individual working links consisting of more than 1,000 parts although you don’t quite use all of them. Decals provide markings for two tanks in Germany in 1945, one overall olive drab, the other with black camouflage over olive drab. Unfortunately, the painting guide only provided 3-view drawings of both vehicles making for some guesswork on the camouflage pattern. I deviated from the instruction from the get-go, skipping ahead to the hull rather than the turret. Like…

One of the British army’s primary tanks in early World War II, the Crusader was an important part of the Allied campaign in North Africa. Keyed for buildability, IBG’s Crusader has one-piece injection-molded tracks with the inner set of road wheels molded on, optional photo-etched metal (PE) sand shields, and markings for three vehicles. Starting with the running gear, I added the outer road wheels and drive sprockets to the track assemblies. I painted the tracks with Tamiya dark iron (XF-84), then airbrushed the road wheel with Tamiya buff (XF-57) using a circle template as a mask. Once finished, I can’t tell that they were molded on. The lower hull comprises three parts — belly with sides, rear plate, and glacis plate — which I painted before adding the running…

Earth’s extraterrestrial neighbor pops by to talk UFOs. The German soldiers, who have been working on their own secret spacecraft program, anxiously await the visitor’s critiques. However, they are not alone — a Russian scout crouches nearby, unraveling their otherworldly plans. Modeler Joshua Angulo got this diorama idea after reading about the German’s supposed attempt to construct flying saucers such as the Haunebu, and solar system jumping super weapons, such as Die Glocke (The Bell). The alien’s craft is Pegasus Hobby’s 1/32 scale Alpha Centauri UFO short range saucer, and the German’s vehicle is Tamiya’s 1/35 scale Kübelwagen type 82. The 1/35 scale figures came from both Dragon and Tamiya. Joshua painted with a mixture of Vallejo, Testors Model Master, and Mig Productions colors. The base is made of rocks,…