Volume 10 – 2006


by Rafi Ben-Shahar   Modelling is generally considered as an inexpensive hobby thanks to the miniature nature of its components. Yet, when it boils down to the actual dealings with items one may groan at the total costs of plastic kits due to their high retail price or the costs of […]

Model Bang for the Buck; Doras of the Galland Circus ...


Trumpeter’s Hotchkiss H-39 Model by Bengt Johansson Described by Martin Waligorski   The French Hotchkiss H-39 light tank first appeared in 1939. It was intended for use by French infantry and cavalry formations. Its story in combat is no different than that of other French tanks, although the H-39 was one of […]

”Wurfrahmen, comment dit-on cela en français?”


Converting the Supermodel 1/72 kit to S.M. 81T by Peter Ibes (IPMS Netherlands)   When it comes to modelling, I love those esoteric subjects from World War II. So when I came across photographs of a number of Savoia Marchetti S.M. 81 Ts of the Aeronautica Nazionale Repubblicana and the Thierry Dekker’s artwork in Camouflage and Markings […]

Savoia-Marchetti’s ’Pizza Courier’



Converting Dragon’s 1/48 Ta 152 H Using Fusion Models Resin Set by Ricardo Dacoba   Introduction The Focke-Wulf Ta 152C was Kurt Tank’s finest fighter, and the one which represented the pinnacle of mainstream development of the Fw 190 line. Series production orders for the Ta 152C had been placed in October 1944, but […]

Focke-Wulf Ta 152 C-1


Building Czech Master Resin 1/72 kit by Mark Davies   The prototype Kranich was designed at DFS by Hans Jacobs in 1935, and was an enlarged and developed version of his record breaking single seat Rhönsperber. The Kranich was produced from 1935 until the late 1950’s. It set world and various national two-seater […]

DFS Kranich


Tamiya 1/48 Bristol Beaufighter by Frank Spahr   The pugnacious Beaufighter had a long career and served in almost all theatres of war, first as a night fighter, then as a strike fighter, and eventually replaced the Beaufort as a torpedo bomber. While initially designed for pure fighter role, the performance of the […]

Weathering Fun



by Rafi Ben-Shahar   Tamiya or Hasegawa? This month I have a little quiz for you. The photos in this article show two 1/48 models of the famous Republic P-47D Thunderbolt. Can you tell which kit used is the Tamiya and which is the Hasegawa? My guess is that you will find the answer […]

Model Duplication


by Tomasz Gronczewski   Ernest ”Feeb” Fiebelkorn was one of the biggest aces of the 8th Air Force. Writing ”biggest” I mean tallest and heaviest. 6ft 4in combined with 225 pounds must have made a placement into Mustang’s cockpit a bit problematic. Nevertheless it did not prevent Feeb from becoming the top-scoring pilot of […]

Ernest Fiebelkorn – The Buster of Walter Nowotny


Photos by Phillip Evans Text by Martin Waligorski The South African Air Force, the second oldest air force in the world, has a long and complicated history, not least during the modern era. During the Cold War period, the SAAF found itself engaged in the Berlin Airlift, Korean war and finally […]

Aircraft and Colours of the South African Air Force



Detailing Heller’s 1/400 Gneisenau by Ulf Lundberg English translation by Martin Waligorski    Note for Swedish readers   Den här artikeln finns även tillgänglig på svenska i form av ett PDF-fil, 435 KB Hellers_Gneisenau_av_Ulf_Lundberg Painting The hull, superstructure and all the subassemblies were washed with white spirit and then primed with a coat of Gunze Mr Primer. For the painting I used Vallejo […]

Kriegsmarine’s Handsome Battlecruiser, Part 2: Painting


Detailing Heller’s 1/400 Gneisenau by Ulf Lundberg English translation by Martin Waligorski    Note for Swedish readers   Den här artikeln finns även tillgänglig på svenska i form av ett PDF-fil, 435 KB Hellers_Gneisenau_av_Ulf_Lundberg   Heller’s 1/400 Gneisenau built, detailed and finished by the author   About the Ship The Treaty of Versailles drastically limited the size of Kriegsmarine’s warships […]

Kriegsmarine’s Handsome Battlecruiser, Part 1: Construction


de Havilland Sea Vampire T.22 from Czech Master Resin 1/72 by Mark Davies The Sea Vampire T.22 was not a carrier capable aircraft, but it did provide the Royal navy with a useful jet trainer, and the modeller with potentially some very attractive colour schemes to finish models of this […]

Naval Vampire



artwork by Rick Kent text by Martin Waligorski One of the lesser known episodes in the operational history of the Spitfire is its use as a night fighter. During the winter 1941/1942 it was feared that the night Blitz of the year before might be repeated in 1942. During 1941, the Hurricane […]

Night-fighting Spitfires


by Rafi Ben-Shahar The recent release of Trumpeter’s 1/35 Baureihe BR 52 known as the Kriegslokomotive gave me the opportunity to examine my addiction to the Marklin steam locomotives from the world of HO model trains. The series of photographs that I present also highlights one of the ways that […]

Scale Steam Locomotives


Text by Martin Waligorski Photos: US Naval Historical Center   The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau ships were invariably mentioned at the same time, and are fondly remembered as being ”the ugly sisters” due to the fact they prowled together, and the havoc they wrought to British shipping. Designed in mid-1930s and […]

Scharnhorst & Gneisenau