Volume 10 – 2006

Trumpeter F4U-1 Corsair by Damian Murphy There has always been a fascination with US Navy aircraft and model builders. The appeal of a war torn, hard hitting pacific fighters and there perilous battles in the remote sun baked islands of the Pacific Ocean, have spawned countless scale replica and diorama […]

Backdated Birdcage

by Rick Kent A small but significant number of Spitfire Mk. I’s were converted to photo reconnaissance aircraft from even before World War II started. Indeed, it was one of these early reconnaissance Spitfires that was the first Spitfire to be captured intact by the Germans at one of the Paris airfields […]

Early Armed Reconnaissance Spitfires

Turning a Sow’s Ear Into a Silk Purse by Peter Ibes (IPMS Netherlands) (For our non-Anglo-Saxon readers, ‘Turning a sow’s into into a silk purse’ is an English expression for making something beautiful out of something useless. – Author) Alright, to call the little Revell-Matchbox Fiat CR42 a sow’s ear […]

Upgrading Revell-Matchbox’ Ancient 1/72 Fiat CR42

by Rafi Ben-Shahar How does a state-of-the-art kit technology of the 1970s hold up to the best of today’s standards? Here is a comparison between two kits of the same kind that I built two years ago and some 30 years back.   A Blast From the Past The 1/24 […]

1/24 Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4 – Then and Now

Tamiya’s 1/72 Messerschmitt Bf 109E is an Easy Build by Martin Waligorski This is Tamiya’s superb Bf 109 in 1/72 scale, built and finished as E-3 model from the Spanish civil war. The notorious Legion Condor is usually associated with earlier, Jumo-powered versions of the Messerschmitt’s fighter. However, a fairly […]

Emil Goes to Spain

Building HP Models Waterline Resin Kit in 1/700 Scale by Frank Spahr   A Little History SMS (His Majesty’s Ship) Zähringen belonged to the five-strong Wittelsbach class of the imperial German navy. Named after German noble houses, the Wittelsbachs were designed and built when Germany had not yet fully entered the naval arms race […]

SMS Zähringen

by Ricardo Dacoba English translation by Martin Waligorski With the big Heinkel He 177, Revell has once again delighted us with an excellent kit. This one fills also an important void – the only previously available kit of this aircraft was released in Airfix Series 5. It was good for […]

A Step Further, Superdetailing Revell’s Big Heinkel He 177

The Rocket that Launched Telecom and an Irony of the Cold War by Barry Davidoff and Tomas Kladiva   The Thor Able Star played a major role in the development of satellite communications. In 1960 it launched the world’s first active repeater communications satellite, Courier 1B. For 17 days Courier 1B received and […]

Modellers’ Guide To Thor-Able Star and Delta

by Barry Davidoff and Tomas Kladiva   The Thor Able Star that launched the Courier 1B Communications satellite on October 4, 1960 from Cape Canaveral and New Ware model of this Thor Able Star built by Thomas Kladiva   Tomas Kladiva is one of the world’s premiere spacecraft modellers. Not […]

Modelling the Thor-Able Star

Repetition is a Key to Your Development by Rafi Ben-Shahar Repetition is the highway to perfection. This is at least the way I feel. Many modellers may feel a bit tepid with respect to trying new techniques and approaching the building process with bold and revolutionary methods. Here is a […]

The Learning Modeller’s Manifesto

An Almost Forgotten Story About P-47 Thunderbolt in SwAF Service by Björn Goldman   This is the story about the Swedish J 27 Åskbollen. During the past 50 years, it has been one of the many classified and undisclosed stories of the Swedish Air Force. In fact, all but one […]

The Swedish ”Dunderbult”

Finishing Revell 1/72 Type VIIc U-Boot by Rafi Ben-Shahar   Submarines are interesting subjects because in real life, you observe only the above-water component that comprises less than a third of the total surface area of the ship, while the model that pretends to represent reality shows the entire ship! […]

To Weather or Not

by Raul Hrubisko     Introduction I always wanted to have some experimental aircraft in my RAF collection. Last year I had the chance to obtain the following book: British Prototype Aircraft by Ray Sturtivant. It is this book that allowed me to learn about some of the most interesting experimental aircraft […]

Tailless and Canard Experimental Aircraft of the RAF

by Raúl Hrubisko When I was fourteen, I read a book which I thought was the best book I had ever read. It was a wartime aviation story involving some gallant men a de Havilland Mosquito. My fascination for the Mosquito as the most ingenious and beautiful warplane ever designed began […]

Passion for Mosquitoes

by Martin Waligorski During the years I have had the opportunity to see and photograph a few thousand models on various contests and events. Frankly, there have always been more excellent models out there than we could ever feature on the pages of this magazine. In this article series I […]

Editor’s Picks, March