Volume 8 – 2004

Modeller’s Guide by Barry Davidoff photos courtesy of NASA   September 1961. X-15 just landed after another test flight, with a B-52 mother ship flying over at low altitude.   World’s Fastest and Highest Airplane An unofficial motto of flight research in the 1940s and 1950s was ”higher and faster.” […]

World Speed Record X-15 Experimental Aircraft

You May Have Been Modelling Too Long If You See Pink Elephants, But Not If You See a Pink X-15! by Barry Davidoff photos by Staffan Skogsby and Per-Olov Broddeson The X-15 always has held a fascination for me for since it was a major progenitor of the space shuttle […]

The Pink Panther X-15

model by Marcus Mohlin text and images by Martin Waligorski   In the German Army, armoured cars were designed for the vital role of reconnaissance, ranging ahead of the Panzer spearheads to assess enemy strength and intentions. The 8-wheeled heavy Panzerspähwagen was a large and ungainly but very fast addition […]

SdKfz 232

A Way to Stronger Models  by Frank Spahr   Styrene is a good material for modeling, but on certain occasions, it´s not strong enough. My main trouble areas are masts for sailing ships, especially the upper and thinner parts of the construction, and certain kinds of landing gears, the long […]

Casting Model Parts in Metal

…Almost Out of the Box  by Anders Isaksson   Background I remember building the Matchbox P-47D ”Razorback” Thunderbolt in 1/72nd scale many years ago.  The kit itself was rather simple, being moulded in the typical way of Matchbox; two sprues in different colours and with the fuselage having deep recessed […]

Tamiya 1/48th P-47D Thunderbolt

by Mark Davies   The Savoia-Marchetti S.M. 81 Pipistrello (nicknamed ”Bat ”) was an Italian bomber/transport aircraft of the Second World War developed from the Savoia-Marchetti S.M. 73 passenger airliner of the mid-1930s. Largely obsolescent with its three 700-horesepower Piaggio P.X RC.35 radial piston engines, it nevertheless was a large […]

Savoia Marchetti S.M. 81 Pipistrello

model by Toni Canfora images and text by Martin Waligorski   Few tanks emphasize the tremendous development of armour technology during the Wolrd War II years better than SdKfz 182 PzKpfw VI Tiger II, today also known as the King Tiger. Weighting a massive 70 ton (compared to 25 ton […]

Tiger II Befehlspanzer

A forgiving, easy method of accentuating panel lines by Charles Metz   In my opinion, by far the easiest (and safest) way to accentuate panel lines and, more generally, to ”weather” aircraft is to use chalk-based Artists’ Pastels and a paper ”blending stick.” Artists’ pastels and paper blending sticks can […]

Using Chalk-Based Pastels and Blending Sticks

Special Hobby 1/72 Goodyear F2G-2 by Mark Davies   The Goodyear F2G was a development of the Vought F4U Corsair using the Pratt & Whitney R-4360 four-row ”corncob” radial engine, cut-down fuselage and bubble canopy. It was intended as a low to medium altitude interceptor, and for its day had […]

Super Corsair

Tamiya Chieftain Mk. 5 in Cold War Livery  by Marco Antonio Vaiano Jr   The Chieftain The mainstay of the British Army of the 1960s and 1970s, the Chieftain Main Battle Tank succeeded the Centurion and was in turn replaced by the Challenger. Designed by the Fighting Vehicles Research and […]

In Berlin Camouflage

model by Magnus Löfqvist text and images by Martin Waligorski   Few events shaped the evolution of medieval Europe to such an extent as the Crusades. The Crusades began in the late eleventh century and lasted several hundred years. They inspired the most dedicated valor, the most bloodthirsty cruelty, and […]

Knight Templar 1250

1:72 Saab J21 is Another Old Gem From Heller  by Mark Davies   The Saab J21 first flew in July 1943. It was powered initially by a German-sourced and later Swedish-built version of the Daimler-Benz DB605B, and used a laminar flow wing. It had an ejector seat, being one of […]

Saab’s First Fighter

Converting Heller Saab J 32A to J 32B All-Weather Interceptor by Mark Davies   I have a huge admiration for the achievements Swedish aviation industry and the products of Saab. I also think many of their aircraft make very appealing modeling subjects. The Lansen is a fine example of just […]

The Handsome Lansen

model by Bengt Johansson text and images by Martin Waligorski   After their first defeats on the vast expanses of the Eastern Front, the German army mustered everything that moved. The urgent need for mobile antitank guns resulted in a variety of makeshift vehicles, such as the Marders. Although the […]

Renault UE Pak 3,7cm

Academy 1/72 Republic P-47D Thunderbolt by Martin Waligorski   Working with one of the recent updates of this site I noticed to my dismay that although I constantly keep writing articles for this magazine, it’s been over three years since I have shown any of my own models on these […]

Adventure in Weathered Metal