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The meeting minutes:
The attendance was a little light due to
folks having some conflicts but 12 managed to make it to the
meeting. Wendell Sullivan, a former member, made it to the
meeting; it was nice to see him again. Much of the meeting was
taken up with the usual last minute organizational stuff for the
show. We did manage to find the time to spaz and do some of that
model stuff though. Mike Scheel brought a DVD with nothing but 3
hours of take offs and landings from LAX (justplanes.com). There
are 195 landings and 105 take off’s. I know it sounds like the
heights of geekdom, but it was actually pretty cool. One of the
take off’s was a vintage Connie, and old Constellation that made a
heck of a light show from its exhausts taking off. Barnes and
Noble is carrying a good supply of modeling magazines, including
Military Modelling (the new Armor Special issue is on the shelves,
I highly recommend this issue), Scale Aircraft Modelling, with the
TSR-2 What if? on the cover, Military In Scale, SAMI and After the
Battle (also several military vehicle magazines, 2 Brit and 1 US [mws]).
Please stop in and pick them up so we can continue getting these
hard to get magazines in the Quad Cities. In May we will do the
club photo shoot, bring in your models and we will take still and
digital photos for you. Bob Horton is working on getting SGM
Bowman to come to an upcoming meeting and give a presentation. We
will also plan on doing the club barbecue in July as June is the
Regional. We need to vote on sponsoring a category or two for the
Regional. Due to the lack of a meeting in April, I move to
sponsor two categories for the Regional. If you are opposed,
please contact me within 1 week of the newsletter going out. I
will consider that silence is assent, so no need to contact me if
you agree. We had $2,925.22 in the treasury before the show,
hopefully, we have more after. There was some nice show and tell
stuff. Glen W. had a 1/8 scale 32 Ford in progress. Bob H.
brought in plans for his 1/24 scale truck and trailer project.
This is modeled after a heavy load trailer that brought in some
heavy duty loads to Alcoa. The outside trailer frames have
already been roughed out. He is using a Peterbuilt truck kit as
the prime mover and the trailer will have 72 wheels. This sucker
will be freakin’ huge. Mike Vinson brought in a 1/35 scale KV-1
he built for the club contest. It’s always nice to see finished
models on the tables during the meetings. I only wish that some
of them where mine. Shawn had lots of interesting things to
share. His tip of the day: Use plastic blister packs to make
small scale bunkers. He also had one of the foil freshness seals
from a can of Folders coffee. The foil is good for making
seatbelts, straps, rudder peddles, etc. Very handy stuff. He
also brought in his favorite epoxy, DEVCON. It fills gaps; you
can sculpt it and bond with it, to include dissimilar materials
such as resin, plastic, brass, wood and metal. The two part epoxy
has a resin center; you cut off a small chunk and knead it till it
changes color, then its ready to go. The working and setting time
is about five minutes, handling time is about 15 minutes. It’s
$3.99 a tube. Shawn also continued his discussion on modeling
figures. This month’s subject was standard bearer figures and
flags. He uses woodworking tools to sculpt the flags and give
them their characteristic waving look. They don’t leave burrs or
rough spots when you carve. To get the plastic thick enough to
carve the in the folds, he laminates several pieces of plastic
together. He trims the edges of the flag to try to achieve a
very thin edge for realism, but leaves them thicker in the middle
to improve their durability. Plastic flags are a lot better
looking than paper and last much longer. The woodworking tools are
available in woodcarving shops, hobby shops or on State Street in
Bettendorf at The Woodcraft Shop”. If you need a ride to Des
Moines, or are willing to drive a car pool, please call and let me
know or post it on the mailing list.
The Quad Cities Scale Model Show:
The show was held at the Clarion Hotel
convention center and was successful, both in term of attendance,
model entries and finances. We had 55 entrants, 40 vendor tables
and nearly 250 models on the tables. We did lose about 20 some
odd vendor tables to the Region IV Regional, this loss of revenue
caused a reversion back to certificates for Bronze medals,
however, our usual plaques and acrylic trophies were awarded for
Silver, Gold and special awards. We did make a profit of over
$400, however, the cost of bronze trophies would have put us in a
near break even or loss status, so the decision to go with
certificates was financially sound. We have one plaque left for
Best P-38 as there was none entered. I propose that we offer it
as a special award at the Lippisch show in May. That should give
folks time to build one. There is a new model magazine coming out
called ModelX. The editor is Jeff Hearne; many of you know him
from his previous job at Fine Scale Modeler. Jeff was in
attendance with his photo rig and took photos for the next edition
of ModelX magazine, due out on late Summer/early Fall. I have to
say that one event made the show for me. As you know, there are
always a few people who grumble about not receiving a higher
award, or not winning anything at all, but most folks are
genuinely happy to win something and I always enjoy the looks on
people faces when they get their awards. The best of all though
was the young lady, Jeff Hearne’s daughter, if I recall correctly,
when she won the Best Junior award for her GeeBee racer. That
smile could have melted the polar ice cap and made all the hard
work worthwhile for me. As usual, the hard work of the club
members and judges was very much appreciated and made the show a
success.
Editorial page:
The Quad Cities show is behind us for
another year, and it’s time to take a hard look at future shows.
While the show was successful, it was not as much so as in past
years. Due to a scheduling conflict with the Indy show last year,
we cancelled due to potential and actual loss of vendors and
attendees. This year, we lost 20 vendor tables to the Region IV
Regional in Pittsburg, yup, you heard me, Pittsburg. Who would
have thought? This issue is being addressed by the Regional
coordinators and we all realize now that shows can have an impact
on each other due to loss of vendor tables eve though they are
hundreds of miles apart. I doubt that this will occur again.
There are other issues to address though. Our attendance was way
down, around 250 people attended, down from the 350 or more than
usually attend. There are shows every week in Region V and it is
having an effect. There were very few people in attendance from
Western Iowa and Wisconsin. Is it because there are shows in Des
Moines and Madison right after ours? I don’t know, but I suspect
that we are reaching show saturation. I discussed this issue with
Rick Filosa, president of Lippisch, and Jack Wyzlic from Peoria.
We are proposing selecting a weekend (either the traditional
Lippisch date in May or our last Saturday in March) and holding
the show on that date and alternate locations every year between
Cedar Rapids and the Quad Cities. We are also proposing that the
show chairman come from the host chapter, but that the head judge,
raffle coordinator and other positions could be shared among the
chapters making the work load a lot easier. This may ensure the
long term survival, and possible growth, of both shows. One last
point, after being the show chairman for the last 10 years, I am
stepping down. There are a number of reasons, first and foremost
is that both of my sons will deploy to Iraq this summer and will
be deployed until late summer or early fall of 2008. My wife will
also deploy sometime this year. If something happens, I need to
be available to take care of my family without the worry of
managing an event. It is not fair to the club if I can not devote
the attention necessary to make it a success, nor is it fair to my
family not to be able to devote the attention to them that they
require during the upcoming deployments. My job is also demanding
more of my time and I spent nearly four weeks on temporary duty
prior to this years show and also missed a key monthly planning
meeting in February due to travel out of town. And lastly, for
the long term good of the club, I need to pass the torch on. My
job will be taking me to Detroit, or some other location, in the
next three years. I need to train some one else to run the show
in the future. The best way to do it is to have some one step up
now, and I can work with them through the planning and execution
phase so they have a show under their belt before I leave. It’s
not that hard to do, the most important skill is probably
organizational ability. It’s sort of like building a model; you
keep adding pieces until you have something that looks good at the
end of the process. The most important piece is the club
itself. You have always stepped up and there is always some one
ready to lend a helping hand. It’s made it an enjoyable
experience and I encourage some one to step up for the next
show. I guarantee that the smiles you get when you are handing
out awards will be worth it, not to mention the cold beers after
the show.
Lost and Found:
This came in from David Rezebek from Lippisch
after the show: Lost: 1/48 Revell of Germany F-84F kit. Responds
to the name "Thunderstreak. I was hoping that either one of The
Farting Fleas picked it up (Dale?) or perhaps it was found later
when cleaning up (Glen?)
- Committed To Being A Better Kit Owner If
Only Given The Chance,
David
davidrezabek@yahoo.com
The Dates:
April 14: Chapter meeting. Road trip to
Des Moines
April 14: IPMS Plastic Surgeons 14th
Annual Plastic Surgeons Model Contest. Contact: Greg Metge
gmgha@mchsi.com 3635 E.P.True Parkway West Des Moines, IA
50265 our website
http://www.ipmsplastic/ surgeons.com
May 5: IPMS/Alexander Lippisch; Hiawatha
Community Center, 800 N. Centerpoint Rd., Hiawatha, IA; contact
Rick Filosa at
rfilosa@mchsi.com
May 12: Chapter meeting. Club photo
shoot. Guest speaker?
June 9: No chapter meeting! We will be at
the Regional!
June 8-9: Region V Regional, Knights of
Columbus Hall 401 West Main Street, Ottawa, IL 61350 Contact:
Steve Stohr: 815-434-7279, 2615 Cherie Lane, Ottawa, IL 61350
thestohrs@aol.com
August 22-25: IPMS/USA 2007 National
Convention hosted by IPMS/Orange County; Anaheim Marriott,
Anaheim, CA; details at
www.ipmsusa2007.org
News from Dick Montgomery, IPMS Director of
Local Chapters:
Two items: Supporting the Troops & Meteor
Productions
Fellow IPMS members;
The “Supporting Our Troops” program is going
very well. Please visit the IPMS/USA website to see how
individuals and IPMS clubs have contributed models and supplies to
our troops. There is now a person that you can contact directly
via email at
george.salerno@iraq.centcom.mil . LTC Salerno has
centralized the efforts on the receiving end. LtC Salerno is
working directly with John Noack, 1st V.P of IPMS. You
can also contact John at JNoack@IPMSUSA.org . As you can see by
the various descriptions offered on the IPMS/USA website, clubs
and individuals are pouring items of all types into the delivery
system. If your club has not yet made a contribution please
consider doing so at your earliest convenience. Telling IPMS about
your efforts in word and picture is not “just bragging on
yourself”. It is an encouragement that you provide to others who
have yet to follow suit, so please document your club efforts and
share your stories and pictures with IPMS. Your information will
be added to the IPMS/USA website. On the 2nd subject,
the IPMS/USA website will soon feature a “gallery” showing the
recipients of the 2006 Meteor Productions Certificate program.
Meteor provided a $25 gift certificate to an IPMS member from each
chartered IPMS/USA club that made a nomination prior to the Dec
31, 2007 deadline. If your recipient is not pictured in the
gallery please send an image to
dmontgomery@ipmsusa.org. A big Thanks goes to Meteor
Productions for this outstanding and generous show of support to
IPMS/USA and to its membership.
Happy Modeling,
Dick Montgomery
IPMS Director of Local Chapters
IPMS/Region 5 Regional Convention Info:
Sponsored by: IPMS/S.P.A.S.A.M.
Dates: June 8-9, 2007
Location: Knights of Columbus Hall, 401 Main
Street, Ottawa, IL 61350
Themes: Birth of the U.S. Air
Force—1947-2007 & 40 Years of Camaro’s and Firebirds
Theme Award: Best USAF Subject 1947-1950 and
Best F-Body Camaro/Firebird
King of Battle: Best Artillery Subject
American Gold: Best model from a U.S. kit
manufacturer issued up to 1985
“What if”: Best alternative use for a
subject
People’s Choice: Best of Show
Judges’ Choice: Best of Show
Special Awards: Best of each major division
Categories: 18 Aircraft, 16 Automotive, 6
Figure, 12 Armor, 6 Ship, 5 Space/Science Fiction, 4 Diorama, 9
Junior, 2 Miscellaneous and Collections and 2 (at least) Splits.
Hello Gang.........................Nice to
see you again............. :)
On behalf of the Region Five Convention
coming up in June, I would like to take this opportunity to
solicit your Chapters participation and support with Awards
Sponsorships. Please contact Ron Thorne at
ROMMEL897@msn.com for your dibs on a good category. Vendor
tables are still available from Steve Storh at NAHobbies@aol.com
so, get going before the well runs dry. I will be hanging in the
Lizard Lounge singing the Best of Ronnie James Dio. Just look for
the Blonde in a cute print........dats me :) Have a great day and
see you at the Convention!!!!!!! Who still loves ya???? I do you
Geese!!!!!
Jack Bruno IPMS #25313
RETIRED Region 5 Coordinator
2003 Regional Coordinator of the Year
On the subject of “what If?” here is a little something courtesy
of the Will-Cook chapter newsletter:
The idea of a cost-saving multi-purpose
combat aircraft first arose as the United States was finally drawn
into “The Great War” in 1917. With no aircraft manufacturing
industry capable of producing the many different special purpose
models needed for the war within the time frame available, the War
Department asked for proposals from Glenn Curtiss and William
Boeing in 1917 for the “one aircraft you can build immediately
that will perform all combat tasks.” Neither could comply because
the War Department’s cavalry officers had no specific ideas how it
would use the operational aircraft in squadron service at the
front. Having read the public Request for Proposals, a new private
company led by financier J. P. Morgan built in secrecy, tested,
and submitted four prototype aeroplanes for flight test evaluation
in January 1918. It was officially designated the JPM. 1c-b5
Snaggletooth. Three of the Snaggletooth prototypes were
unfortunately destroyed in the testing program. Two of them were
lost along with their pilots, crew, and combat team passengers,
killing at least 20 brave men. The third aircraft was destroyed
by the remaining pilot and crew on the ground with a box of hand
grenades so they would have a good excuse for not having to
actually fly it. With the help of a moving company, the fourth
prototype was “liberated” from its hangar by company executives
fearing the wrath of “J. P.” for their financial losses on the
project. Thus, it disappeared into obscurity and public memory
until it was discovered in a crumbling warehouse in Yonkers, New
York, in 1961 and restored. It is rumored that Robert S. McNamara
later learned of its history and claimed the idea as his own for
the concept of a single cost-saving aircraft that could be used by
all branches of the armed forces—the TFX!
The Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum:
Good afternoon gentlemen, about four months
ago I rejoined the IMPS after being placed into medical
retirement. Almost two years ago I became involved as an
occasional volunteer with Illinois's biggest aerospace museum, The
Octave Chanute Aerospace Museum (OCAM), Rantoul, Illinois,
www.aeromuseum.org. My name is Frank S. Gattolin, IPMS number
44811 and I live in Gurnee, Illinois. Since becoming involved at
OCAM I've been privileged to make a rather extensive diorama for
the museum and repairing many of the museum's existing dioramas.
This has been very gratifying because it allows me to use my
meager talents to help "something" I love: aviation. It was my
career for almost 40-years. I've been a modeler since age five (a
Strombecker DC-3 I painted red). Recently, the museum director
gave the green light to enhance the existing Chanute AFB Hall of
History. Another fellow and I are in the preliminary stages of
planning the changes for this hall. This is the reason I'm
writing each of you. As a fellow modeler I'm sure we share many
model-related things in common; one of which is enjoying building
models and trying to figure out what to do with them. Well, if
any of you or your fellow chapter members shares this I have an
opportunity that will satisfy the desire to build scale model
airplanes and have a place to permanently display them: OCAM. The
previously mentioned hall of history covers the span of time
Chanute AFB (C-AFB) was operational- 1917 to 1994. The hall of
history is about 100-feet long. The plan is to have the hall
contain not only a photographic history of C-AFB, but also
relevant artifacts, time lines with the type of activities
associated with the time line and model dioramas depicting certain
time periods at C-AFB such at the mid-1930's. I've volunteered to
seek other fellow modelers to help construct these dioramas (doing
this with just a few fellow modelers would take longer than the
museum has scheduled for project completion). And, quite frankly,
I could not think of any group of modelers who would be able
to create the models and related dioramas than folks who are in
IPMS. The dioramas will have to fit into a display case that is
roughly 28-inches by 64-inches (accurate dimensions later). The
height available within the case is about 20-inches. The cases
will be illuminated. The number of dioramas needed for
this hall is between six and seven. My thought is that a diorama
would be a good chapter project that could lead to other OCAM-IPMS
activities (such as model contests, a model museum, etc.). This
is a good opportunity to share your collective modeling skills
with many others who'll see your fine work. Each diorama case
will have a plaque giving credit to the builders. I would
appreciate hearing from you fellows about the feasibility of such
a project along with any questions you may have. Thanks for your
time. I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Frank G.
Kit Review: 1/48 Tamiya Crusader Mk. I/II
Reviewed by Glen Broman, IPMS Quad Cities
I like British armor. Is that so wrong?
During the vendor set up at the Quad Cities show last week, I was
walking by the stack of boxes that Winston Vermilyea from Wings
and Treads was setting up and I saw this newly released kit
calling for me like an orphaned kitty at the animal shelter. Who
could resist? Despite the fact that I hate the freakin’ die cast
hulls, I really like Tamiya’s small scale armor. The Crusader is
primarily famous for its role in the Western desert battles,
although later marks also served on in Italy and France. The
major difference between the Mark I and Mark II was the small
machine gun turret on the Mark I. Having both options in the kit
is a nice touch. I am planning on building the Mark I because I
like the look of that little turret up front. While the tank
itself was a moderate success at best, the machine gun turret was
remarkably unsuccessful. It tended to fill with fumes when the
machine gun was fired and was incredibly cramped. Certainly not
my idea of a good time. Starting with the worst first, this has
that stupid die cast hull, which I hate. The rest of the kit is a
gem. The instructions are clear and well laid out and each sprue
is packaged separately. Starting with the running gear, the
positive impressions made by the well molded parts will get you
wanting to start building this puppy right away. The road wheels
have the perforations molded in on the rubber portion of the wheel
done very cleanly. The tracks are link and length and the level
of detail and finesse is very nice. A pin wash and dry brush will
really bring out the detail on these tracks and make them pop.
The headlight guards are very petite was an appearance that is
very close to scale. I would recommend a PE saw to remove them as
they look very fragile. The upper hull is nicely molded and has
two screws to fasten it to the hull. Super glue will be required
to glue the plastic upper hull to the metal lower hull. The
remainder of the upper hill pieces and tools are again very
cleanly molded with very nice detail. A piece of treated string
is supplied for the tow cables. The turret parts are very well
done and the 2 pounder main gun and machine guns even have the
ends molded open so there is no requirement to drill them out.
Two different gun mantlets are provided, one for the Mark I and
one for the Mark II. You will have to add a radio aerial from
sprue or wire, as the antenna base is all that’s provided in the
kit. Based on my past experience wit Tamiya kits, and the quality
of the moldings, I don’t see any potential assembly problems with
the assembly of this kit. The instructions provide a little bit
of written marking information, mostly stating that machines in
the UK were painted a “dark green”, and tanks in the desert were
painted sand, with some having a charcoal grey disruptive
pattern. The instructions also have side view painting and
marking examples for two Mark I’s in overall sand, both from
unknown units in North Africa and three Mark II’s, one is also an
unknown unit, the other two are from the 7th Armoured
Brigade and the 1st Armoured Division. One would think
with the massive amount of available references on the North
African campaign that “known” units would not have been a
problem. The marking information also barely touches the
possibilities of available markings that you can do wit this kit.
Many schemes are possible, home training units in overall green
and brown, the famous Western Desert three color Caunter scheme
may also be a possibility, as well as overall sand, sand and dark
grey and sand and dark brown. One has only to start checking
references to come up with some interesting schemes and markings.
One interesting addition to the instructions is a template for
making what Tamiya describes as storage rails. I believe that
these were actually installed as rails to hold a camp screen that
made the tank look like a truck from the air. Of course, once the
camo was off, the crew turned it in to s storage rail. It would
have been quite simple for Tamiya to add these parts; however, a
template for the parts is a nice touch. This kit will make a nice
addition to anyone’s collection.
Kit Review: 1/25 scale AMT 1939/1940 Ford
Reviewed by Glen Broman, IPMS Quad Cities
This is not exactly a new release, this kit
originally came out in 1999, but I just found it while rummaging
through a pile of kits at the Quad Cities Scale Model show. I do
like the classic look of the 39 and 40 Ford Turtleback designs.
This kit has the option of being built as accustom, street rod or
the Tudor deluxe sedan, so you can go wit what tickles your
fancy. In my case, I am building the classic Tudor. I will be
adding a bit of a twist though as I plan to paint it in overall
Battleship grey as a Navy staff car at Pearl Harbor in 1941. Does
any one remember the classic John Wayne movie “In Harms Way”?
The original 39 Ford was quite a car back in the day, offering
such amenities as a “three on the tree”, sealed beam headlights,
separate parking lights, tandem windshield wipers, a cigar lighter
and ashtrays both front and rear. The directions are pretty clear
with the options clearly marked for the deluxe and standard
version 85 HP V-8, the 394 Olds V-8 for the custom and drag
versions. There will be some parts left over for your spares box
no matter which version you choose. Color call outs are given in
the instructions for each part. The chrome sprue is packaged
separately to prevent scratches and all of the other parts and
sprues are packaged separately to prevent damage. There are a
total of ten rubber molded tires provided; two are racing slicks,
four Goodyear customs and four standards. No whitewalls are
provided. The tires are cleanly molded with no visible seam lines
to clean up. Overall, the molding is very clean and nicely done,
with nice detailing. No flash is visible and past experience with
ERTL/AMT kits that very little cleaning up will be required.
Given the popularity of these cars, there is a huge potential for
painting and tricking this kit out. There are only a few decals
for his kit, mostly for the drag version, consisting of flames.
Ya gotta have flames. Overall, this looks like a fun little build
with lots of painting options.
Kit review: 1/700 scale Dragon Premium
edition USS San Diego CL-53
Reviewed by Glen Broman, IPMS Quad Cities
The USS San Diego is one of the new Dragon
Premium kits which include PE parts, very handy as you can build
almost anything without PE parts and they will look good, but ship
kits just have to have PE railings and other little tidbits to
look good. Getting a first class kit and a PE fret for $20 is a
heck of a good deal, most PF aftermarket frets run about $20 alone
for a 1/700 scale ship. Anyway, back to the ship. The San Diego
was a light cruiser specifically designed for anti-aircraft work.
It has eight twin five inch dual purpose mounts and a butt load of
1.1 inch, 20mm and 40mm guns. One of the sister ships of the USS
San Diego, the USS Juneau, was the ship that the Sullivan
Brothers from Iowa were serving on when she was sunk in the
Solomon’s Chain with the loss of all five brothers. The decals
for the Juneau are included on the decal sheet, along with the
Atlanta and San Juan. The kit is very well molded and has both
full and waterline options. There are a lot of parts in this kit,
enough to model all of the ships of the class and the instructions
show the extra parts as shaded, so you know that the old spare
parts box will be busting at the seams after you get done with
this kit. The PE fret is packaged separately with the decals on a
piece of hard cardboard stock top prevent damage. The PE fret
includes the railings, radar, 1.1 inch AA mounts and depth charge
racks. The five inch dual mounts have the guns molded separately
and will look very nice when done. It looks like the blast bags
are molded with the gun, so a tiny amount of filler or liquid glue
may be needed to close them off. Overall, the plastic detail
parts are done very well, considering the scale of the kit and the
difficulty of achieving scale thickness with any kind of actual
ability to remove the part for the sprue and glue it on without
destroying it. Even the 20mm guns are molded with the shield as a
separate part. Prepare to go blind building this puppy. You may
want to look at replacing the ships masts with thin brass tube for
a better appearance and have more structural rigidity. The
instructions provide three schemes from different periods in the
war. A Measure 12 with splotches from 1942-43, a measure 31a/24d
from 1944 and a Measure 21 from 1945. One thing that I have a
problem with is that the fit of the ship probably changed after
each period in the yard, which also probably coincide with the
changes in Measures that the ship was painted. None of this is
pointed out in the directions, nor is there any info on what
weapons fit goes with each version. I suspect that the kit as
marketed is the 1942-43 version due the 1.1 inch AA mounts in the
instructions. I believe that this went obsolete rather early in
the war and would have been landed prior to her 1944 refit. My
advice would be to check your references before you decide on a
version. Other than this niggle, this looks like a good kit.
Kit Review: Academy 1/35 Scale Kit No. 13208;
M551 Sheridan "Gulf War"; (457 in sand colored styrene, 2 in steel
colored vinyl, 1 section of nylon screen); retail price US $40.
Advantages: adds parts for M551A1 series
vehicle and configuration for "Desert Storm"
Disadvantages: No corrections to errors in
previous kit
Rating: Recommended
Recommendation: For all modern American armor
fans
I have to feel a bit disappointed in Academy.
They have shown themselves to have some of the best ideas and
molding going in today's market and yet their research tends to
not be applied to their kits, which is a shame. Three kit lines
which could have been big winners were their M3 light tanks, their
M3 medium series, and their M551 Sheridans.
When the M551 Sheridan Vietnam kit (No.
13011) was released two years ago, it was a initially a very
welcome model as it replace the awful Tamiya kit and Academy's
even worse clone of that kit. But once it got into the hands of
the modelers, it showed a number of problems with shapes and
details which was unfortunate. Its more annoy flaws were some
shape problems with the turret, a length and angle problem at the
rear of the hull, and errors in the location of the suspension
arms. While I personally can find the first two errors (the engine
deck is too long, resulting in too steep an angle of the rear
upper hull plate) the only error I can find with the basic
suspension geometry are some hollow areas behind the road wheels I
don't seem to find on any of the production vehicles. This kit
does correct some of the detail errors of the Vietnam kit and
provides some new bits of use. Some items like the AN/VVS-3
searchlight lens are still missing, which is another annoyance
that could have been fixed, however. As I noted when I reviewed
the original kit, some items were skimped over in order to make a
reasonably producible kit. One point concerns the road wheels,
which have a very annoying lip around the rims (a sure dust and
mud magnet) whereas the kit's wheels are simple dished affairs.
There is a large hole in the belly but it is NOT a motorization
hole; this is the vehicle's belly escape hatch (there is a shape
like this which the belly armor leaves a cutout for, figuring that
the center of the hull is not as likely as the bow or sides to
suffer mine effects; however, it is much farther forward so this
should just be cemented in place, filled and forgotten.) One nice
touch is the provision of buckles and strap tie downs on the C
(suspension) sprues, which will be very handy items for modelers
to use. As for the kit, it provides the main sprues from the
1-11th ACR Vietnam model with a large new sprue of parts for the
A1 and upgrades of earlier bits and two from the very nice US
Machine Gun Set by Academy; this vehicle actually comes with three
.50 caliber M2HB guns and two .30 caliber Brownings, so it
provides four of them for the spares box up front. It also comes
with the OVM sprue from the M4 series kits and more extra bits.
Some new basic parts are included, such as new idle mounts and
idler arms as well as shackles and hull details. The kit does
provide most of the detail changes between the M551 and the
M551A1. The massive smoke grenade launchers are replaced by
standardized modular units as used by all other US vehicles today,
but the brackets for the older ones are now also provided. Also
included are the laser rangefinder and detail changes to the
entire "crow's nest" commander's station and a new bustle rack
which appears to be a close copy of the one used by the 82nd
Airborne Division vehicles. Maddeningly the Academy folks have
provided a number of spare bits to dress up the model, such as a
spare wheel, fuel and water cans, ammo cans (including the popular
20mm boxes used for stowage) but then they provide ten links of
track. Other than some ejection pin marks on the inner face of the
links, they are more accurate than the two vinyl runs which come
with the kit. Somewhere along the line Academy either took their
dimensions from a Sheridan with worn-out tracks or missing its
rubber pads, for their tracks come without them. This is more than
a minor annoyance, as correcting it will call for either getting
the Legend Sheridan track and suspension kit or a set of Fruil
tracks. Decals are provided for three different Sheridans from
3-73 Armor, 82nd Airborne Division, during Desert Shield. (My
readings were that the Sheridans were used for security and did
not directly participate in combat operations once the "heavy"
divisions arrived in Saudi Arabia, but the 82nd's Sheridans were
the first "boots on the ground"
armor for US forces.) However, the two named vehicles are "Die
Hard" (listed as C-11) and "Drifter" (B-34) which should have been
part of D Company, and photos of "Deathstalker" (D-34) seem to
bear this out. I could be wrong (as most of the photos of 3-73
Armor with the flashier markings were taken much later in the
campaign; upon
arrival they were just quickly repainted in FS30277 Sand and not
the later shade) but few units rarely stray from American Army
traditions (company letter is the first letter of the vehicle's
name.) The geometric shape markings likewise indicate different
subunits and
platoons. Overall, except for the ultra-purist the only really
problematic area of this kit are the skinny and incorrect tracks,
and most modelers will probably be happy to build this kit to
complete their collection. I have seen one individual, dim of
reasoning perhaps, state the Tamiya kit is actually better but
that is pure fantasy. I suggest he seek out the corrected version
I built of that model that was presented in Fine Scale Modeler
with one photo showing the Tamiya kit's hull enclosing the ENTIRE
hull of a correct size 1/35 scale Sheridan before making such
boorish comments. Thanks to Bob Lewen of MRC/Academy for the
review sample.
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