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The Meeting Minutes:
Well folks, we had us a nice time in
beautiful downtown Dubuque at the club barbecue. Thanks again to
Keith Johnson and his family for hosting the event, it was a
beautiful day. Keith had his garage set up for the festivities
and we had a pretty good feed. Keith had something that was a new
addition to the barbecue food list, brat burgers. These were
really good and came from a local store. They are bratwurst in
burger form. I should go to Dubuque more often, they have
wondrous things there. Speaking of wondrous things, I went up
early and stopped at Fagan’s Hobby shop, it’s less than half a
mile from Keith’s house. It’s a nice place with a good selection
and is one of those places that you need to walk around several
times to make sure that you’ve seen everything. I picked up a
couple of interesting items, some of which I have been looking for
for quite a while. Mr. Fagan is a friendly guy and fun to talk
to. He sponsors a hobby show up in Dubuque in the fall that
includes a small model contest. I plan to go this year. He
donates everything the show brings in to the Make A Wish
foundation and has donated over $34,000 to date. Anyway, back to
Keith’s house. We had a nice selection of completed models on
display. Keith won the Christmas challenge as he brought in his
1/24 scale Revell 2006 Mustang that he got at the Christmas
raffle. The club contest was won by Richard Riedesel’s 34 Ford
pick up by Lindberg, Second was my 1/72 Revell Panzer Haubitze
2000 and Keith took third with his Mustang. Earl brought his huge
International space station metal kit that he picked up at
Fagan’s, it was an impressive looking kit that comes in a large
box and has a killer instruction book. Speaking of Earl,
congratulations to Earl on his engagement and his upcoming wedding
this Halloween. Best of luck to you both! Besides the food, one
of the other highlights was the 2007 Basement Tour stop. Keith not
only has an impressive basement full of car models, his man cave
is to die for. This is really a model room as the wall is covered
with posters of swimsuit models. I don’t know how he manages to
finish anything, my mind certainly started to wander. It seems
that it would be easy to get sidetracked. So anyway, lots of
models, some where plastic, but all were impressive. Some place I
had written down all of the models that were there on show and
tell, but know I can’t find it. Sorry, but I can tell you the
food was delicious and the raffle kicked butt. For the August
meeting, we will meet at the Rock Island Arsenal Museum. We now
have two display cases to use at the museum. The theme will be
“Got History?” we can bring in anything that is historical and in
good taste. This is a museum, after all. So classic muscle cars,
planes, ships; military and civilian, plus spacecraft. A little
something for everyone. BY the way, I was cleaning up the
basement and found my old Atomic Cannon that I built probably
around the 9th grade. I am working on restoring it for
the display. This was the old Renwal kit and was actually pretty
good for its day. It’s going to take a fair amount of putty and
I’ve already done some serious sanding trying to clean it up. I
would dearly love to find an unbuilt one to start on from the
ground up. I have arranged a tour of the Rock Island Arsenal
museum for the August meeting, so we will meet at the museum.
Due to the fact that we have a tour guide coming in, I need to
stress that you need to be at the museum at 1:00 so we can start
on time. To get to the museum, enter the Arsenal at the
Moline gate. Unless you have a DoD registered vehicle and military
or government ID, this is the only gate you can enter. The on
ramp for the Arsenal Viaduct in Moline is located on 3rd
street, AKA River Drive. Stop at the Guard Shack and present photo
ID and tell them that you are going to the museum. Once you leave
the Guard shack, continue straight ahead, you will be on Rodman
Avenue. Turn right at the second traffic light (East Ave). Just
before you get to the second traffic light, you will see Memorial
Park on your left; it’s full of artillery pieces and some armor.
Don’t worry; we plan to visit it before we leave. After you turn
right at the light, take a left at the stop sign (North Ave). ¾
of the way down the road on your left is the museum. There is
ample parking in the lot across the street from the museum. We
will get a tour, plus fill up the display cases, so bring the
models that you would like to display. The research area is not
open to the public without prior arrangement, but we will get a
tour to see what is available. Once we finish with the museum, and
fill up the display cabinet, we will head down to Memorial field
and take a look at the items on display there. This is a great
museum and I hope you can make it. If you have any questions,
please call me at (309) 523-3671. My oldest son and club member
Christopher will be flying in from Camp Shelby on his deployment
leave on Saturday and should be joining us for the tour if you
want to stop by and say hi. He returns to Camp Shelby on the 18th
and flies to Iraq about two weeks later. Sounds like an excuse
for German food Saturday night. Some of you may have heard that
Bob had an unplanned trip to the hospital in July. He is doing
really well and should be at the meeting. Bob is working on
getting Sergeant Major Bowman to come and speak at one of our
upcoming meetings. His first installment on his huge truck
project is in this issue of the newsletter. If any of you have
ideas for upcoming meetings, please let me know. A usual, I am
always looking for articles for the newsletter. It really cuts
down on the amount of typing I have to do and generally improves
the content of the newsletter if I’m not writing a lot of it. For
those of you interested in both ships and history, LST 325 will be
docked in Henry Illinois on31 August to 3 September. This LST was
purchased from the Greek navy and sailed back to the US by a crew
made up of former LST sailors. Quite a remarkable feat. Because
of the size and draft of the vessel, the farthest up the Illinois
river she can go is Henry, about 25 miles south of Princeton. For
more information, go to
www.lstmemorial.org or
www.henryil.com. That’s about all I have for now, see you
at the meeting.
The Dates:
August 11: Chapter Meeting at the Rock Island
Arsenal Museum and Museum Tour
August 22-25: IPMS/USA 2007 National
Convention hosted by IPMS/Orange County; Anaheim Marriott,
Anaheim, CA; details at
www.ipmsusa2007.org
September 8: Chapter Meeting
September 15: IPMS/Gateway; Gateway to the
West Invitational; First Baptist Church of Harvester, 4075 Hwy. 94
South, St. Charles, MO; contact Chris Merseal at
CRM@InlInk.com
October 13: Chapter Meeting
November 10: Chapter Meeting – at the Butch
O’Hare show
November 10: IPMS/”Butch” O’Hare; 25th
Annual Open Model Contest and Swap Meet; Lakeview Junior High
School, 701 Plainfield Rd., Darien, IL; contact Marco A. Fernandez
at
mfchi@sbcglobal.net
December 8: Chapter Meeting. Christmas party
and annual “What If? Contest. The $20 challenge will also be
held. Bring in the completed kit you bought for $20 from Ed and
get your money back.
Hello Region 5,
I am making a quick update for you all. It
has been a few weeks since I last rattled your cages (Thank
goodness most of you are thinking). So before I get into much of
IPMS stuff, I want to give you a Mike update. I have had some
testing done and will have an outpatient surgery on Wednesday July
25th. As a result of the ongoing testing and such I
may have missed an email or not gotten a request from you
handled. If this is the case I apologize and will get on it as
soon as I am feeling up to it (about a week they tell me). So if
something really urgent comes up that you don’t feel can wait a
few days, the DLC Dick Montgomery will field you emails and
attempt to help you. I really expect to be back dealing with
emails and stuff within a few days though. Next item. IPMS USA
has an election going on currently. Please take the time to vote
as you feel appropriate but please vote. The society is only as
good as the input it receives. I will be leaving for the IPMS
National Convention in about 3 weeks or so. We are having an RC
meeting at the Nationals. I also attend the IPMS Business meeting
as well (I have for many years now). So if your chapter has
issues you wish IPMS to know about, please forward your thoughts
to me. I am your representative to IPMS USA and I want to
communicate our Region’s issues to them. I can only do this with
your input. I am a firm believer in if you see an issue or a
problem you feel needs to be addressed, speak up. However, I
don’t believe in just venting, try to have a solution to that said
issue. This type of thought out process goes quite a way in
convincing folks of your side of an issue or problem. My Region 5
webpage/site is VERY, VERY close to being up. The webmaster has
been adding things for me and getting my approval on how that
turned out. We want to make sure it is right before turning it on
to the public. I would say it is 90% done. Along with this
website, I am from time to time having issues with AOL, and I will
have a new email address for Region 5 email. Both will be
announced together. I will still answer AOL for a while but to be
honest, not all my emails are making it to me and not all my
emails I am sending out are get to the folks I want them to go
to. So, for best results, when you receive the new email address
please begin using it ASAP.
Take care,
Mike George
Region 5 RC
A note from Bob Horton
Hi gang: Anyone noticed the new hobby store
down on State St. in Bettendorf. It is in the old Bakery surplus
store building...north side of street about a block east of I-74
bridge ramp. I think it is called Victory Lane RC hobbies...seems
to apparently mostly RC stuff.
Diary of a scratch build project. Part I.
January 2007 thru May 2007.
By Bob Horton
Hard as it may seem to believe, this
modeler/writer is tackling a project that wasn’t military ordnance
related, and/or built between 1900 and 1920. Yes it’s true. It
takes a bit of storytelling as to what preceded the point where
this project actually got off the ground. Everyone probably has
that pet project that sits in the back of their mind and sometimes
eventually comes to life. This story begins back in mid summer of
1992. Our plant was setting out on a program of 12 year overhauls
of its major electrical rotating equipment. We did not have the
facilities or the technical expertise in-house to tackle this job.
This was going to require shipping the removed equipment to a
repair shop in Chicago and then return it to our plant. You need
some pretty hefty hauling equipment to get an oversized piece of
equipment over the road and this is where the subject of this
project came in. During the summer of 1992 shutdown the main mill
motor armature was removed and ready to be loaded onto a flat bed
type of an “over the road heavy hauler.” The truck tractor unit
and trailer arrived at our plant site. Since my crew was part of
the team that had removed the armature, I went outside to see what
this rig was that was going to carry the equipment over the road.
I wasn’t prepared for the sight that faced me. This rig was
immense. It had a total of 70 wheels counting the two front
steering wheels of a huge Mack tractor unit. From front of the
tractor to the rearmost bumper it was well over one hundred feet
long. The Mack tractor unit had 3 sets of rear wheels and the
remaining 56 wheels were supporting 5 sectional wheeled dollies
and a flat bed carrier platform that carried the armature. The
actual load carrying center section flat bed carrier was about 30
feet long. It was then supported at each end by large goose neck
shaped beams that ended in a type of 5th wheel surface
that would allow the whole rig to be steerable. To spread out this
immense load, there were two other flexible dolly type trailers
that were goose necked onto each other that attached at the rear
of the load. I was impressed enough with this whole rig that I
thought there is a possibility of building a model of this thing
some day. Back in 1992 I had taken several pictures of the rig and
had acquired some other promotional literature that described the
Chicago trucking company that had contracted this job at that
time. Very minimal reference material to support a pretty involved
model project. So a good deal of time passed and we now find
ourselves in late 2006 and this project had been all but forgotten
until a couple of unrelated events took place. First, there
happened to be an article in a local paper that showed a
truck-trailer combination much like the one I remembered. The
story and picture dealt with a rig similar to my recollections,
pulling a huge load out of a local machinery manufacturer’s
facility. That sparked some thoughts that stirred the sleeping
giant. But there were an awful lot of questions to be answered. I
just simply knew about as little about truck technology and
trucking in general as anyone possibly could. Then the second
event; I had just recently became acquainted with a local
gentleman whose business is closely tied with the trucking
industry and trucking technology. So I now had an authority figure
to help with the many, many questions I had concerning trucks.
Obviously the complete trailer load carrying rig was going to have
to be scratch built. That was understood. First, though, I needed
investigate the model scene and see what actually was available
for the truck tractor unit. I knew from my sparse photos and
material I had gathered that the tractor unit was a Mack truck; a
model 613 or 713 Superliner. I had hoped to find a kit, something
in perhaps 1/48th or no larger then 1/32nd
scale. I searched thru eBay and all of the online kit catalogs to
see what was available. Nothing suitable was available in a
conventional tractor in those scales and I finally decided I might
as well give up the smaller scale idea and settle on a model in
1/25th scale. The Mack truck was not available so I
figured I would go for a Peterbilt Model 359 tractor unit. I
settled on the fact that to try to at least duplicate the
mechanics of this big rig, I would need two kits yielding extra
parts as my “example” as the truck in use was a tri-axle unit…3
sets of rear axles. But man, did I have a lot to learn!!!. I
actually started working on the layout of the trailer units at
this same time. I would have to take the available photos and the
meager information I had and try to translate that into working
sketches of these 5 individual wheeled trailer dollies and the
main cantilever load platform. But for the moment, rather then to
confuse project progress, we’ll follow the work on the tractor
rig. I will return to the construction of the trailing units in a
later article. The tractor unit obviously would take some
conversion work itself. My aim was to try to do the best I could
to duplicate what I had seen circa 1992. In other words, I wanted
the Peterbilt 359 to represent what the Mack looked like in layout
and equipment placement. In actuality, after now tracking down at
least five or six actually oversized loads thru the quad cities, I
find that the make of tractor selection can vary widely. In some
cases these tractors are company owned but also, many are driven
by owner/operators contracted by these heavy hauler specialists.
A considerable amount of time was spent going thru copies of
pictures of actual trucks that were advertised for sale on an
internet website. See (www.truckpaper.com)
which supplied a lot of examples and statistics as to wheel base
lengths and equipment layouts on the chassis of about any model
and make of truck imaginable. It became quite apparent that there
is a lot of latitude for a truck buyer to mix and match equipment
placement. The other issue that soon became quite apparent was the
fact that I had no details concerning the mechanics of this third
axle installation. Eventually I found a couple of trucks locally
that were set up with the third (front axle. ) These axles are
usually unpowered and mounted with an air lift suspension system.
(Please keep in mind that I am using the Revell/Monogram Peterbilt
kit and all comments are based on that model kit. I have yet to
see the AMT/Ertl kit to compare details.) The first hurdle:
proceed with the kit modifications to make room on a slightly
lengthened chassis for the third axle mechanism. I began by
trying to lengthen the existing kit chassis frame sides. I soon
discovered that in the lengthening/splicing process I was going to
end up with a chassis channel that really looked bad. Truck
chassis are by and largely a channel shaped piece of steel roughly
3” on the legs and about a 9 ½ to 10 inch deep web. Usually this
is a one thickness piece of channel steel but I have seen a couple
that were actually a piece nested inside a piece and just very
recently ( July 07) we found one that was an oversize truck
tractor, a Kenworth, that was a triple thickness nested inside one
another. Now we know, “where’s the beef?” To try to correct the
terrible appearance of the kit supplied chassis frame, I simply
sawed off every piece that was attached to the original frame;
the steering box, front suspensions, rear suspensions, hood
mounts, motor mounts, cab mount, fifth wheel supports and all of
the cross members of the chassis. I then took a piece of
Evergreen square tube # 256…3/8” square tubing, and slit it down
the middle and sanded the ridges to make a channel approximately a
scale 2 ½” x 9 inches. I cut these channels to 13 ½” lengths in
order for the truck to end up with a lengthened wheel base of 250
scale inches. The original kit truck model wheel base is 203”. (As
a bit of a technical note…truck wheel bases on trucks with two
rear sets of wheels is measured from the centerline of the front
wheel to the center point BETWEEN the two sets of rear wheels.
Another little fact that confused this neophyte for a time.) Now
we have the new, lengthened chassis ready and in this process I
removed the portion of the floor board of the truck that served as
the floor of the sleeper cab. At this same time I had sawed off
the sleeper cab portion of the cab unit and added a piece of
plastic with a window hole cut in it to make a day cab style cab.
Some truck kits seem to come with the cab as a two piece assembly
and the modeler can choose to add the sleeper or leave it off….not
so with this Revell kit…it is a one piece unit. Without going
into a lot of detail, the other changes made in this conversion
were: 1- The diesel fuel tanks and the battery boxes were
reversed in position under the cab; 2-There is a new section of
tread plate over the top of the rear chassis to cover the
additional space taken by the new third axle; 3- For the new rear
tri-axle a new Hendrickson air lift suspension was fabbed and
added on a 50” axle centerline, ahead of the existing dual axles
and a new cranked axle built. (On these trucks this front axle is
not driven so there is no differential housing and the axle
actually loops downward to miss the main drive shaft going to the
front set of drive wheels.) 4- The old kit air tanks replaced
with new fabbed sets of air tanks and repositioned under the
chassis; 5- A new lengthened drive shaft to accommodate for the
lengthened chassis length; 6- A new mounting plate for the fifth
wheel unit. 7- I made up brake shoe mounting plates for all four
axles and made up and installed the brake cylinder actuators and
bell crank rods. 8- I added the air brake lines to these
operating cylinders. (A couple of the other truck kits I have, AMT
especially, seem to include these brake cylinders but Revell/
Monogram doesn’t.) 9- a new deck plate and revisions to the
location on the chassis and the mounting of the 5th
wheel plate. (If you get a good close up look at the rear deck of
an empty tractor unit, there is a real maze of air lines &
electrical cables running along the chassis. I am going to
include some of these before the chassis is painted. In most
cases, although some of the tubing lines are color coded, all of
it seems to get a real heavy coat of black paint. I find almost
every oversize load tractor unit seems equipped with some
additional equipment on the rear deck behind the cab. I
fabricated a large equipment box and headache rack to install on
the chassis behind the cab. One other last detail item is the
maze of flexible hoses and electrical cables that connect from the
cab to the front trailer unit. These are supported on an upright
stub pole like attachment that suspends these lines so they won’t
catch on the truck chassis. To conclude part one: As a kit
review the Revell/Monogram Peterbilt 359 is basically workable. I
think that eventually I probably will build the second kit that I
obtained and did not use. If that happens I will probably do the
same process to the chassis…cutting everything off and remounting
on a decent channel shaped chassis. I would, though, leave all of
the other mounted equipment in their original positions and not do
any major conversion work. One last note of criticism. I did not
like the overall run of the instructions. They really need to do
a better job of outlining what paint schemes to use on the engine
and cab equipment. I would tend to believe that a lot of folks
building that model have no good ideas of what the colors should
be. Last point for this time that I would make is in the
suspension units on the rear duals. They seem a little toy like
and need extra work in adding the brake systems. Next time around
we start working on the monster rear trailing unit.
The Elephant Engine
By Brian Mason, courtesy of Spare Parts, the
IPMS Richmond newsletter
Background:
In 1971 Chrysler Corporation shoe-horned a
426 cubic inch hemi fitted with a “shaker hood” into a Barracuda
and called it the Hemi Cuda. The Hemi was aptly dubbed the
“elephant engine” because of its brutish horsepower and massive
torque. Producing 425 horsepower and 490 foot-pounds of torque,
the Hemi nearly hit the magical 1 horsepower per cubic inch.
However, due to high insurance rates, rising emission standards,
and a hefty option price (nearly 1/3 of the base price) 1971 saw
the last year of its production.
The Kit:
Revell’s 1:6 Plymouth 426 Hemi Cuda (85-1442)
is a molded in color, glue and screw kit. The kit contains 88
die-cast metal, plastic, rubber, and vinyl parts. All the parts
are packaged in several sealed pouches. The larger parts such as
heads and manifolds are packaged in pairs and the detail parks are
packaged in groups. You’ll also find four pouches of tiny screws.
The block is die-cast metal with a metal rod connecting the
harmonic balance to the fly wheel. All of the engine components;
block, heads, oil pan, and intake manifold are molded in Chrysler
Hemi orange. The shaker is neatly labeled with a silver Hemi Cuda
badge and a Mopar label is applied to the oil filter. The shaker
hood and starter are a realistic low sheen black. The headers
however are a very unrealistic gloss black.
Construction:
The directions are exploded isometric
drawings. They are fairly straight forward with a few caveats. No
part numbers are given. Instead, heads, and valve covers are
lettered “L” and “R”. The instructions have the builder install
the alternator and bracket in step 7 and the fuel lines in step 8.
I twisted and fussed with the fuel lines for about 30 minutes
attempting to fir them behind the alternator and bracket. I then
removed the alternator and bracket, installed the fuel lines and
replaced the alternator and bracket. Another minor issue is the
power steering belt. Due to a slight alignment problem the belt
rubs on the lower portion of the fan pulley.
Conclusion:
I like the detail put into the kit. The
in-line fuel filters are white, the fuel lines are bright silver
and the finished piece looks like a miniature Hemi. The molded
plastic parts look authentic and do not posses the “swirl” found
in most styrene kits. With the exception of the thermostat neck,
the oil dip a few minor detail parts everything was either press
fit or screwed together. Other then the gloss black headers the
only detail that detracts from the kit is the finish of the block.
It’s smooth and glossy as opposed to the factory semiglossy
pebbled finish. Aside from that it’s an excellent fit that can be
completed in an hour or two. I would recommend this kit to build
with little experience to the advanced modeler looking for
something different.
The IPMS/USA 2007 National Convention Update:
North America’s Largest Model Contest and
Vendor Fair, August 22 - 25 2007
Anaheim Marriott Anaheim California,
www.ipmsusa2007.org.
Here we are, after three years of work,
counting down the final month until the 2007 IPMS/USA Natonal
Convention and Contest. We are truly pleased with the response and
support we have received from the membership. We are convinced
that the 2007 event will be one to remember.
Event Hotel
The 2007 Convention will be located at the
Anaheim Marriott located at 700 West Convention Way, Anaheim,
California. This world-class event hotel will host the contest,
vendor rooms, presentations and awards presentation. To make
reservations you may either use the link on the 2007 website -
www.ipmsusa2007.org, or telephone Marriott at 1-800-228-9290 and
use the special event code “ipmipma”. Though rooms at the event
hotel are still available, should this hotel sell out, we have
already made arrangements with an adjacent hotel to offer the same
room rate to our attendees. Should using this hotel become
necessary we will let you know though updates on the web adn
through your local chapter
Conference Program
The 2007 IPMS/USA National Convention will
feature nearly 60 hours of presentations of interest to modelers.
Please check our website at
www.ipmsusa2007.org for a schedule listing of the programs and
presenters.
Tours
All tours depart the Anaheim Marriott at
0900. The Chino Air Museum tours will return about 1500. The Armor
Museum tour on Friday will return to the hotel about 1300.
Regretably, the tours to the NHRA Museum and
the Peterson Automotive Museum have been canceled due to lack of
participation. The few who signed up for those tours will be
receiving refunds
DragonExpo 2007
Dragon Models USA will be hosting their
DragonExpo in association with our event. IPMS Members registered
to attend our convention will have complimentary access to their
displays. You may also register for their event and receive the
special kits that are part of their program. More information on
DragonExpo may be had at www.dragonmodelsusa.com
To and From The Airport
There is a regularly scheduled bus to and
from LAX and John Wayne airports to the Anaheim Marriott. For
fares and schedules call 714-978-8855. There are also shuttle bus
companies that can be arranged at times convenient to the
attendee. These include
Super Shuttle 1-310-222-5500
Prime Time Shuttle 1-800-733-8267
In both cases, identify yourself as attending
the 2007 IPMS/USA National Convention to receive a discount off
the standard rates.
Event and Trophy Sponsorships
Event and Trophy Sponsorship opportunities
are still available. Please check our website and the IPMS/USA
Forum for more updates and the latest news as it becomes available
Tours
All tours depart the Anaheim Marriott at
0900. The Chino Air Museum tours will return about 1500. The Armor
Museum tour on Friday will return to the hotel about 1300.
Regrettably, the tours to the NHRA Museum and
the Peterson Automotive Museum have been canceled due to lack of
participation. The few who signed up for those tours will be
receiving a refund.
Kit Review: Italeri 1/35 Scale Kit No. 6233;
Chevrolet 15 CWT Truck -
Limited Edition.
By Cookie Sewell
168 parts (155 in olive drab styrene, 10 in
black styrene, 3 in clear styrene); price US $35
Advantages: old friend makes a welcome
reappearance; molds appear to have been cleaned up a bit.
Disadvantages: Expensive kit for value
received
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommendation: For all Commonwealth and
softskin fans
Italeri is re-releasing some of their better
old favorites that have not been seen for some years as "Limited
Editions" this month. This kit is of a WWII Canadian-built
Chevrolet 15 CWT 4 x 4 GS truck (even though the directions and
box blurb have it as a "4 x 2" it is a 4 x 4.) For anyone not
familiar with British-style rating systems the truck is rated as
having a capacity of 15 hundredweight in cargo cross country, or
about 1,680 pounds (762 kg.) The US Army would simply have called
it a 3/4 ton 4 x 4 truck. Ah, the joys of oft-traveled kit molds
and their reappearance. I recall when this kit came out back in
1975 from Peerless Max that it was head and shoulders above many
other kits on the market at the time, and actually better in many
respects than the Tamiya Ford "Quad" which came out at the same
time with their 25 lb Gun set. Over the years the molds have moved
around a lot - first to Airfix, then Italeri, then Bilek in Poland
and now back to Italeri where they have been cleaned up and show
they still produce a very nice kit. Compared to the first release,
the molds as noted look very clean and the kit is relatively free
of ejection pin marks. Some are cleverly concealed (such as the
one in the center of the "starburst" stiffener pattern on the
inside of the doors but some are in truly awful places
- two of the five wheel/tire parts have theem right on the mold
line for the side wall right above the size markings on the tire,
so will be nearly impossible to cleanly remove. Most are
relatively well designed but the then typical for its day erected
tilt has a nasty mold line that runs around the front end, but
anyone wanting to use it should be able to clean it up without too
much grief. Missing from the kit are "Curley, Larry and Moe" -
three rather portly and unimpressive figures that were apparently
supposed to represent a Commonwealth soldier, an Australian with
ANZAC campaign hat, and a Sikh in a
turban. No loss. I recall this kit as being a joy to assemble
other than Peerless had a truly nasty mold release agent which
took a lot of scrubbing to remove. The latest Italeri version has
none of that and the parts are crisp and clean. The chassis does
not come with an engine but has many very nicely done parts to it,
and the front wheels may be posed if the modeler is careful about
assembly and has some modeling experience. The tie rod ends,
shocks and drag links are all separate parts. The leaf springs
have a centerline seam and some minor sink marks, but these aren't
bad for a 32-year-old kit. Oddly the kit comes with a full
radiator, even though the solid grille makes it sort of redundant.
The cab is the Canadian Military Pattern (CMP) No. 13 ("backward
slant windshield") type and is nicely done; this feature was
shared with two other kits using this basic chassis and produced
by Peerless, with one having a full cab and the other a "Quad"
type body. The new one is identical to the original and has a
false hood, turn signals, mirrors, separate seat brackets and
seats, and control levers in the cab; pedals are "molded on" and
should be added. Clear windows are provided for the windshield and
side vents, but the rear window here has a pass-through panel
(part 90B) which appears to be correct. The
windows are fixed and will take work or replacement to move if
desired, and the screened vents are solid. The body is a British
"GS" (General Service) type or cargo body in
American parlance, and comes with four padded seats, three top
bows, four stowage bins with separate lids, a spare tire mount and
holder, and the aforementioned plastic tilt. The tail gate may be
made to work with care as may the spare tire brackets. Three
finishing schemes are included, and what I believe to be new
decals (or at least redone ones) are provided for them. One
version is Australian Army (the box art for this release) with an
early war roundel on the roof listed to be in sand yellow, but
oddly enough (and with many recent Italeri kits!) the box art
shows it in khaki drab; one is British in a two-tone camouflage
scheme of dark green and sand yellow; and one is Canadian Army in
dark green and black (not "Mickey Mouse") camouflage. I am not
sure on the units but the selections seem far more complete than
most Italeri offerings. Overall this was a nice kit when it came
out and it does not appear to be too badly dimmed with age. The
price of course is now a lot more, but then again it would seem a
good deal over some of the earlier re-pops as it has been cleaned
up. Thanks to Bob Lewen of MRC for the review sample.
Hobby Boss 1/72 A-7A
Enzo Matrix, courtesy of RMS
This morning, a parcel arrived from Hobbylink
Japan, containing the new 1/72 A-7A from Hobby Boss. Seven days to
be delivered from Japan to the UK - that's excellent service! I've
been rather excited over this the thought of this kit and I've
been pouring over it all day. Sadly, I have to say I'm a little
underwhelmed by it all. The word which sums it all up is "meh!"
The kit comes in a box that is very reminiscent of those provided
by Academy. In fact the whole product has a very Academyesque feel
to it: the instruction sheet, the decals, the painting sheet, even
the color of plastic. The box top claims there are 186 parts on 8
sprues. There are 186 parts, but there are only 6 sprues. The
aircraft itself consists of 90 opaque parts on three sprues, with
a further 6 transparent parts on one sprue. However, not all the
parts will be used for this version. The remaining 90 parts are
used to provide the weapons load on two identical sprues. More on
this later.
The plastic, as I stated above, is the same
light grey-green color as used by Academy kits. The surface finish
on the parts is excellent with no ejection pin marks on visible
surfaces. Panel lines are engraved, but I feel that they are a
little too deep. The Academy F-8 had deep panel lines that I felt
were acceptable after priming with cellulose car primer and
sanding. The Hobby Boss panel lines are even deeper. However, they
may well look good under a coat of paint. The surface is given
texture by a number of raised panels which look quite nice. The
big problem that I can see is that Trumpeter's phantom riveter has
been moonlighting at Hobby Boss. There are lots and lots of
indented rivets that stand out like sore thumbs. Although I could
get to live with the panel lines, I really don't like the looks of
these rivets and I would fill them as a matter of priority. Ten
parts make up a nicely detailed cockpit - tub, rudder pedals,
control column, ejecttion seat rails and rear bulkhead all have
detail and the cockpit sidewalls are detailed on the inside of the
fuselage halves. The instrument panel and side consoles are flat
with the detail provided by decals. This seems perfectly
acceptable, in this scale, but there is plenty of scope for the
aftermarket companies. The panels seem to be a challenge to Eduard
to provide some pre-colored PE components. There are two seats
supplied, which are both slightly different. As there are two sets
of rudder pedals supplied as well, I think this is intended to
provide for both seats of the forthcoming TA-7C and A-7K, rather
than different seats for later variants. Sadly the seats have no
detail whatsoever and are best replaced with aftermarket resin
items. The fuselage is molded with the electronics bays on both
sides open for inspection. The detailing here is excellent and
with a bit of added wiring and some careful painting will look
stunning. Likewise, the undercarriage bays are well detailed and
once again are very reminiscent of those in the Academy F-8. There
is a complete nose gear bay, which makes a nice change from the
Fujimi kit. The intake trunking is well engineered with a lap
effect over the joint which will prevent any cracks appearing. A
dry fit shows that the joint line won't be too obtrusive and will
probably be easy to clean up. There are two sets of intake lips -
with and without cannon troughs, to provide for the later
variants. This brings me to the first problem. The early A,B and C
variants had twin 20mm Colt Mk12 cannons on either side of the
lower forward fuselage. The D variant onwards had a single 20mm
Vulcan cannon on the port side. The kit
provides for the early cannon troughs but it is quite clear that
the mould has an insert that will be changed for the later
variants. Sadly the panel that is produced by this mould insert
has a very pronounced sink line around it. It can be filled but
some of the nice detail in that area will be lost. There are other
areas that also have sink marks, notably on the base of the
rudder. The wings are molded in two parts: complete upper surfaces
and outer sections, with lower surface inner sections. The flaps
are molded integrally with the upper surfaces. This is slightly
disappointing as, given the high parts count; I was expecting
separate flaps and slats and maybe even outer wings which could be
assembled in the raised position. It was not to be. The outer wing
sections are easily as thick as the rudder but this time there is
no evidence of sink marks. The wing is ingeniously engineered with
the location tabs on the lower half while the upper half laps over
and but
joints to the fuselage. This is intended to provide the slightly
faired look seen in this area. It's a good idea in principle.
Sadly, it doesn't work and there is a gap of at least half a
millimeter which will need to be filled, with again the prospect
of losing detail in this area. Having assembled the kit using
masking tape and blue tack, I can say that apart from the
aforementioned wing fit problems, the rest of the main airframe
fits together perfectly. The transparencies are thin and clear,
however there is a vary prominent
mould line down the centerline of the canopy which will have to be
carefully sanded away The rear section of the canopy, which is
metal on the real aircraft, is lightly etched. There are two HUDs
provided, presumably one for later variants, as well as two
transparent panels intended for the FLIR pods included in the
stores. There are two identical sprues which each have two MERs,
one tank, one Sidewinder, one FLIR pod and no less than nine 500lb
MK82 iron bombs. The bombs are each in three parts - two halves
and optional fuses. Sadly, the two halves don't fit well and so
there will be an awful lot of very tedious filling and cleaning up
involved. Given the fact that there are
some hideous trenches masquerading as joint lines (where there
really shouldn't be any) I have to wonder whether it's worth all
the effort. The MERs are built from three components, the main
assembly with the two lower Ejector Release Units as separate
components. The main bar of the MER looks to be far two flimsy to
carry the weight of a full bomb load. Even worse is that there are
only three of the ERU components on each sprue, when there really
should be four. I wonder if the original intention was to have one
MER and one TER on each sprue. The fuel tanks look dreadful. They
are far too slim and there are some bands around them that stand
at least half a millimeter proud of the surface. The Sidewinders
are each in five components. They are acceptable (if a little
skinny) as an AIM-9L, but they are certainly not the 9B variant as
described in the instructions. Again there are some raised bands
on the missile body that really should be sanded off. There's also
a spurious and deeply etched panel line around the seeker head
that should be filled in. The FLIR pod is of a design that I've
never seen so I couldn't comment as to whether it is accurate. The
decals provide for two aircraft: 153228 NG/312 of VA-147 operating
from USS Ranger (CVA-61) in 1968 and 153214 NJ/201 of VA(F)-122
"Corsair College". The sheet provides all the main markings, but
very little in the way of stenciling. In addition, the red is far
too bright and is out of register
on the national insignia. On the positive side, the decals appear
to be very thin and are again very Academyesque. Whether they
will have the same adhesion problems as Academy decals remains to
be seen. So that's an overview of the kit. Rather nice it looks
too on first inspection (if you can ignore the hideous rivets and
the abysmal stores). So
let's deal with the major problem with this kit. There are some
quite dreadful shape errors. I have compared the parts against
photographs and plans in "US Navy A-7 Corsair II Units of the
Vietnam War" by Norman Birzer and Peter Mersky. I also compared
the shape against the old Fujimi kits, which may or may not be a
reasonable comparison.
The length seems to be just about spot on,
but the wingspan is a scale foot too short. The wing shape is
actually very good but the tips provide the problem. When seen in
plan view, the rear fuselage has the slightly bulbous look
reproduces quite well - slightly better than Fujimi's effort. The
big problems are at the nose. The forward fuselage is wide - at
least 15% too wide. It then tapers rapidly until it is too narrow
ahead of the cockpit,
again about 15% too narrow. This gives the forward fuselage an
almost pointed planform. The radome is subsequently far too small
and skinny. In fact it looks more like the radome of an F-8 than
an A-7. The shape problems (with the exception of the radome) are
masked somewhat in the side view due to the effect of the intake.
In plan view, they are very noticeable. The problem will be
highlighted on the finished model by the canopy, especially if it
is left open. The canopy is so wide that it almost looks as though
it could fit on an F-111. In fact, the canopy from a Fujimi kit
actually fits inside the Hobby Boss canopy! As it is a
transparency, there is nothing that can be done about this. Even
if the modeler replaces it (and the pointy windscreen) with a
vacformed part, it will look odd because a correctly shaped canopy
will not fit the fuselage. The dry assembled model looks somewhat
like a caricature of an A-7. You can see what it is meant to be,
but it just looks odd. If you were going to build a collection of
A-7s, then it would be worthwhile sticking with Hobby Boss ones,
because you certainly cannot display this next to a Fujimi one. I
did and had to say "Ewwwwwwwww!" Overall this is a nicely
engineered and presented kit which is badly let down by the shape
problems. The detail is excellent, would I would still prefer the
older Fujimi kits, even with their lack of detail in the
undercarriage bays. In fact, I've had an outrageous thought. It
may well be possible to graft the gear bays from a spare Esci A-7
on to the Hobby Boss fuselage, so saving the nicely detailed HB
bays for use in a Fujimi kit. How naughty is that?!? So.. good
try, Hobby Boss, but I'm afraid you've missed the mark by quite a
wide margin. I will be building this kit, but I won't be
displaying it with any Fujimi models and I won't be buying any
more - apart maybe from the forthcoming two-seater. If Hobby Boss
had a school report card for this kit, it would read "Must try
harder".
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