It’s been a little over a year since my last build review – of Kitty Hawk’s maddening Su-17 Fitter. Why haven’t I returned to the well sooner? A few reasons. One. These reviews take a lot of time and effort – especially shooting and editing and publishing the videos. Two. I wanted to use my…
Tag: 1/48
Tamiya’s New 1/48 Bf 109G-6 – Quick Thoughts
Every time a Shizouka Hobby Show or All-Japan Model & Hobby Show roll around, the modeling community gets all pins and needles in anticipation of the latest Tamiya release. There are other manufacturers, too, but for the most part their new stuff blows cover well before it’s shown publicly. Tamiya seems to be one of…
WIP – 1/48 Academy F-4C Phantom II, Pt 1
It’s weird how ideas can snowball. That’s exactly what happened when Jimmy D proposed an informal F-4 buddy build over in SMCG. What started as “huh” quickly gathered steam, and suddenly the start date for this informal affair was bumped up to July 4th. I was just coming off Bandai’s A-Wing and a rather epic bench…
Once More Unto the Breach
I think there must be some kind of modeling corollary to Murphy’s Law that says “over the course of a build, something will go wrong”. Looking back, I feel like there’s been something with every kit I’ve built. Sometimes it’s been butterfingers – the time I spilled CA on the AccuMini Dauntless or sloshed neat…
Tamiya’s New Tomcat – Not the Second Coming
NOTE: This is not a review per se. There will be no fondling of sprues or the like. Think of this more as an addendum – impressions from mid-way through the actual build. Since the first test shots emerged, Tamiya’s new 1/48 F-14A Tomcat has been praised to the heavens. Reviews have been almost universally…
Review: 1/48 Kinetic F/A-18C Hornet
Welcome to the second entry in the Contributor-Funded Kit Review series! This time out, the subject is Kinetic’s new-tool 1/48 F/A-18C Hornet. Curious about contributor-funded thing, or want to see past reviews? HIT THE REVIEWS PAGE FOR MORE. Round Two Go While there was some early contention in the Round Two voting, with the Hasegawa…
Contributor-Funded Kit Reviews – Round 2 Winner
Voting’s wrapped on Round 2, and the winner is… Kinetic’s new-tool 1/48 F/A-18C Hornet! Ultimately, this round came down to the Hornet and the Bronco P-40C, with Hasegawa’s 1/32 A6M5c and Kinetic’s Super Etendard running a distant race for third. The Hornet held off the P-40C, though, winning 159 votes to 127 and 33% of…
Building Kinetic’s 1/48 F-5B Freedom Fighter
It’s been a while since I’ve done any kind of build log on here, so I decided it might be worth revisiting a few past builds to walk through the process and various encounters along the way. In 2015, I was asked to build Kinetic’s F-5B Freedom Fighter for Model Aircraft magazine. I know Kinetic…
1/48 Trumpeter MiG-21F-13, Part IV
Part I | Part II| Part III | Part IV Welcome to Part IV of the MiG-21F-13 build. At the end of Part III, the Fishbed was painted, chipped, and had just had the markings masked and sprayed. Now, it’s time to continue the journey with some weathering. Wash & Strut Handling the MiG-21…
1/48 Trumpeter MiG-21F-13, Part III
Part I | Part II| Part III At last! Welcome to this build’s big moment of truth. Making this: Look something like this: Or…similar. While I was tempted to go for 100% fidelity…the “AMS” side of the Force…I have found that stressing so much about complete accuracy doesn’t really do anything except suck the fun…
Doogs Models 