FineScale Modeler 01 2003

I've always been fascinated by modeling. 1 still remember the multi-colored Matchbox kits I built when I started in the hobby back in the 1970s. Recent kits are exquisitely detailed, fit well, and usually need nothing more than careful assembly and a nice paint job to look like the real thing. Tamiya's 1/48 scale Messerschmitt Bf 109E-4/7 falls firmly into this category: a kit with almost perfect fit and fine detail inside and out! It features recessed panel lines and separately molded slats, flaps, and rudder that allow the model to be built in more realistic poses. A complete set of decals provides markings for three machines, including the one I chose, a beautifully camouflaged E-4 of 2./JG 27 that flew in North Africa.

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Model Magazine International 02 2008

It's amazing to think that Tamiya have released one hundred kits in the 1:48 aircraft range, especially considering that the line had been largely dormant for a good number of years, but with the 2007 issue of the Fieseler Fil56, the 'century' has indeed been reached, and what a superb kit with which to celebrate the occasion! For starters, the box itself is rather special, featuring a full-length sleeve carrying the boxart, which depicts Rommel in his camouflaged Storch, banking over a column of DAK vehicles in the desert - very dramatic and worthy of framing for a modelling workshop wall! Inside the kit box, we are presented with a card platform carrying a pressed metal main spar, bent-wire undercarriage stiffener and a small photo-etched fret with four supplementary parts. Also sitting on the platform is the sprue holding the two halves of the fuselage moulding, which in this model is rather interesting. The large glazing area of the Storch must have presented Tamiya's brilliant designers with some unusual challenges, and they solved the main one, ie; making a clean join where the side windows meet the fuselage edge, by moulding the clear panels integrally with the opaque plastic of the airframe. It's extremely effective, just leaving the modeller the job of masking the clear parts (masking sheet supplied) so the inside and out of the fuselage can be sprayed. Including the fuselage, the box contains seven sprues of grey styrene, plus one of clear, which carries further elements of the extensive canopy, including configuration options. A beautifully detailed 1:48 replica of the Argus V8 engine is provided, made up from individually moulded cylinders, engine block, sump, exhaust and gearbox - very nice indeed. The narrow 'tandem* cockpit is an elegant piece of model kit design, and includes all the delicate framework and structures that can be seen through the large canopy panels, in fact with the engine in place, the central portion of the model will look like a little jewel when complete.

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Military Vehicle Modelling

I would recommend you choose the liquid cement that comes in a bottle with a brush applicator. This is far easier to use than tube cement - you just brush the surfaces that need to be joined. The glue quickly evaporates and so there is less chance of damaging the plastic. I use Humbrol Liquid Poly for straight kit building. This is a fairly aggressive cement that gives a good strong bond. It comes in a small 28ml bottle with a brush for application mounted in the screw cap. Revell Contacta cement is also good, but is thicker than Humbrol and needs more care. While Humbrol and Revell liquid cement are excellent for general kit building, they are too aggressive for cementing fine plastic parts. For this, I use a second liquid cement called Plastic Weld by EMA Model Supplies. This is a mild-acting glue that is good for adding fine surface detail, such as cementing plastic strip, rivets or bolt heads. Plastic Weld will also bond other types of plastic such as ABS, Acrylic or Perspex. Slaters MEK is also a fine cement to use on small parts.

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Scale Aircraft Modelling

The origins of the hobby known today as scale modelling date back to before the beginning of the twentieth century. During the Great War and, more prolifically, during the Second World War, model aircraft were fabricated from wood and metal and used for the practice of identifying enemy aircraft. Indeed, as late as the 1970s, young Air Training Corps cadets were still learning the difference between the main military types from scale models. The first scale kits available for purchase were made from balsa wood and it wasn't until the 1950s that injection-moulded plastic parts were used to construct more exact replicas. Today, injected plastic is, almost without exception, the main medium from which scale model aircraft are built. In the 1960s, model aircraft had raised panel lines and rivets that, if scaled up, would nearer represent hubcaps. Today's model manufacturers use computer-designed masters and state-of-the-art equipment to create parts that fit together so well that it is possible to make fine replicas of all sorts of aircraft, from the beginning of flight, through to the present aircraft that grace the skies and even into the future.

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