ASM's World War II Model Display has been resurrected at the New Mexico Veteran's Memorial and Museum.   The display covers WW II in the Pacific and China-Burma-India (CBI) Theaters from 1941 through 1943, including the Pearl Harbor Attack, Flying Tigers operations in China, Wake Island, Doolittle’s Tokyo Raiders, the Battles of Coral Sea and Midway, and the Guadalcanal Island and New Guinea Campaigns.  The initial set-up was on August 8, 2009.  Additional 1/72 scale models and some new posters, maps, pics and signage were set-up on August 19 and 20.  The display is located to the left as you come in the front entrance, just past the door to the library.   Several pictures are included with this article.  Click here for additional pictures:
http://abqscalemodelers.com/ASM_NM_Veterans_Memorial_Display_Pics.htm  

   Due to the limited shelf space, the display will take place in four parts:  Pacific and CBI Theaters Parts 1 and 2; and European and Mediterranean Theaters Parts 1 and 2.  The duration of each part is yet to be determined.  Because of the shelf depth and unusual configuration, it was decided to add hanging 1/72 scale models of larger aircraft types, such as a Doolittle Raiders’ B-25.  Some hanging models are set-up in “dog-fighting” and “dive-bombing” poses.  Aircraft models actually sitting on the shelves are all 1/48 scale – the P-38 is the largest aircraft the shelves will accommodate.  An “invasion” vignette consisting of 1/72 scale landing craft and vehicles was added to give the display more of a “joint operations” flavor.  Additional “ship” representation is provided by Dave Miller’s excellent USS Ward destroyer and Japanese midget submarine model at Pearl Harbor.  More multi-engine 1/72 scale aircraft models (PBY, Betty, A-20, B-17, etc.) will be added as they become available.  The Veteran’s Memorial is looking into getting additional shelves which hopefully can be used for the next version of the display. 

There are currently 39 models in the display as follows:
18 models in 1/48 scale (17 aircraft & 1 figure).
19 models in 1/72 scale (14 aircraft, 2 landing craft, 2 vehicles, and 1 figure).
2 models in 1/350 scale (ship and midget sub) – mounted on one base.

Thanks to the following people for their model’s participation in the current display:  Fred Franceschi (6), John Tate (5), Don MacBryde (2), Juan Benitez (2), Dave Miller (2), Larry Horyna (1), Dave Boehning (1), and Matt (1), Ray (4) and Mike Blohm (15). 

The NM Veteran’s Memorial and Museum is located at 1100 Louisiana Blvd SE, just north of the intersection of Louisiana Blvd and Gibson Blvd.  The hours are Friday through Monday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM with no entry fee.  Click here for more information on the Memorial:    http://www.nmvetsmemorial.org/

Here’s some background info for new ASM members who don’t know the history of this display.  The WW II display grew out of a previous ASM project supporting the USAF 50th Anniversary, celebrated in 1997-1998, which had simultaneous ASM displays at the National Atomic Museum and two locations on Kirtland Air Force Base.  These displays were predominantly in 1/72 scale.  After the close-out of the USAF-50 displays, the ASM WW II display was set-up at the Atomic Museum, and was predominantly in 1/48 scale.  The WW II display moved to the museum’s Old Town Albuquerque location when they moved off Kirtland AFB.  The display was discontinued at the Atomic Museum on January 31, 2009 due to the museum's move to their new venue and a lack of display space at that site.  Thanks again to all ASM members who loaned models for the WW II display – which had approximately 80 models included - and for making it such a great success for 12 years. 

Click here for information on the former ASM display at the National Atomic Museum:  http://abqscalemodelers.com/ASM_Atomic_Museum_Display_Pics.htm

   In case you missed having a peek into this or the sister release by Accurate Miniatures of the Air Racer version boxes, this kit is a re-box of the Eduard kit.  While the Eduard kit and this A-M kit share the same basic plastic parts, there are a few differences between the two.

  This issue includes the same 3 styrene trees, molded in grey this time, of the 127 pieces with finely engraved panel lines and details and one clear tree with 5 pieces.  The clear parts include separately molded “car doors” that can be glued open or closed.  The kit also includes decal markings for three aircraft:

1.  P-400 (BW-156) “Fancy Nancy” of the 347^th FG, 67^th FS out of Guadalcanal in Aug 1942.

2.  Airacobra I (AH-636) flown by Capt Ivan Gaidaenko in Russia, Oct 1942.

3.  P-39M of the 345^th FS, 350^th FG in Algeria, April 1943.

The kit does not include the lead weight/ballast for mounting in the nose (to keep the finished model on all three wheels without a pogo like prop under the tail) that was included in the Eduard, both ProfiPACK and regular, releases.

   This kit includes a multi-color paint scheme diagram sheet for the three aircraft markings outlined in four views (top, bottom, and both side profiles) of each.  Unfortunately, it is not clear which of the 5, FS color references should be used for which of the printed colors on the three different paint schemes.  They list 36270 Medium Gray and 34079 Olive Drab which fit the Russian paint scheme.  Then the only other two camo colors listed (besides a red for the spinner) are 33531 Sand and 30266 Middle Stone.  None of these four colors listed works for the Earth Brown on the P-400 or the Algerian P-39M.  I’m not sure what the intended use of the Sand color was supposed to be either.  It may be possible that the Sand and Olive Drab were supposed to be used on the Algerian aircraft.  The color sheet erroneously depicts the 347^th FG aircraft as having been painted 36270 Medium Gray color on the lower surfaces and makes no reference to any use of a Light Blue, Sky Blue, or Sky (depending on your belief of what color was actually applied) that would have been the color the lower surfaces received for the original British RAF Airacobras before the US commandeered them. 

  The 16 page instructions include a brief aircraft development history, text that covers the differences between the various versions and their associated model parts, a numbered color coding chart for painting components, followed by 10 steps with clear assembly diagrams and written assembly instructions.  There are a few “holes” in the instructions and I found myself repeatedly referring back to the Eduard instructions just to make sure I wasn’t going goofy and was missing something.  For example, no where in the A-M sheet is there any mention of a need to add weight to the nose, like the nifty half round/wedge lead weight that you get in the Eduard sheet.  In fact, step 2 has you glue the cockpit assembly into the right fuselage half, but then never tellers the builder to glue the two halves together and then jumps over to fuselage-to-wing assembly.  Also, a few of the decal numbers on the A-M sheet do not correspond with what is printed on the actual decal sheet.  A little detective work was required to get them all placed correctly.

Also, the instructions are lack clarity on which nose/gun top to use for which version and no mention is made of the pre-drilling and subsequent installation of the internal wing guns.  They do include assembly notes for the under-wing gun pods.

   As in the original Eduard release, you still get all of the options to build nearly ever variant of the P-39 and P-400.  You get the three different top nose caps (with and without gun ports, cuffed or non-cuffed), nose gun port/vents as separate pieces, the different gun tips for the spinner, three different types of prop blades (one set I believe are meant to be longer blades for the Air Racer issue), two different spinner assemblies (3 bladed and 4 bladed), accommodations for gunned and non-gunned wing leading edges, three different sets of (solid) exhaust stacks, two different nose wheels (different hubs), both weighted and non-weighted looking tires, an external fuel tank, a 1000 pound bomb, and auxiliary gun packs.  The cockpit compares quite nicely to interior photos and can stand up on its own without much more detailing or after market replacement.  All three wheel wells are fully boxed in with moderate-to-excellent detail quality.  Even though the kit includes a nice boxed in baffle to go inside the air intake scoop, it does not include the horizontal splitter that can be easily seen in the middle.  When I built mine, the only thing I added outside of what is included in the box was the noted intake splitter and a set of Eduard photo-etched, pre-painted seat belts.

   While the majority of the kit parts fit was straight forward and required nearly zero adjustment and/or excessive putty application, I did have one problem area that really didn’t rear its ugliness until it was too late.  That was the upper wings to fuselage assembly.  I mistakenly went the route of gluing each upper wing to their respective fuselage root BEFORE gluing them to the lower wing (all the while keeping an eye on alignment with the fuselage and the vertical tail).  I have done this with other kits in the past, with relatively great success.  I chose to do this on this kit because fellow modelers that had previously built the Eduard kit gave me heads-up that they had been left with a significant gap between the wings and the fillets when they assembled the wings the traditional way (gluing the top and bottom wing halves together first, then attaching them to the fuselage sub-assembly).

   So, as I bonded them, I got the alignment and uniformity of the wing placement from one side to the other correct and excellent wing-to-fillet joints, but what I lost was the correct upper wing dihedral when I pulled the tops down to bond to the lower half.  Yikes.  I pushed and pulled to no avail.  On the flip side, while looking closely at the wings during this adventure, I noticed a significant dihedral look to the bottom of the wing.  I figure that if I were to have pulled the upper wings up further, I would also have increased the lower wing dihedral and ultimately chose to leave it alone.  Check the photos, you be the judge.  (OBTW, Nats judges, just ignore all that you just read, in case I decide to enter this at Columbus.  Nudge, nudge!)

   This kit’s clear parts were just as clear and crisply molded as the Eduard release.  The main canopy seemed a little narrow on the rear half when it was bonded to the fuselage, but gluing down one side before applying a little persuasion to the rear half while gluing the other side down seemed to correct that.  All minor, but noteworthy.

   Of the three cool paint schemes provided, I liked the well known “shark-mouthed” 347^th Guadalcanal scheme the best.  I figure these markings will look cool next to another P-400 built as the infamous “Hells Bell” of the same squadron.  (That will follow later).  When I applied the airbrush camouflage, I also tried another experiment.  Lately, I have been trying out the “Pre-shading” method of airbrushing a darker color than the camo colors along the panel lines prior to actual camo application, to provide a 3 dimensional forced accent to the paint scheme.  Many times, modelers just use flat black.  Because of the trickiness associated with having good aim while airbrushing the pre-shading, I thought that I would try to “brush” paint the pre-shade using a thinned down flat black paint.  While I am happy with the forced pre-shade look of the finished paint job, I am not as happy with the visibly stepped layer the pre-shade black left after the application of the camo colors.  Even though I thinned the black down it still shows up.  And also the application of Future floor wax prior to decal application and oil paint wash followed by the typical flat coat afterwards still didn’t level the step out completely.  (Nats judges, please continue to disregard these details.  Wink, wink).

   The kit decals were applied over the noted Future floor wax coating using the standard Superscale Set and Sol system.  I had a fair amount of time for positioning and corrections before the decals began to adhere and they were then gently blotted and pressed down onto the model.   They laid down very well.  While some other decals require several attempts at poking and coating with Sol to get them to completely lay down, these required only one pass.

  If it weren’t for the potential tail heavy syndrome (and the lack of a preventative notation about it in the instructions), the goofy camo color recommendations, and a potential minor wing-to-fillet gap issue, I could confidently recommend this kit to modelers with minimum building experience.  However, I think that any modeler with moderate building experience should have little problems with this kit and be able to garner several hours of building satisfaction.  I think that this kit with an MSRP of $26.99 to $30.00 is a good value for the return enjoyment of the build.  I wish to express thanks to Accurate Miniatures for the opportunity to build and review this sample.

Check out Ken's review on this kit at the IPMS/USA website at:

http://www.ipmsusa2.org/reviews2/aircraft/kits/accmin_48_p400-guad/accmin_48_p400-guad.htm

This is a buildup report on the Cutting Edge F4H-1 Phantom II conversion in 1/48 scale. I built this kit for the “Phabulous Phantom Phiftyth Anniversary” special contest in May of 2008.  I built the plane in the first flight configuration.

 The conversion set is a multi-media set to convert the Hasegawa F-4J kit to the early airframes used in flight testing.   The set includes resin parts for the small nose, “S” intakes, early thin wheels, replacement upper wings and unslotted stabilators as well as various scoops and fairings used on the early test planes.  The original “flat-style” canopy is provided in clear resin in both one piece and split to display opened up.  There is a small set of photoetched parts to represent the perforated spoilers on the upper wings.   The markings included in the set cover the first 18 airframes built.  Decals are provided for specific markings and stencils.  Masks are provided to paint all of the Day-Glo Orange markings on the planes.  The aircraft markings in the set include first flight, altitude record flight, low altitude speed record flight as well as other flight test schemes. 

The instructions give a basic history of the subject aircraft as well as suggested starter kits.  The conversion instructions have detailed written instructions on where to modify the existing kit and where all the conversion parts go.  There are color pictures of the conversion in progress in to illustrate the steps needed. 

After doing some research, there were a few items that were not included in the kit that would need some attention. These included the ejection seat, the back cockpit and engine nozzles.  The first few airframes used an in-house ejection seat before going with Martin-Baker units. The kit ejection seat was modified to make it look like a McDonnell seat.  The headbox and backpan were reshaped to match pictures found on the internet and the upper ejection pulls were made from wire to represent the ones on the McDonnell seat. On the first flight of the Phantom II, the back seat was omitted from the aft cockpit and the space used for instrumentation.  As I could not find pictures of the inside of the cockpit, I made some orange “instrumentation looking” boxes with handles out of styrene and wire to put on the floor of the aft cockpit. The kit engine nozzles were for the standard J79-GE-10 engines and the first flight aircraft had the earlier J79-GE-2 engines with shorter nozzles.  I used a set of shorter nozzles from Cobra Company to replace the kit ones. 

The kit was built using both the kit instructions and the conversion instructions to get all of the new parts installed on the kit.  Modifications to the donor kit were described and shown in the instructions and construction was straightforward.  The conversion parts generally fit well, but needed some amount of dry fitting and trimming to get everything to mate up cleanly. 

For the finish, the canopies were masked and the underside and upper flaps were painted in white.  This was then masked using blue painting tape as well as Plasti-Tac rolled into sausages to get the wavy demarcation between the upper and lower fuselage.  The upper fuselage was then painted in Flat Gull Grey.  After this had dried, the grey was masked using tape to paint the black anti-glare on the upper nose.  The supplied masks were then used to paint all of the Day-Glo Orange markings.  The last painting step was to paint the natural metal parts on the leading edges of the intakes and wings, the aft fuselage around the engines, inboard stabilator panels and the engine nozzles.  Model Master metalizer stainless steel, titanium and magnesium color paints were used on these areas. 

After the paint had dried, I applied a couple coats of Future floor polish to get a smooth surface for the decals.  The markings supplied in the conversion went on smoothly and settled down around all the contours and in the engraved panel lines.  The kit national insignia were used as they are not included in the conversion set. 

A coat of Dull-Cote gave the plane a satin finish over the gloss. I didn’t weather the finish, as it was to show the aircraft on the day of its first flight.   

Overall, the conversion requires more work and time than a standard kit, but it’s worth the extra effort to get a unique configuration of a very familiar and significant airplane.

 

                                       

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