A few kits which are rarer than they should be

[Schweik]

The Yak-1/Yak-1B .. the oldest kits of the plane in 1/72 scale I can remind myself are the Polish Micro72 and the ZTS Plastyk kits. These are still trading but the age of sprues can be noticed though. A couple of years ago the model was reboxed by the Mistercraft another Polish firm and is offered as a couple kits with different decals. Both the ZTS and Mistercraft kits allows to make either the Yak1 ot Yak-1M (B) version. The difference is the cockpit canopy either the booble top or moulded with the fuselage rear top. Unfortunately these kits need a lot of work if you want to get the decent final effect.

Another firm offered Yak-1 is the AModel. The kits of the firm are of the short-run type and really need a lot of work.

IMHO the best replics of the early Yak-1 plane are offrered by the Bergun firm...

Thanks. Yeah, I'm not a fan of Amodel at all, I built a couple of theirs and I don't think I'm going to try again.

I appreciate you finding all these but why is such an important type so rare and hard to find? Mistercraft looks nice(?) but expensive. The rest are old and seem a little shoddy.

 

[Wurger]

To be honest these of Mastercraft ( Mistercraft now ) aren't so nice as you said and are quite cheap. Contrary to that those of the Bergun , Valom and Eastern Express look great comparing to these of the Mastercraft but are more expensive.
Hard to find... humm.. I'm not sure if that's is a correct expression. Just a matter of the proper info. Therefore I posted the all finds that can come in handy not only for you but for other guys who look for such info.

BTW Have you seen the Valom series for Yak-7?

 

[Schweik]

To be honest these of Mastercraft ( Mistercraft now ) aren't so nice as you said and are quite cheap. Contrary to that those of the Bergun , Valom and Eastern Express look great comparing to these of the Mastercraft but are more expensive.
Hard to find... humm.. I'm not sure if that's is a correct expression. Just a matter of the proper info. Therefore I posted the all finds that can come in handy not only for you but for other guys who look for such info.

Ok good to know thanks, all these types keep me pretty confused. Hard to sort one company from another.

 

[Wurger]

That's true. But that's a quite standard policy of manufacturing and trading. The more rare plane was the less know firm offers its kit. But these aren't the plastic scrap often and allow to get the nice final replics..

Here you are the Eastern Express set...

 

[Airframes]

Looks like the Airfix 1/72nd scale Bf109F is only available in the 'Dogfifght Doubles' kit - two models, one the Bf109, which is very possibly ex-Heller.

 

[ktank]

In 1/72

D3a:

1. the Fujimi kit is old, simple but apparently has some fit problems from trying to make it suitable for both D3A1 and D3A2. At least in Australia Fujimi isn't imported, but I've been able to get one online.
2. the Cyber-Hobby kit is a ripoff of the Hasegawa 1/48 kit. The result is that (a) there's some very small parts (b) the canopy structure doesn't scale down well (c) there's locations in the cockpit moulding that were on the Hasegawa one, but not the parts to go in them! I've built one and apart from the outrageous price found it frustrating and the strangest kit I've ever built.
3. if you're desperate, there's the old Airfix one...

Me109F: Zvezda kit is excellent - don't see why you need another. Italeri apparently is the (cock) pits - avoid! For it and the early Gs the Fine Molds kits are the benchmark, but difficult to find.

Soviet fighters - others have already covered these. Note Valom kits have a reputation for being a, er, challenge, to build.

P40F/L: Special Hobby kit is good.

P40K: Sword does both long and short fuselage versions. Again good kits.

Now a few 1/72 bugbears of mine:

1. SBD Dauntless

Hasegawa does an excellent one, but as usual only releases it every few years in a special edition at an outrageous price. Viritually unobtainable currently (I saw one of the last twin kit release going for $500 online!) The only alternative is the Airfix one, which is a typical late '60 Airfix kit (battleship rivets, sod-all cockpit detail, worn moulds). I tried bringing up one to current standards and boy oh boy it was a lot of work.

2. TBF/TBM Avenger

Same story - best kit by far is Hasegawa, but good luck finding one. I managed to get one at a swap and sell a few years back. Goes together beautifully, but usual limited internal detail.

The only alternative is the Academy kit, which is based on the old Frog kit! At least has recessed panel lines but Frog modelled a British Tarpon, which means it has bulged rear windows incorrect for the USN versions it is boxed as.

Note that neither allows you to model the later versions with different cowl and turret - the old Airfix one can form a basis if (a) you can find one (b) you're up for a lot of work.

3. Mitubishi Ki-21 "Sally".

The major Japanese Army medium bomber of the early Pacific War and there isn't a single current model of it. Apparently Revell did quite a good one (for its time) as part of its 1970s group of Japanese aircraft, but the moulds for all these have disappeared. MPM did one back in 2001 and apart from being years out of production apparently is a, er, challenge to build. Both kits reach silly money second-hand.

4. Mitsubishi G4M1 "Betty"

Only kit (apart from an ancient Lindburgh one) of the major version used by the Japanese Navy during the war, in such operations as the sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse and the attack on Darwin, is by Hasegawa. Unlike its more recent G4M2 (the two types have major differences) it's a very old kit which in general is only slightly better in quality and detail than an Airfix kit of the same vintage.

5. Dornier 217

Major Luftwaffe bomber and we only have Italeri kits from the '70s, complete with raised panel lines and minimal internal detail. One to current standards would be greatly appreciated!

6. Merlin-engined Halifax

Revell had the chance and blew it.

7. Early B-26 Marauder (short-wingspan)

Monogram did a press-fit kit which is apparently crudely detailed but generally accurate. Out of production for years and hard to find.

Valom brought out a range of early B26s a few years ago, and based them on a single inaccurate set of drawings, with the result that both cowlings and fuselage are hopelessly oversized and inaccurate.

Would be happy just to have a conversion kit for the Airfix or Hasegawa B26Bs - outer wings and fuselage end gun position.

 

[BlackSheepTwoOneFour]

Try looking in: www.scalemates.com
This will save you time searching high and low looking for that 1/72 scale kit you're looking for. Do a simple search on the site and you'll be surprised what's available in 1/72 scale.

 

[ktank]

A couple of others in 1/72:

Il-4: the main Soviet medium bomber of WW2 and both kits available (Zvezda and Revell, the latter ex-VEB) are old and hopelessly inaccurate.

Late production Mosquito: if you want a version with the two-stage Merlins your only choice is the ancient Matchbox kit.

 

[Schweik]

Great post ktank, thanks for chiming in.

In 1/72

D3a:

1. the Fujimi kit is old, simple but apparently has some fit problems from trying to make it suitable for both D3A1 and D3A2. At least in Australia Fujimi isn't imported, but I've been able to get one online.
2. the Cyber-Hobby kit is a ripoff of the Hasegawa 1/48 kit. The result is that (a) there's some very small parts (b) the canopy structure doesn't scale down well (c) there's locations in the cockpit moulding that were on the Hasegawa one, but not the parts to go in them! I've built one and apart from the outrageous price found it frustrating and the strangest kit I've ever built.
3. if you're desperate, there's the old Airfix one...

In other words, we have a real lack of good D3A kits available which is odd since it was such an important (not to mention beautiful) aircraft.

Me109F: Zvezda kit is excellent - don't see why you need another. Italeri apparently is the (cock) pits - avoid! For it and the early Gs the Fine Molds kits are the benchmark, but difficult to find.

Agreed on the Zvezda kit, I'm making their F-2 right now in fact (completely assembled and partly painted as we speak). But I'd like to see more variety. I couldn't find an F-4 Trop and I'd like to see a few more variants. I think this is a good one for Airfix to pick up (hint-hint) as it was so important in North Africa, and would like to see other companies like Eduard etc. take a run at it.

Soviet fighters - others have already covered these. Note Valom kits have a reputation for being a, er, challenge, to build.

These are neat planes and we deserve more of 'em! Zvezda does do some (I built their superb Yak 3 for example) but I'd really like to see more Yak-1, Yak-7, LaGG 3, Pe 2 and La 5 especially. Hopefully the flight sims will gradually spread more awareness of these impressive aircraft. I noticed Eduard has a few I-16 kits out though I think all in 1/48.

P40F/L: Special Hobby kit is good.

I made this kit as well, and it is a good Kit. (or they are, as they have 3 or 4 different versions out). Problems though include that these are all short-run kits so have very limited availability, i.e. you can find them on Ebay but I never see them in my local hobby stores (and we have good ones). I also personally am not a big fan of vacuform canopies which most of the Special Hobby kits have as I find them hard to work with. I'd just like to see some more kits for this excellent aircraft in any scale. I did see that Trumpeter has one on their upcoming list in 1/32 though I don't know if that is certain. It's such an important type - some of the top RAF aces like James "Stocky" Edwards flew them, as did all of the USAAF P-40 units in the Med (something like 8 or 10 squadrons altogether) who did quite well with them.

P40K: Sword does both long and short fuselage versions. Again good kits.

Trying to track some of these down now. Hope to get one soon, glad to hear it's a good kit.

Now a few 1/72 bugbears of mine:

1. SBD Dauntless

Hasegawa does an excellent one, but as usual only releases it every few years in a special edition at an outrageous price. Viritually unobtainable currently (I saw one of the last twin kit release going for $500 online!) The only alternative is the Airfix one, which is a typical late '60 Airfix kit (battleship rivets, sod-all cockpit detail, worn moulds). I tried bringing up one to current standards and boy oh boy it was a lot of work.

Great point - I forgot to put this one on my list. Another incredibly important, historically crucial (and effective) and nice - looking plane, so why so few models? When i was trying to find that one all I could find was the Testors model which I assume is a reboxing of somebody else's mould, but it looked very simplistic / crude.

2. TBF/TBM Avenger

Same story - best kit by far is Hasegawa, but good luck finding one.

We clearly need a new one!

3. Mitubishi Ki-21 "Sally".

4. Mitsubishi G4M1 "Betty"

5. Dornier 217

All important types which deserve updated kits!

S

 

[Schweik]

Hey I have another question, hoping someone can help me. I got the superb Special Hobby double kit for the P-40F (with one short and one long-tail). I want to do at least one of these in USAAF markings but the decals are only for RAF or Free French markings (Free French in particular look cool so I'll probably make one of those). Searching online for decals I found some really nice and realistic looking ones, but quite expensive.

Is this the right place to buy these decals from?

Kitsworld | Buy Kitsworld - 1/72 Scale Decal Sheet Curtiss P-40 Warhawks online at UK shop

or maybe this one (seems identical but in $ vs # as I'm in the US.

Kits-World 72060 - Curtiss P-40's Painted by Cpl Joseph E. - Decals 1:72 - The largest choice with 1001modelkits.com

Or this one

Same question for these, is this a good site to deal with?

Curtiss P-40 In Russian Sky 1:72 Authentic Decals 7260

I'm used to getting everything from LHS (preferably) or Amazon a little uneasy spreading my credit card numbers to all kinds of sites. But I need these decals lol.

& how about decals for Italian markings on a CR 42. I got one for some reason (by accident) with German decals and I want to do it as God intended - Italian.

S

 

[fubar57]

$17USD on eBay. I use PayPal, never had a problem. Just be sure to check out the sellers rating before buying.

1/72. Curtiss P-40F 79th FG, decals by "Kits-World" KW172060 | eBay
​

....and if you want Part 2, $21USD...

Kits World Decals 1/72 CURTISS P-40F WARHAWK 79th FG North Africa #2 | eBay
​

The one thing I like about eBay is that if you have patience, you will find lower prices than anywhere else. I've waited 2yrs for a decal sheet to show up

 

[Schweik]

Is anyone familiar with these decals? Are they good quality? I'd feel pretty stupid if I bought decals for $17 and they fell apart the way some of the ones in the kits do.

 

[parsifal]

The scales which ive had some trouble with are much smaller.....1/350th, 1/700 for ship models. Declas at these small scales are virtually non-existent except for the big nations. ive never had any major difficulty at either 1/72 or 1/48, though ive been scrounging around for some time now for a CAC CA11 Woomera with not much luck. 1/72 S2 tracker is also a bit rare, but not impossible these days.


Ive been looking for a dragonfly for a while and Sycamore. The Glencoe Sycamore is still available....at a price.....but the resin Czech version is out of production.

Aircraft like the beaufort and vengeance are certainly available, but the range of choice is fairly limited.

 

[ktank]

The scales which ive had some trouble with are much smaller.....1/350th, 1/700 for ship models. Declas at these small scales are virtually non-existent except for the big nations. ive never had any major difficulty at either 1/72 or 1/48, though ive been scrounging around for some time now for a CAC CA11 Woomera with not much luck. 1/72 S2 tracker is also a bit rare, but not impossible these days.

You're aware of the Woomera Models CA11 kit? Mind you, it's $125...

Woomera Models 1/48 CA-11 Woomera, preview by Zac Yates

 

[ktank]

Great post ktank, thanks for chiming in.

(Dauntless)

Great point - I forgot to put this one on my list. Another incredibly important, historically crucial (and effective) and nice - looking plane, so why so few models? When i was trying to find that one all I could find was the Testors model which I assume is a reboxing of somebody else's mould, but it looked very simplistic / crude.

The Testors kit is ex-Hawk, ancient and worse than the Airfix one!

Testors 1/72 SBD Dauntless

Re. the Special Hobby P40F, like all their newer kits it uses an injection moulded canopy:

P-40F Warhawk Review by Glen Porter (Special Hobby 1/72)

 

[Schweik]

The Testors kit is ex-Hawk, ancient and worse than the Airfix one!

Testors 1/72 SBD Dauntless

Re. the Special Hobby P40F, like all their newer kits it uses an injection moulded canopy:

P-40F Warhawk Review by Glen Porter (Special Hobby 1/72)

I guess that depends which one you have. I built one a few months ago which had vacuform canopy, but I just got the double kit (one short one long P-40F) which has the regular type.

S

 

[parsifal]

Thanks very much. I have sen this review before but I cant find the supplier despite several attempts to do so. And yes $125 is a bit pricey.....

 

[Lucky13]

The one thing I like about eBay is that if you have patience, you will find lower prices than anywhere else. I've waited 2yrs for a decal sheet to show up

Same here, found plenty of good stuff on ebay, both on the .com and .co.uk sites, sometimes I waited, other times, forgot and then they pop up, just what you've been looking for!
That's how I got my 1/350 USS Yorktown CV-5!
I'd also love to see more russian fighters etc., and decals in 1/48 plus the other scales as well obviously....​

 

[Schweik]

So I wanted to update this thread now that I've located and built a few of these, partly with the help of people who posted in the thread.

My original (Quixotic) purpose was to basically complain that some of these planes which should be more widely available aren't. But I gained a lot of benefit from your comments here and was able to find a lot of the models I was looking for.

I got these from a combination of the (very good) local Hobby Shop, some other suburban ones (not quite as good), Amazon, Ebay, Esty and in one case, Scale Hobbyist. I was reluctant to open a new EBay account (having ditched my old one many years ago) but I learned that you can check out as a guest fairly painlessly ... hopefully my credit card won't get hacked.

Anyway here are a few that I found with some brief commentary on the kits and builds.

Pzl P.11c
old Revell Kit (I think from the 1960's) but the kit was only $7
Found this one on Ebay, kit was super simple, something like 8 parts. Made it in two evenings after work. Sadly the 60+ year old decals disintegrated (except one) so this one actually isn't completely finished, it will be done when my aftermarket decals arrive (also via Ebay). Kit was pretty rough though my only real problem was with the wheels which were weak & kind of hard to get to stay in place.

Yak 7
This was a cheaper East European kit, I can't remember which one but I found it on Amazon for about $15.
It was a challenging build as nothing really fit right. Lots of sanding and some putty. But I liked the way it came out. There were a few options, I elected to do the 'long cockpit' version so it looks like what it is, a trainer that was adapted for use as a fighter.

Pe-2
This was a very old Airfix Kit, I think from the 60's. Found it on Ebay for about $20.
Fairly complex kit, old style with the very obvious raised panel lines. I had some trouble both assembling and painting but overall it was a good quality kit, just one of those that you kind of need 3 hands for putting it together. I kind of screwed up the painting and redid that several times. I am fairly happy with it though it's a neat plane. A bit bigger than I expected.

P-40F/L
This is one of the Special Hobby short runs, I think a more recent one (as in 5 or 10 years old I think). Found it on Amazon for about $25
This was a very nice kit, though it was a first for me in that included some resin parts and a vacuform canopy, neither of which I knew what to do with. Canopy in particular was a big problem for me due to my own ineptitude and I had to do a lot of tweaking (including borrowing parts from another kit) to get things to more or less fit and look right. Steep learning curve on this one and I really almost ruined it but I'm happy with how it came out. I love the Merlin P-40. I bought the other Short Run P-40F double kit (one long and one short tail) which I'm going to tackle when I feel like my skills are developed sufficiently.

P-40K
This was a Sword Double-kit. Very nice kit. Found it on Ebay for about $40 so it was pretty expensive, but worth it.
I did both, one as a 57th FG American (Med Theater) kit and another the plane of a 20 kill Soviet ace named Kuznetsov. These kits were simple but everything fit nicely and more importantly, UNLIKE some other similar kits I have, the planes came out looking like my photographs in terms of the shape.

Ki-27
This was a Hobbyboss kits, as in one of those ones with 5 parts that are quite crude. Cheapish, I think about $15 on Amazon. It felt kind of foolish making it because it's such a crude model but I actually kind of liked how it came out so I guess it's Ok. No cockpit detail or anything.

LaGG-3
This was another cheap East European one, I think maybe Valom? I can't remember. I found it on Amazon for about $20. Built it at the same time as I did the Bf109. Night and day! This was a rough kit. A whole lot of putty and sanding. Quite a struggle to get it semi-presentable. Still ended up kind of pleased with it even though I lost two of the rockets. I kind of like it now but for the price, we really need a nicer kit available.

Ki-46
This was a Japanasse kit, which I took the precaution of photographing but I can't make out the name of the company. Found it on Ebay for about $25. Beautiful design, but the kit was quite rough for me, though this may be due to my ineptitude. It had several options for cockpits, I chose the cool 'buck rogers' type windscreen, but man... it would not fit. I think I must have done something wrong. After a ton of sanding, putty, cutting with the knife, inserting bits of plastic and so on, I finally got it looking right-ish (from a distance). But I love the plane because it's such a cool plane.

Breguet 693
This is a Heller obviously, who else would do it? More of an experimental plane not one that affected the war much, but I like the design. Kit was pretty rough, bit of a struggle but I was happy with it in the long run.

D3A "Val"
I think this was another Japanese kit, I can't remember though. Almost ruined it by messing up the paint job but it came out Ok.

Bf 109F2
Never could find an F4, and this one is not a Trop, I scratch built a trop filter but the decals are for a unit that was only in France and Russia I think (not in the Med anyway). Beautiful Kit, Zvezda, found it on Amazon. Went together like a dream. Zvezda impresses the hell out of me.

More later (just text probably I think I'm done with photos). Thanks again for all the help!

S

 

[fubar57]

You've been busy. Well done. Some kits there I wish were in 1:48. I've paired up my eBay with PayPal as I don't like using my credit card(14 years and counting) and I've never had a problem with PayPal other than a few on-line shops don't support it