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At the very beginning of our May Newsletter, I would like to turn your attention again to the major modelling event of the early 2017, the Nuremberg Toy Fair that takes place in February in Germany. Yes, in these moments, I seem to be able to understand the feelings of a sportsman receiving his medal with a delay after the race. The Modellfan magazine editors have sent us their apologies for forgetting to award us the Model of 2017 prize for our 1/32 Tempest during the Fair ceremony. The prize was laid aside by mistake because of the usual hustle and bustle and it was only found out about after the fair. Well, late but still and as the saying goes, everyone is entitled to a mistake. The prize is a recognition of our work and it makes us happy of course. And we also believe that now we will be able to make happy you by mentioning our another Hi-Tech Tempest Mk.V kit (cat.no. SH32070) which is due to appear on hobby shop shelves soon. This reboxing will offer the modeller with a different set of resin sets including a partial replica of the power unit and also camouflage schemes different from the first and already sold out SH32052 Hi-Tech kit. Beside the Tempest kit, you may begin looking forward to the 1/48 L-39ZO/ZA Albatros kit (available under a new cat.no.) with a new decal sheet and what is most important, also with a new and injection-moulded clear canopy. And last but not least, we´d also like to announce a floatplane version of the Czechoslovak pre-war biplane, the Letov Š.328v. These models haven’t been finished yet though, they will require some little more time still. Also allow us to inform you about a handful of kits coming back to our offer or about to disappear and most importantly, about our expected May releases:
Models SH72112 C-60 Lodestar in 1/72 and SH48107 Spitfire Mk.XII in 1/48 were out of stock for long time, now they have been made available again and you can order them via our warehouse.
On the other hand, please remove 1/72 kits F2G-1/2 Super Corsair and SH72117 Heinkel He 100V-8 "World Speed Record" from your orders as they have been sold out for good.
Only last several dozens of the following kits are in stock now:
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SPECIAL HOBBY PLASTIC KITS
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The final production version of the famous Helldiver dive bomber was the SB2C-5 which was able to carry much more fuel, featured a paddle-bladed propeller without a spinner, enlarged bomb bay, sliding front cockpit canopy hood with simplified framing and other improvements. By standard, it was also fitted with the AN/APS-4 radar set. Being delivered to a few US Navy units, the SB2C-5 version took part in the closing fightings of the war. For a short while after the war, the type became a standard dive bomber of the US Navy until being discarded from the front line service. Within the military aid programme, the SB2C-5 Helldiver was also delivered to Italy, Greece, Portugal and Thailand. The Italian Helldivers were the longest-serving ones, flying until 1959. Greece successfully used her machines to battle the communist insurgents during the Greek Civil War. France´s machines were operated not only in domestic waters but also, and one may say most importantly in the then French Indo-China where they saw action against the Viet-Minh and got themselves famous in 1954 for taking part in the heroic, albeit unsuccessfull operation to liberate seized Dien Bien Phu.
The Academy´s highly attractive SB2C-4 kit which serves as a basis for our Dash 5 reboxing has benefited from addition of new injected parts portraying the different bomb bay, propeller and the clear canopy. The kit also comprises 3D-designed resin underwing armament including napalm tanks, AN/APS-4 radar and undercarriage wheels with nice tyre tread and separate hub covers. The decal sheet offers the following options – a late war US Navy machine, a Dien Bien Phu machine of the French Aéronavale, a Greece´s Helldiver and also one Italian machine in dark blue overall with yellow trimmings. The kit has been prepared in a limited edition.
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Category C aircraft, i.e. two-seater, armed, reconnaissance aircraft were frequently used by both the German and the Austro-Hungarian air forces. The Lloyd C.V. recce aircraft were used by the Austria-Hungaria also for gunfire control. The design of the new Lloyd was remarkable; especially the wings, which were covered with a 1.2 mm thick veneer and had excellent aerodynamic characteristics. The first Lloyd C.V. series 46 aircraft started to serve with operational squadrons on the Eastern front in Galicia in September 1917. The type´s initial deployment was not trouble free and the pilots would complain mainly about the non-standard controls, these being replaced by standard ones (steering-wheel control, etc.) by November 1917. Subsequently, Lloyds proved to be sturdily designed planes with good manoeuvrability. As the production was not able to meet the demand and the Daimler power units were also in short supply, it was decided to commence a licence production of Benz engine-equipped Lloyd C.V series 82 in WKF company. At the height of their operational use as many as 12 units (Flik) of the Austro-Hungarian Air Force were equipped with Lloyds. Some planes had a small coffin-shaped box encompassing the machine gun on their upper wing while others only had a cylindrical tank there. Eventually, when the planes were found unsuitable for the front line because of their insufficient power they continued to be used in pilot training.
The kit´s three styrene sprues have been accompanied by 3D-designed resin parts and a set of photo-etched details. The scheme options offer three Austro-Hungarian Air Force machines, one of them in two various styles.
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Our Hi-Tech format Yak-3 kit in 1/32 appeared for the very first time in August last year and the kit offered markings for the famous Normandie-Niemen unit. Now we have for you a basic type of the same kit, ie sans the PE and resin parts replacing some plastic items. And of course, this one is also cheaper. The Soviet Yak-3 aircraft is considered one of the best WW2 fighter planes to have seen action in the war, or at least over the Eastern front.
This new kit´s decals sheet caters for three rather colourful machines flown by famous Soviet fighter ace pilots. The airplanes wore victory markings on them, dedications or various artworks on their fuselages. The most interesting of which may seem a painting of an eagle over a white heart on one of them. The model comes via three styrene sprues accompanied by one with clear parts. One of the kit´s scheme options was an early machine being armed with a cannon and only one machine gun instead of a classic pair of mgs of later production machines and for this option we designed a resin plug for the starboard side mg trough.
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The very first British jet engine-powered fighter to see operational service was the Gloster Meteor. Following the wartime Meteor Mk.Is and Mk.IIIs, the production line gave also the post war Mk.4 version with much better performance. On 7 November 1945, two Meteor Mk.3s rebuilt to a Mk.4 standard were used to attempt the World Speed Record. The RAF High Speed Flight Meteors serialled EE454 and EE455 were flown by RAF’s Group Captain Hugh Joseph Wilson, CBE, AFC and Two Bars and Gloster Chief Test Pilot Eric Stanley Greenwood. Wilson, flying the camouflaged EE454 was few more miles faster that Greenwood in (almost) all-yellow EE455, having raised the record to 975.68 kmh. Less than a year later, Gp Capt E M (Teddy) Donaldson in a Meteor serialled EE549 set up a new record of 991.33 kmh and in January 1947, the very same machine also raised the Paris-London speed record.
The kit comprises two styrene sprues and a clear injected canopy, a fret of photo-etched engine air intake meshes, adhesive masks for various style canopies (incl. the special high speed metal canopy with small transparent portholes) and a decal sheet for record breaking machines serialled EE454, EE455 and EE549. The latter is depicted in two various colour schemes (camouflaged and all-blue) and what may be most interesting, with two various styles of her outer wing panels as later during the career, she was seen fitted with a standard Mk.4 short span wing.
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SH32070
Hawker tempest Mk.V "Hi-Tech 2"
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SH48167
L-39ZO/ZA Albatros
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SH72330
Letov Š.328v "Float Version"
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Finely detailed flaps replacing the original styrene ones that lacked most of the detail. The set contains also the wing internal structure which can be seen while the flaps are lowered.
Japan / WWII
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The set contains components enabling the modeller to remove the fairings above the tailwheel (fuselage bulkhead, new tailwheel, tailwheel strut, tail cone fairing panels) and show the tailwheel area including the fuselage bulkhead.
Japan / WWII
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New main undercarriage bays replacing the original kit parts. The new ones are much deeper and have nicely detailed and well marked internal structure with ribs and braces.
Japan/ WWII
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The set provides the modeller with new landing gear doors with their hinges replacing the original kit parts. The new doors have much nicer and sharp-edged details and have also scale thickness while the original ones possessed ejector pin marks on them and were way too thick.
Japan / WWII
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The set brings an Asian Elephant figure with a sitting mahout (an elephant rider and trainer) and a standing RAF mechanic figure. Elephants were used in India and Burma to haul aircraft and other heavy burdens. During WW2, both warring sides the British and the Japanese alike made use of elephants.
India, UK / WWII
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The set contains new weighted main undercarriage wheels which also offer deeper detail in their hub cap area. No adjustment of the original kit needed.
Japan / WWII
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Detailed resin wheels with the manufacturer´s name on the tyres and accurate fabric detail on the wire spokes. Made to fit both the new Eduard beauty and the earlier Roden or Monogram kits.
UK/ WWI
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All new canard foreplanes with separate flaps and one vortex generator. No adjustment of the original kit is required. These new parts correct the most important issue of the model which is the foreplane flaps shape and also enable the modeller to drop the flaps at 30°, a characteristic feature for a Viggen with the undercarriage down. Intended for the first generation Viggens, versions AJ-37/ SF-37/ SH-37.
Sweden/ recent past
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All new canard foreplanes with separate flaps and a set of two vortex generators. No adjustment of the original kit is required. These new parts correct the most important issue of the model which is the foreplane flaps shape and also enable the modeller to drop the flaps at 30°, a characteristic feature for a Viggen with the undercarriage down. Intended for the second generation Viggens, the lenghtened JA-37 version.
Sweden / recent past
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