Special Hobby EN

Dear modelling enthusiasts, we are very grateful that you like and buy our kits. We would like to thank you for your support and wish you a lovely holiday, all the best in the upcoming year, a firm hand and a sharp eye for modelling. We hope that you will support us in the future as well and that you will like the new releases and surprises we plan for 2023. Your Special Hobby team

The upcoming SH72465 DB-8A3/N kitset is a re-release of the already long time sold out model no.72525. Although all the styrene parts are the same, we have changed the picked colour options resulting in a newly designed decal sheet. And the kit will also bring a new resin cast bomb rack with a few photo etched decals. These racks were most likely fitted to the majority if not to all of the Dutch DB-8 airframes. When we were preparing the 72525 many years back, we did not have good reference materials at hand showing these racks. Now the situation is different, we are happy to say. And sorry for a bit lower quality of the photo, it is taken just with a mobile, as our photo colleague went down with some bug. A. R.

A few of 1/72 Viggen masks has been around for some time already. They were among the very first we made, these are the  M72002 and M72003 . However, the four colour splinter scheme masks took us much much longer to design and get right for you. And now it is all done and dusted really and the splinter scheme masks are scheduled for release in January. These two sets are the  M72043 AJ/JA/SF-37 Viggen (Single Seater) Splinter Camo MASK and  M72044 SK-37 Viggen (Two Seater) Splinter Camo MASK . All of them pre-cut using the top notch quality Japanese tape.

The second boxing of Special Hobby's 1/72 Mirage IIIC is being worked on and will offer four French colour schemes. And to make this release possible, we also have to bring you one new Mirage-related sprue - the one containing the French type of armament. We also cannot miss out on some more extra detail sets, as you can see now the other type of the jet engine nozzle is under developlent now, portraying the busy end of the Atar 9C power plant.

The 1/32  SH32044 Fiat G.50-II Freccia ‘Finnish Aces’ kitset is one of our January re-releases. All the colour options and sprues that the kit offers can be seen in today's blog. Plus a few images of a finished kit.

Only a few dozens of four-gun  P-40D Warhawk/Kittyhawk Mk.I  airframes might seem just a small drop in the vast ocean of the mass-produced, six-gun fighters of the P-40E and all later versions. However, even these very early P-40s had their colourful and important place in the history of aviation. And now we are going to chart their history once and again via our upcoming release named SH72367 P-40D Warhawk/Kittyhawk Mk.I ‘Four Guns’. The marking and scheme options will cover a machine flown by the top scoring RAF pilot in the MTO, Neville Duke of no.112 sqn, then a machine flown by no.3 Sqn RAAF in the Med, too, one highly unusual-looking machine as captured by the Japs in the Philippines and finally also an USAAF airframe from the immediate pre-war times. The four-gun machines differed from the version E in our model, and you will get a few etched and 3D-printed parts to address those differences. 

   Very early next year the Dutch  DB-8A3/N version of the Northrop/Douglas A-17/DB-8 bomber aeroplane is scheduled for its re-release. However, it is not going to be a standard type of re-release as now you will also get some extra parts as the fret of etched details and a resin cast bomb rack.      In 1940, the Dutch put these single-engine bomber planes into service agianst the invading German forces. The machines even did not fly in their intended role, they served as true fighter planes instead. Their front-line deployment began on 10 May 1940 and lasted until..... well, until the very same day indeed. The brave crews of the DBs attacked the Luftwaffe's Ju52 transports and managed to down some of them, only to find themselves shot down too by the Bf 110 escort fighters. The German twins attacked fast and precisely.     Our upcoming release has its decal sheet already designed, now we can share its image here with you. Two of the airframes portrayed had scored on that May day.

Mr.Ivan Víšek, a modeller from the town of Most, has very kindly  shared a few photos showing his 1/72 V-2 diorama builds. To build both these dioramas, the "get ready" site as well as the "launch" site, Ivan made a good use of quite a few of Special Armour  models and resin figures. Some of the portrayed vehicles are also scratch built or taken from other model companies. And as always, our very big thank you goes to the skilful modeller!

To support the Meteorfest event, we have also taken a rather comprehensive photographic documentation of all the Meteor models currently available via our e-shop. So the images show both the keenly priced Meteorfest Meteors and all the other versions including this year's new releases  SH72468 and  SH72463 .