Archives: Kit Reviews
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Revell Germany M48A2GA2
FineScale Modeler reviews Revell Germany’s 1/35 scale plastic model tank kit. The M48A2GA2, with its 105mm gun and new mantlet, a new commander’s cupola, and a spotlight and case mounted on the rear turret (among other changes), was the last German upgrade of the M48 before the Leopard II entered service.
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Revell Germany Saab JAS-39C Gripen
FineScale Modeler reviews Revell Germany’s 1/72 scale plastic model airplane kit. Revell Germany’s newest release represents the latest version of the Gripen and offers two marking choices: a colorful Czech aircraft decorated for the 2014 Tiger Meet, and a Swedish fighter that flew in a 2013 Air Force Red Flag exercise. Molded in light gray plastic,…
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AFV Club M60A1 Patton
FineScale Modeler reviews AFV Club’s 1/35 scale plastic model tank kit. AFV Club’s new-tool M60A1 is welcome and long overdue, as the other available kits date to the 1970s. Cleanly molded in dark olive plastic, this deluxe kit includes a turned-metal gun barrel, detailed driver’s compartment, fording trunk, vinyl mantlet covers, searchlight, and photoetched-metal detail parts.
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Dragon M65 Atomic Annie
FineScale Modeler reviews Dragon’s 1/72 scale plastic model military vehicle kit. On May 25, 1953, at the Nevada Proving Ground, the M65 became the first artillery to fire an atomic shell. Dragon’s new Black Label 1/72 scale tooling of the M65 contains 268 parts molded in light gray plastic with clear styrene windows. Three marking choices…
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Kitty Hawk 1/48 scale F9F-8/-8P Cougar
FineScale Modeler reviews the Kitty Hawk 1/48 scale F9F-8/-8P Cougar scale plastic aircraft model. This is the first 1/48 scale injection-molded kit of Grumman’s swept-wing Cougar since … well, since forever. The Cougar was the principal carrier-borne fighter of the mid-1950s, paving the way between the straight-wing jets of the Korean War period (Panthers and…
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Zoukei-Mura 1/32 scale Horten 229
FineScale Modeler reviews Zoukei-Mura’s 1/32 scale Horten 229 scale plastic aircraft model. The Horten Ho 229 has to be one of the most futuristic aircraft designs to take to the air during World War II. The Horten brothers’ design was so far ahead of its time that in the early 1980s a team from Northrop-Grumman,…
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Airfix Folland Gnat T.1
FineScale Modeler reviews Airfix’s 1/48 scale plastic model airplane kit. I didn’t know much about the Gnat, a British fighter turned trainer, but I was expecting a model similar in size to the T-38 or Fouga Magister. Nope: This ornithological wonder is small, Cessna 182-size — actually the 182 is larger. I checked the scale twice.…
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Airfix Dornier Do 17Z
FineScale Modeler reviews Airfix’s 1/72 scale plastic model airplane kit. My first impression of Airfix’s new 1/72 scale Dornier Do 17Z? In a word, details! Fine surface and interior details grace the fuselage halves, wings, and nacelles, but it’s the array of additional parts for the cockpit and bomb bay that put this kit a cut…
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Kinetic Mirage IIIE
FineScale Modeler reviews Kinetic’s 1/48 scale plastic model aircraft kit. Kinetic’s new kit offers five versions of the Mirage III, including two French fighters and a French recon bird, a Spanish IIIEE, and an Australian IIIO. Don’t be alarmed at the number of parts — the kit provides a bunch of optional parts for the different…
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GWH Handley Page Victor B.2
Following its Vulcan, GWH brings us a Handley Page Victor B.2. Like its predecessor, this kit is a beauty, with finely engraved surface detail and nicely detailed wheel wells and speed-brake bay. The speed brakes can be posed open or closed. Decals provide a choice of three RAF bombers during the 1960s.