For background information on the main figure, please see the review I wrote titled “Bandai Rosan Swordman”.

This set, like the Swordman kit, is part of the ’30 Minute Fantasy’ series. There are various Class Up Armor sets available for the different figures throughout the series.

The Kit

Included in the box are three trees: one is bright blue and the other two are silver. The silver trees are mostly duplicate parts from the man Swordman kit 5072036.

The assembly process guides you through a series of steps where you essentially take apart the Rosan silhouette figure. This means removing the head, the arms, and the legs.

As with all Bandai kits, careful study of the instructions in advance is very important because, depending on certain poses or accouterment features selected, you will need to vary the assembly.

More detail on Das Werk 's new 32nd scale Me 262 that's due in December. Colours, art & a whole feature set in CAD are in our preview!Read on... »

MiniArt's accessories sets continue with interesting items that we could have only had in resin in the past. We look at their windows & doors in our preview...Read on... »

This time a new 35th scale T-72B3M - the Mod.2022 up-armourded & with Russian optics. We look at the real thing & the CADs in our preview...Read on... »

Meng has upgraded its 72nd scale T-72B3M with some nice "copium"! We look at the real thing & the CADs in our preview...Read on... »

The date is some time in the late 1920s or early 1930s, the location in the American Midwest during the height of the Great Depression. Farmer John has been alarmed as Jennie, his wife of 12 years, has begun having “spells.” He calls Doc Johnson on the neighborhood phone, so the doc dutifully comes out to John’s farm during his rounds to see what the problem might be. Unfortunately, he soon discovers that Jennie’s condition is beyond his limited scope to handle, so he suggests that he drive her to the county hospital to let other medical folks take a look. John wonders during all this how he’s going to find the money to pay for all this as he holds onto his son Billy with weathered hands.

The Eduard P-51Ds are excellence in plastic. They are beautiful plastic kits, but the landing gear is a little fragile. Enter Kazan Model Dynamics, with their HybridCAST sets. What does HybridCAST mean? There is an aluminum rod surrounded by resin pieces. This gives you added strength along with the superior details offered by resin.

Packaged in a top-opening stiff card stock box with plenty of foam to protect the parts, the instructions are printed on a single side sheet. This set has 20 resin pieces, but what sets these apart is the inclusion of aluminum tubing INSIDE the strength-critical parts such as the landing gear struts and the actuator rods.

The Tamiya 1/48th scale F-14D is a great kit and deserves all its accolades. That being said, with the limitations of molding technology, there is always room for improvement one of those areas is the wheel wells. Theya re good but they myriad of lines and detail is just not possible with plastic injection technology. In comes 3D printing technology and the game changes for aftermarket. Kazan Model Dynamics has released sets in the past adding massive detail and their current catalog includes upgrades to F-16, F-14, P-38, F-4B and other sets. This review covers the landing gear bays and gear doors for the Tamiya F-14B/D. The set includes 17 resin printed 3D parts and a one-page instruction sheet. Printing is good with a few print lines that needed sanded out easily.

Beep beep, beep beep - JA! Das Werk adds four new sculpts in this latest set of two pairs of Bundeswehr drivers from the 80's & 2020's. See what's inside in our preview...Read on... »

MiniArt's new "Cats & Dogs" fill our dioramas with some four-legged fun. See them put together in our preview...Read on... »

DXM Double Excellent Model) Is a hobby company out of Taiwan and has been making decals for a while. They have now branched out into conversions also to augment their decals. This set is a conversion of the Tamiya F-14D kit inot an F-14B kit and includes two options, early or late and these sets can also be bought with decals which contain a couple options each. You can get the conversion by itself or with a specific set of decals and they are listed below:

• DXM-S0002- F-14B Conversion
• DXM-S0002P1- F-14B Conversion with VF-32 Fighting Swordsmen Decals
• DXM-S0002P2- F-14B Conversion with VF-143 Pukin’ Dogs
• DXM-S0002P3- F-14B Conversion with VF-11 Red Rippers
• DXM-S0002P4- F-14B Conversion with VF-101 Grim Reapers

For this review, we will use the VF-143 set. The conversion involves the following:

There are many ways to fold photo etch, using a folder with a safety razor has been the go-to method for me. Not anymore! This tool set is much more ergonomically friendly. I found it much easier to use because it is easy to control, fits in you hand, is easy to manipulate, and keeps the photo etch in place when using it without a jig. \

Available individually ($4.16), or as a set of three for $12.96 at https://umm-usa.com/onlinestore/index.php

Highly Recommended

Many thanks to UMM for providing this product and IPMS/USA for the chance to review it.

Heller is making good the better of some of their older kits. Take this - the 24th scale Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo Short Tail brought back into life with refurbished moulds. See what's incuded in our preview...Read on... »

Zoukei-Mura has graciously provided the IPMS Reviewer Corps with a first look at their brand new 1/32nd scale Kawasaki Ki-100-I Otsu Type 5 Fighter. Parts 1 and 2 of this review looked at the box contents and initial assembly, respectively.

Part 1 can be viewed here: https://reviews.ipmsusa.org/review/kawasaki-ki-100-i-otsu-type-5-fighter-part-1-kit-inspection

Part 2 can be viewed here: https://reviews.ipmsusa.org/review/kawasaki-ki-100-i-otsu-type-5-fighter-part-2-assembly

Final Assembly Process

This is a box stock build with no aftermarket add-ons or modifications.

Trumpeter has gone down a scale with the massive Chengdu J-36 in tiny 144th scale - 11 parts in a snap-fit kit! See more in our preview...Read on... »

The late Dr Leopold Scholtz was a senior journalist, political commentator and a highly regarded military expert. He was deputy editor of Die Burger until 2007 and was the European correspondent for Media24's Afrikaans dailies. Scholtz obtained his doctor's degree from the University of Leiden and was a research fellow at the University of Stellenbosch. He wrote several books and over 40 academic articles, most of which are about military history. He was a captain in the Reserve Force of the South African Army. His books include "The SADF in the Border War 1966-1989" [2013], "General Christiaan de Wet as Veldheer" [1978] and "Terror and liberation: The ANC/SACP, Communism and Violence (1961–1990)" [2022]. Scholtz died of leukemia in 2022 in Delft, the Netherlands, and is survived by his wife Ingrid, also a historian.

Gonna miss this but all good things must come to an end. Lots of great people and work on here, gonna miss it for sure. Take care all! Semper Fi

UMa Model has announced the 72-scale J-35/J-35A "twin set" kita in 72nd scale to the public. Bigger & twin-engine, this sleek Chinese fighter is the subject of today's preview...Read on... »

Special Hobby has provided this beautiful 2024 release of the First French Supersonic fighe the SMB2 Super Mystere, in 1/72 scale model.

• Nine grey Sprues
• One Clear Sprue
• Three resin parts
• Two Decal sheets
• One Instruction guide

The detailed quality is excellent in every way with this kit; crisp and detailed molding. The kit can be built in two versions: one the French version and there other the IAI Sa’ar Honduran version. You need to decide which version before you start the building. I when with the version A – French Air Force May 1961.

The Assembly is quick and easy.

The assembly starts with the engine and jet pipes in stage 1 and 2. There are several ejection pin marks that need cleaning up.

The Cockpit is next at stage1 and 2 this was straight forward just watch for part C39 as it is a tight fit.

Your hobby room can either pull you into the build or quietly push you away from it. We talk through a real-world reset that many scale modelers are facing right now: replacing doom scrolling with model reading, building a simple nightly routine that feeds ideas, and making smart changes to the model room so the bench feels focused again instead of scattered.

Listener mail takes us into two topics that keep coming up for plastic model builders: health and access. We dig into air quality monitors, ventilation habits, and even surprising CO2 spikes during airbrushing, plus the bigger “golden age of modeling” question. Kits, 3D printing, decals, and aftermarket detail sets are better than ever, but local hobby shops are closing, evolving, and shifting toward different audiences. We also share encouraging stories about modeling as living history and the youth programs that help new builders discover the hobby.

Then we bring on Dr. Michael Polin from Knoxville, Tennessee, fresh off winning Best Aircraft at the IPMS National Convention with a jaw-dropping 1/48 F-16. He breaks down the full “Magnum opus” process: brutal resin fit issues, black CA glue as a gap-filling workhorse, sanding and rescribing, integrating 3D printed parts and photo-etch, choosing decals and clear coats, and solving last-minute canopy and stabilizer disasters right before travel. We also get into a clever QR code build log, transport foam strategies, and how figure painting with Citadel colors sharpened his brush skills for avionics bay detail work.

If you enjoy deep-dive scale modeling talk with practical takeaways, subscribe, share this with a modeling friend, and leave us a review so more builders can find the show.

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