radub

The measuring tools that we released in Telford, the "Protractor & Set Square" and the "Scribing Rule" sold out as pre-orders before Telford. The demand was so high that we made another small batch just for Telford - it was delivered to the hotel in Telford and we packed it there at the stand during the show. By the end of the first day in Telford we ran out of packaging and we were selling these without packaging. Then we ran out of non-packaged items too. The demand was so high that somebody wanted to buy the "demo" set-square and ruler. Anyway, we are working on a large batch and we expect to be ready to send them in the next week or two. If you want any of our tools, please order them even if they are marked "out of stock". If your name is "on the list", we may even send your order before the items are marked "in stock" on the website. Radu

As James mentioned above, I include donwloadable instructions with my models. The reason is "cost". Printing is expensive and a printed instruction sheet would add another 5 euro (or maybe more) to the price. You will see this with short-run kits, almost bespoke or artisan models. We do runs of 100 or 200 resin kits. Some of our resin kits have a production run of only 50. On production runs of more than 1000 kits, getting the printing done in bulk is cheaper, but on very limited runs, printing becomes a significant expense that can "sink" a project. So, I decided to NOT include a CD with the kit but rather make the instructions available in pdf format by download. We did not come to this decision lightly. At our club meetings we asked some fellow modellers whether they preferred a printed instruction sheets at an extra 5 euro added to the price tag or a downloadable instruction sheet at no extra cost. The overwhelming majority, maybe 9 in 10, said that they preferred the cheaper option. There are numerous advantages to downloadable files. To start with, my laptop comes with no CD drive now, so a CD would be useless. But on that laptop I can download the instructions in a few minutes. I can also download the instructions on a mobile phone, tablet, e-reader, even a game console. Furthermore, I have a few older "obsolete" phones and tablets (android, ipad, kindle) in the house and a couple of them are now in my workshop and I use them constantly to access electronic information, photos, articles, etc, while working. Another major advantage is that with a pdf on a screen you can zoom in and enlarge any image that may be unclear and see better how parts should be assembled. Radu

Well, your list has 10 items. Revell can only do one 1/32 new tool a year. So... even if they chose one from your list, this could take a while... And you are not the only one with a list. Other people's list may not even have one single plane from yours. :-) No matter what Revell picked, people would be "disappointed. " Equally, people will be pleased. As I already said, I can see the Hurricane and the Mustang B doing well in 1/32. Who knows? They may be made eventually. They may even be done by many competing manufacturers. But I cannot picture ANY scenario that would determine a manufacturer, any manufacturer, to choose a Defiant or a Battle over a Me 262 in scale 1/32. :-) Radu

I seriously doubt that any of these models would "beat" the 262 in sales volumes. Yes, I can see a Hurricane or a Mustang doing much better than a 262, but a Battle selling "better" than a 262? Radu

I can't really tell from what I can see in these images whether the 3D renderings are ok or not. But the line drawings have obvious flaws such as short engines, incorrect wing angle of incidence, bad wing shape and bad cross sections. There is a whole long list of issues with those drawings... Radu

The "scale" line drawings aren't correct. They simply replicate the issues that first appeared in B. Hygate's drawings, which were published in so many places. Radu

In the past, I had bad experiences with old miliput. What happens is that it breaks into small "crumbs" that do not mix with the other component and remain uncured. The result is a surface with with uncured spots that are impossible to process (sand/file or scribe). Personally, I would chop and cut away all hardened bits from each stick until reaching the soft core (if any is left) and only use that. If the whole thing is gone hard and brittle, I would not use it. Radu

Wow! Blast from the past! Around this time eight years ago I was working on the masters for that. Radu

Nice model so far. I think it may the same type of sealant tape used on the Corsair panels on the top of the nose. In that place there is a bulkhead separating the cockpit section and the fuselage section. Radu

Thanks Vern. ;-) Radu

Hi Vern, Please see this: http://www.skytamer.com/1.2/2.7/JH057.jpg Radu

It looks like you need to have the engines in place at least as a "mount" for the exhausts. Radu

The kit is also available from my store http://www.radubstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22&products_id=462 They arrived this morning and they are ready to ship. Radu

My "standard" Sutton harness has been available in 1/24 for a while: http://www.radubstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=89&products_id=459 ;-) Radu

I have the 1/24 seatbelts suitable for the Typhoon in the store right now: http://www.radubstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=89&products_id=458 Radu

I always use lacquer thinner. It works very well. Radu

Happy birthday Jim! Next time we meet, the first pint is on me. Radu

I ordered the Ta 152 C and it arrived at the end of last week. Irish Customs charged €18.92 in VAT. So, when added to the postage fee ($20.07 + $2.16 insurance) and the customs charges, even with a discount, the kit ended up costing me a grand total of precisely €77.63 (according to the bank statements), which is $104.99 at today's www.xe.com rate. The kit is nice, but I think it ended up a tad too expensive for my taste, at roughly twice the reduced price. I like PCM and their stuff, but I fear this is not going to work for me in the long term. Pity there is no reliable source for PCM kits in Europe. I used to get them from Cammett in the past, but that is gone. These kits are entirely made in Europ and this is clearly advertised on the box. Ideally they should have a branch on this side of the Atlantic. That way, when the plastic, decals, boxes, instructions, resin, P/E are completed/made in Europe, some can be sent to the US branch where they can be sold on the US market and some can be sent to the European branch where they can be sold on the EU market. In fact, for that reason alone, the European prices could be lower than the US prices because these kits are not shipped twice, once from Europe to the US and then back again. At least that is what I would do... Radu

Hi Lindsay, The saws are increasingly thinner, so you can choose the saw you need depending on what you want to do. For example, the rapid cut saw and the contour saws are ideal for resin - they will slice through resin pouring blocks. Radu

Hi Gregory, Yes, my father carved the wooden masters that were used to vacform the airframe shells. I have been tinkering with my patterns slowly, I never really gave up. I was never put off by the "rumour" of another kit being released - for me, my kit was a personal quest, I never looked at it as a major source of income, so "competition" was never a factor. For the record, here is the story why "I gave up" (or not...): when I started, I was using the drawings puyblished in Modelism in 1989. At that time, I did not have a large-format printer, so I enlarged the drawings to 1/32 and printed whatever could fit onto a regular A4 page (such as the fuselage and a wing). So, I worked on the patterns using only half of the drawings, presuming that the drawings were symmetrical. As it turns out, things just were not aligning properly and lots of issues kept cropping up. Soon, it became obvious that the drawings featured some strange discrepancies between one half and the other as well as a few geometric anomalies. So, I decided to make my own drawings. I gathered data, photos, manuals, references, and started working. By chance, I mentioned this to Mike Robinson, the the chief-editor of SAM Publications, and he suggested that maybe this data could be put together into a book. He told, me: "make it as big as you wish, we may print it in a couple of volumes". So I embarked on the biggest distraction that took me away from the kit: I wrote a very large tome (an estimate of about 400 pages) and before I knew it I put about 1000 hours in creating drawings of every possible version of the I.A.R.80/81. The book was eventually published by SAM Publications as a 128-page book (by that stage Mike was no longer with SAM Publications). Armed with the new information that I uncovered, I began the major job of correcting the work I already completed on my kit (and was shown on the internet). A lot of it was thrown out. Most of what was kept was changed. I stopped posting photos on the internet, but anyway the model as it is now is completely different. So, in brief, I did not "give up" on my I.A.R.80 project. The best comparison is the "wine is sour" scene in The Agony and the Ecstasy. So, my plan is to correct my patterns and make a kit that is as correct and as detailed as possible. Technically, I am about 100 hours from completing it. I just need to find those 100 hours... I may make a very limited run of it, possibly 200 or 250 items altogether. Radu

I can confirm that I measuired this model and the total length is 282mm. ;-) In fact it is slightly longer... Radu

I am planning a few bits and pieces for it. It is my usual "not the usual" kind of stuff. :-) I did not really give up my I.A.R. because of this. The version I was planning was different anyway so there would have been plenty of room for two kits on the market. The main thing that halted the work on my model was chronic shortage of time as I had to dedicate more and more time to earning a living. There is still a faint hope that I may do it. Radu