Clunkmeister

I have the 2 seater A-10. I really want to build it in Border Patrol colors. 😝🤪😇

Absolutely. The kit instrument decals are an unmitigated disaster, and, as is normal with Revell, there are no belts present. But the plastic is decent enough, although some pebbly areas are present. I expect a thin coat of paint will make this look phenomenal.

It should be here any moment now, although you can simply order from Hannants. They seem to always get stock before SB does.

The wing to fuselage join area is,… interesting. One MAY be able to build it using the short run technique of attaching the upper wing halves first, but the jigsaw assembly of the wing may make that impossible. As of right now, we have a decent, but not perfect fit of the wing to the fuselage. Just like the PCM kit, extreme care will need to be taken to avoid damaging the gorgeous raised details. There’s a lot going on here, and a lot of individual parts. However, I’m not sure it could really be simplified without sacrificing accuracy The fit is similar to the Revell P-51. Complex, but useable. I have yet to try the leading edge inserts.

So far, the design of this kit has been amazingly brilliant. BUT, and this is extremely important: it is a Revell kit, run off by the hundreds of thousands, so there is flash and mold lines much as with Airfix. As of yet, I haven’t seen any mold mismatch, but the join lines are definitely there. On the center section and three piece wing bottom, be aware that these must be absolutely clean, because even 1/64” of flash or sprue hate residue somewhere will cause them not to fit together. If they’re clean, they literally snap fit positively and perfectly. ale sure the edges are PERFECT.

The fuselage is together and it fits great. Im presently working on the wings and the center section is gloriously complicated. Just like the actual aircraft. There are a series of tabs, pins, levers, pulleys and fulcrums (Ok Roger Mitty) that aids perfect alignment of the wing. The dihedral looks spot on, and I’ll pop some pics tomorrow.

I received a Yahu panel and used it. I’m certainly pleased with the result.

This guy did a lot of 1/48 and 1/72 stuff

Yep. I’m ashamed to say that pile of trash is related to me. I have never been to see him. Not once. Neither has Joy. He wants family to send money to his account so he can pay the guards to give him his own cell. Plus money for whatever vices he has to feed. As far as I’m concerned, he’s already dead. To me, he died many years ago, but he just hasn’t had sense enough to lie down and stop breathing yet..

Maru, in the US, if anything, generally it’s much stricter, which really triggers some of the activist crowd. It all depends on the State, as each State has its own laws. One of my family through marriage was convicted of this, but his went on for years and years, right under everyone’s noses. Joy and I are very close to the victims, and the good news is, this turdball will rot in prison forever. Unfortunately, this type of crime is not a life sentence or worse, but Judges do have some leeway depending on the situation. Suffice it to say, Kevin didn’t get what he should have gotten, and to this day, he still doesn’t admit he did anything wrong. https://www.foxnews.com/story/texas-man-sentenced-to-4060-years-in-prison-for-sexual-assault-of-teen-girls

I expect the US, Canada, or South Africa would certainly allow it to fly. The big issue would be pilot training. That Hunter crash was most tragic and unfortunate. Mr Hill was acquitted, but I assume he’ll never fly again?

He was mostly 72nd and 48 scale

Jay Laverty, the man behind Mastercasters, is on his way to prison for 5 years. Child Sex crimes. https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/23418964.suffolk-lowestoft-man-jailed-five-years-child-sex-offences/

Nice! Why we don’t have one in 1/32 is beyond me!

Introduction Well folks, here we are. The brand new model company from New Zealand, Kotare Models, which literally rose like the mythical Phoenix from the ashes of Wingnut Wings, announcing that they had assembled the majority of the amazing talent from Wingnut Wings, and were actively developing a brand new model kitset. Speculation was typical WNW levels as the modeling community guessed everything from a CAC Sabre to a Blackburn Blackburn. The only thing I personally was fairly certain of, was that the new kit would have a solid history with New Zealand’s history through the 20th Century. When Kotare announced the Supermarine Spitfire Mk.1a (mid) as the new model, the typical modeling community speculation reached feverish heights. “Will it be accurate?” “Will it be Wingnut quality?” “Will it be followed by other Spitfire marques?”, etc, etc. Introduction and a history of the famous Spitfire isn’t needed here. It, along with the P-51, A6M, and Bf.109, are truly legendary aircraft that even non aircraft affectionados know about. Then the kit arrived on my doorstep…. Well, let’s just see if this new kit satisfies our lofty expectations. The Kit: If appearances mean anything, at least from the outside, this kit twangs the heartstrings of even the most jaded of Wingnut fanboys. The kit itself arrives in a very familiar box layout, topped by an absolute masterpiece original work of art by Darryl Legg on the box top. The sides and ends of the box harken back to the old dead Company’s layout, as well. So far at least, I have a warm and fuzzy feeling. In the box. Upon opening the box, we find a neat and tidy packaging of 4 light grey sprues of plastic, a single sprue of clear parts, an instruction and reference manual, and a full sheet of Cartograf decals. In essence, the exact opposite of the absolute trainwreck packaging we received with the Border Lancaster kit, with too small a box, broken, cracked, and crushed sprues, etc. We also have a very moving essay from Mark Robson, the Proprietor of Kotare Models, and how he came to love aircraft modeling, and goes on to explain his personal reasons for building this Company. A very decent, classy, and human touch indeed! My first impression upon digging it out of the box? Where are the rest of the sprues? Is this the entire kit? But yes it is, and the sprues are beautiful As you can see, parts breakdown is very cunning and strategic…. This allows for future versions of the short nose Spitfire to be issued with only a simple unique Sprue exchange. Certainly a nice thing to see. This kit sure isn’t a one-off… Major parts join lines appear to be on prototypical panel lines, so except for the bottom, a slight seam will be normal. I’m liking what I see at a glance, and my hope-O-meter is starting to inch slightly upward, so now let’s look closer. The instrument panel is truly exquisite. Beautifully molded, without being soft or overdone. No 3D decals required here. With a bit of care in using the individual instrument decals, it’ll build up beautifully. Cockpit side panels are full of molded on detail. Personally, I prefer separate details that I can add myself, but these are done amazingly, a d other than slightly complication any painting of different colors, it’ll stand up to any separately built up unit. Two types of seats are supplied, one without seatbelts, and the other with molded on belts. Most modelers these days seem to not use kit supplied PE belts anyway, so giving an easy option, and an option for the AMS afflicted is smart thinking. However, given the price of this kit, a set of supplied seatbelts would be in order. This is NOT a $45 Revell kit, but a kit that costs over twice as much. As for mouldings, there are NO obvious pin marks in spots that will be visible upon completion, so kudos to Kotare. Nicely done. So far, other than a personal dislike of one piece molded side panels, this I’d looking very promising, and the hope-O-meter is inching up… Next, let’s look at the major airframe parts. The molding is exquisite. Puttied smooth surfaces where they are supposed to be, and flush rivets where they are supposed to exist. Pin marks are strategically located out of view. Notice here, not a lot of extra doodads and complexity adding silliness. Just a pure, smooth, clean Spitfire. The sprues are completely free of flash, with no unfinished mold marks whatsoever. The Meng 1/32 Dr.1, this is NOT! Very, very nice! The one piece control surfaces have attached tabs for a positive and strong join, and are also molded off center, in a typical Spitfire resting pose, in order to provide some life to the static model. If you want to position them differently, eith need or break off and reattach. Nice touch and beautifully done. One thing pointed out by a couple other builders is that the fuselage rivets are a bit vague on the fuselage belly. I checked my kit, and they appear less obvious on the bottom, but OK, I’ll see how it looks under primer. hope-O-meter: creeping up… Two types of propellers as issued on Mk.1s.. The Paperwork: Now doesn’t this look familiar? We have the exact same format as used by the previous company, and which was also adopted by Copper State Models, and Kotare upped the standard even more for the research challenged like me, I have historically relied on others to perform that tedious task, but Kotare has taken that burden off our shoulders. Oodles of period pictures of in-Service (not restored museum) birds give us all the info we need to produce a correct show stopper of one of the four schemes offered in the kit. The hope-O-meter is way up, y’all This is the best example of an instruction manual I’ve ever seen. Rigging diagrams are clear, although you’ll need to supply the EZ Line or monofilament lines for the rigging it’ll add that little extra that’ll make the cockpit pop! Am I clear, yet? Here’s a few shots of our clear parts. As I’m sure everyone remembers, WNW was a WW1 aircraft kitmaker. The opportunity to show the world it’s prowess in making clear parts was limited to minuscule windscreens, and a half greenhouse on one of the big kits, so, if there’s a spot where New Zealand’s premier kitset manufacturer would possibly stumble, this might be expected to be where it’d happen. But alas, foiled again! The clear parts appear superb. Two canopies, open hood or closed, and no obvious oddities. Plus, like the grey parts, these are free of flash Decals The decal sheet is very complete, and contains marking for three aircraft. Individual instrument decals are supplied as per the previous New Zealand kitset maker. I can find no fault with these decals from high quality decal printer Cartograph. Cartograph IS THE decal printer of choice in the business for a reason. hope-O-meter is at the top of it’s scale and smoking Odds and ends If you preordered this kit, you would be treated to two things. First is a farmable print of Darryl Legg’s box art, and second I’d a gorgeous set of 3D printed exhaust stacks. These will save you having to drill out the plastic kit parts. Also, an aforementioned essay by the proprietor is truly an amazing read, and a peek into the mid of a regular guy like us with a passion towards model building, and the means and drive needed to see projects like this to fruition. Mr. Robson, we truly thank you! Conclusions? This Kotare kit is going to to make people like me VERY happy. From some others, I’ve heard a mixed bag of reviews, with most of the negative centering around the incredible simplicity of the kit. No Merlin engine with removable cowl, no little extras like we all came to love in the Wingnut kits: tail support trestles, flare guns, teddy bears, a map with holder, a pilot’s handgun, etc. in other words, nothing BAD, but just missing the little “pop” you got with the bonuses in a Wingnut kit. The kit is SO simple that it’d be an easy no nonsense weekend build if you build in the grey. But, Kotare has done exactly what people like myself have been screaming for for years: A superbly engineered model airplane kit that looks like it’s ready for flight. No panels hanging open, no extra junk that does absolutely nothing for guys like me other than raise the kit price and add hundreds of unused parts to my spares pile. I DO bemoan the lack of seatbelts, though. For a kit that’ll set you back an easy hundred quid, I’d expect to see some kind of separate seatbelts. For me, why worry about the lack of a Merlin. I never build the engine unless it’s needed as structure, like Tamiya kits require. Besides, there are dozens of 1/32 Merlin models out there, both from other kits, and standalone models. If you want one, the market is full of them. Go get one. Or nick it from a buddy’s Spares box. I LOVE the avoidance of PE. Now don’t get me wrong. I love PE. I use PE. I’d probably shrivel, die, and blow away as dust if I didn’t have PE. But I rarely use kit supplied PE. These guys have done exactly what we all hoped they would do: give us a fitting replacement for the previous New Zealand manufacturer that set new standards on how a kit should be marketed, produced and released. There are several of these already being built, one or two of which is right here on LSM by GazzaS who got his quickly in Australia. He states the fit and finish is first rate, and for the most part, effortless. But you must be mindful of the tight tolerances the designers gave us with the previous company, and how to ensure perfect fit, aLl making surfaces need to be paint, flash, and debris free! Failure to do so will guarantee all sorts of fit issues down the road. Just bear that in mind when building the model. The sprue markings list Spitfires right up to a Mk.V, and as I write this, Kotare has already announced an early Mk.l and Mk.V to be released in the near future, so I’m sure we’ll see plenty of new creations from these molds. Cost to me so far? A thrilling feeling inside, as many of the old feelings gather their creative talents together once again. How could I have doubted them? Shame on me! This’ll be on my bench soon, and as for now, I thank my wallet for the new Kotare kit.

You may need to do a re engine on the kit with the big V12 Mercedes. It was a Mk.V so y’all might need to wait a bit. It’s certainly something I’m gonna do. I know there was at least one built, and it IS kinda cool looking.

FYI, “TOS” started here several years ago after the Exodus. It’s simply “The Other Site”, but a few over there got really worked up over it.

Gary, so far I can recommend the Revell Hurri. It’s a nice kit. No belts or gimmicks, and the panel decals truly SUCK, but other than that, it so far seems like a solid kit, at half the price of the Kotare Spitty.

Along with the various Maxim designs, I’ve had the honor to be able to play with a water cooled Lewis gun, and all I can say about it is that it’s one seriously arcane and complicated rig, with cams, springs, timing mechanisms, etc, all looking to gum it up. And Magazine changes are seriously complicated. I forgot about the Browning belt guns (shame). I guess I was more thinking of aircraft guns… same with the Hotchkiss. And then there are the Russian designs. Those people who restore those old WW1 designs to functionality have my greatest respect. Some of them are so complicated and such a precision machine that how they were able to function in the first place is wonder enough, but to be able to do so in the heat of battle, in a filthy, muddy trench, and by a 17 year old conscript is beyond me. I used to think it’s be cool to make a Lewis or Hotchkiss gun run right, but it’s way, way beyond my interest or, as John says, “cuss factor”. Things have come a long way from those to the MG34,42, MG1, MG3 rifles and various offshoots of today. Going back to that old stuff gives me the cold sweats. 🤣

Interesting story on that. I was under the impression that most all MGs from WW1, with the exception of the Lewis, was a Maxim variant. Vickers, Spandau, etc.

The wait was absolutely worth it. WOW!

Not much of a review, as I had already started cutting plastic.

Yep. Sprue and others are way low on inventory, Hobbynut used to get them somehow, but who knows know

It’s a good evening to be building. Neighbors kids out playing in the rain, hours of entertainment for Richard.

Yep, I know.