Clunkmeister

Since we allow 1/48 in our midst on LSM, this is an interesting, long overdue, and very welcome announcement from Kinetic Models. A brand new tool CT-114 Tutor in 1/48 scale should be in our midst hopefully in 2023. The list of Nations that flew the Tutor is low: Canada and Malaysia, but to those on this side of the Pond, it’s been an extremely common sight over North America since the 1960s. Anyone who has seen the RCAF Snowbirds perform has seen the Tutor, and since the 1960s, it was the RCAF advanced trainer until replaced by the Texan ll and the BAE Hawk.

Rigging isn’t a hard thing. It’s simply one line at a time. Start in the center and work outward. Not many people agree with my take on rigging: to me, it’s structural and it needs to be tough and capable of supporting the weight of the model. I’ll forever shout the benefits of scale sized mono line.

Many of the issues with the aircraft weren’t the fault of Curtiss per se. Curtiss wanted to lengthen the rear fuselage a few feet to aid stability, but the Navy absolutely refused to allow it, citing space concerns, yet the Navy absolutely insisted that the aircraft needed to meet performance numbers that dictated it’s size. Ironic considering the size of the Grumman Avenger….. Then, the Navy would change mission specs halfway through development, etc, etc. Plus with the wartime rush, once the design was finalized, it was rushed into Service long before it had been fully debugged. If development time hadn’t been wasted screwing around with changing design specs, the aircraft would have had more time for testing and modifications. But what finally emerged was tough, reliable, and capable, if less stable due to the Navy’s refusal to allow the tail to be lengthened. Greece and France both flew them quite successfully after the War ended, and even took them to war again.

That you won a model of one of those shaky, vibrating death trap flingwing whirlybirds is only fitting. 🤣

Exactly, Peter. There are a few very nice kits that can be built OOB with no issues. Tamiya, Hasegawa, some Trumpeter, and even some ROG come to mind. To me, most of the others have various buildability issues. Short run kits just amplify it to some extent.

I’m starting to really, really like MRP paint.

1. 1/35 Ryefield Panther G. from BlrwstSiR. won by ScottsGT 2. $50.00 gift card from GazzaS won by BlrwstSiR 3. 50.00 gift certificate from Mark31 won by KevinM 4. 1/32 ZM P-51 from ScottsGT. won by CANicoll 5. Hasegawa Kawanishi George from GusMac. won by Seiran01 6. 1/32 Italeri Mirage lllc from PeterPools. won by Smitty44 7. 1/35 Dragon Hobbies 10.5cm Dicker Max from Fran, won by Telepatu 8. special Hobbies USMC boxing of ICM 1/32 AH-1G Cobra. won by Bill_S 9. Hasegawa 1/32 Ju 87 Kanonenvogel from Harv, won by Mark31 10. MRC/Academy Ki-58 “Black Death” from Bill_S, won by Winnie 11. 100.00 AUD gift certificate from Artful69, won by GusMac 12. 75.00 US gift certificate from Winnie, won by GazzaS 13. 1/48 ZM F-4C Phantom ll with G-factor gear from CANicoll, won by Artful69 14. 1/32 Border Lancaster from the organizer, won by PeterPools 15.1/32 Trumpeter Bf 109E-7 from KevinM, won by Fran 16. 1/32 Roden/Encore Albatros D.ll “Boelcke” from Seiran01, won by HubertB 17. 1/32 Fly Saab J-29 F with Reskit details from HubertB, won by Harv 18. 1/32 ICM 1/32 I-16 from Telepatu, won by Fran (one extra due to organizer not drawing his own name) GRAND PRIZE: JetMads 1/32 EXTREMELY LIMITED EDITION Saab Viggen, has been won by GusMac THANK YOU for all this, folks! As it is every single year, it’s awesome to organize this and quite honestly, I look forward to doing again next year! And MERRY CHRISTMAS to all!

Hey folks, I just got back from a day full of insanity. It’s the first Christmas without my Daddy, so everyone was extra caring and attentive. (Shoulda played it up for more swag, but I’m not so inclined) I’m double checking everything now, so expect it all done shortly.

That kit was released in 2021-2022. Resin2Detail makes a boatload of AM for it, and it’s a stunning kit.

It looks like we are getting decent participation this year, which is awesome! I’m overjoyed!

haha. I think it was the glare of the flash, but that is by far the quirkiest looking build alive ever seen. Brilliant work! Gotta try that with a P-39 next….

And I’m the exact opposite when it comes go WW1 stuff. I love the quirkiness of them. I don’t like building common aircraft. I like unique. People build a Spitfire, ail look at a Hawker Henley. People want a 110? I’ll look at a 410.. I’m a huge fan of the most neglected and overlooked part of aviation: 1950s Naval aviation. Cutlass, Tiger, Cougar, Venom, Attacker, Sea Fury, Corsair -4, Firefly, Banshee, Fury, and that wonderfully ugly RCN Avenger. Thank you Lord for Paul Fisher. He brought us some seriously cool 1950s jets. I have three!! Cutlass kits, and I’ll most likely build them all!

Those guys were GREAT. Given the time period the series was produced in, and feelings were still high on both sides, they all did a great job of splitting it down the line with brilliant acting, episode after episode. It must have been hard to pull off a German POW Camp Sgt and Commandant into serious, but lovable characters with real scruples and honor.

Chris, what I AM going to do is organize a collection for you to get you some sanding sticks… 🙃. OK, I know it’s just the light reflection, but those props look to be literally covered in flash. 🤣 I gotta take my licks when I can, man! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Agreed 100%. Experienced builders who build nothing but Tamiya, Hasegawa, and Revell charge in to one of these with a full head of steam and very quickly build themselves straight into an inescapable corner. As a result the entire kit gets a black mark and reputation, when, in actual fact, what they needed to have done is study the parts, gather references, go at it slowly and carefully, one step this side of a scratchbuild. That alone is half the problems with these and similar kits.

I think some may be operator error actually, but a downfall of most short run kits is the lack of instructions. The instructions are the typical vague but professional looking exploded views as expected these days. Since short run kits don’t generally have locator tabs and such, there is no “one way” to assemble stuff, and as a result, either intimate knowledge of the subject, or invest in some good reference material. The second attempt will take a fraction of the time. Plus, for the super detailer, there is a TON of piping and valuing that can be added to the MLG wells to busy it all up. I expect I’ll install some, enough to busy it up.

The landing gear absolutely confounded me. I’ve been working on this one side for several days. It’s sitting there in-situ, not secured in to the wing. There are marks for where the strut is to go, but what you see here is about 8 parts. The good news is, the main legs are sturdy and appear quite capable of supporting what is turning out to be one substantial build. I’ve had to cut, trim, rearrange, and modify some of the linkages here, and am nowhere near finished on this side. References are going to really benefit any prospective builders, but everything is here, you just gotta assemble it right.

Truly amazing!

The B-58 has to be one of the most brutally beautiful aircraft ever built, anywhere in the world. Everything about it is swoops and curves, and “in your face” space age amazing.

For me, two of the most important LSMs of all time will be released in 2023: the Val and Kate both being released by Infinity. Personally, I’ve been waiting decades, and I know many others have as well. I’m thoroughly enjoying my Helldiver experience, and I look forward to diving into both of these kits as well.

These large multi engine kits are one seriously GREAT value. IF you look at it in potential hours per dollar spent. If you look at it that way, the Border Lancaster, all HK kits, Wingnuts Felixstowes, and all HPH kits are the best modeling values around, with Tamiya being just about the worst value. (Dollars spent vs time invested). They snuck this kit up on us. I certainly didn’t see it coming.

Exactly. I’ve preached that exact thing for years, till I’m blue in the face, and many think I’m crazy. But if we think about it realistically: the US and Canada account for what? 400 million people? Mexico possibly doubles that, but it’s still less than 1 billion in all of NA. China alone is double that. We are the richest Nation on Earth, with a ton of space, and kids are into Video Games, R/C cars and planes/drones, cars, and a bunch of other stuff that we can do here because we’re Blessed with wide open spaces and huge houses, comparatively speaking, which allows all kinds of alternate hobby choices. Model Building is huge now in Europe and growing crazily in Eastern Europe, where, I believe, the world’s foremost builders (and Companies) reside. Japanese people can’t do a lot what we do due to a lack of space, so they build. Same in Chinese cities. It’s growing over there, but fading here. Such is life. But, along with model building, other traditional sports and hobbies are fading as well. Look at traditional shooting sports. Find me a dozen serious skeet or trap shooters, or competition long distance precision rifle or pistol competitors under the age of 45 in one town. Pretty much impossible these days. Sad. Czech and Slovak citizens not only build, but they are fanatical competition shooters. I know. They’ve kicked my ass everytime I think I can take them in a pistol competition. And I even took to using Czech equipment. (No luck) 🤣

This is one serious list!!! It’s a GREAT time to be modeling in a large scale!

The US, believe it or not, is one of the smallest model markets in the world.