justin

Hi guys, greetings from Jakarta!

Well, I had time to visit the model shop in Singapore airport, and what did I see? The CDC 1/48 B25, all I can say is ******!!!! This is impressive, really impressive. The shop had an early model B25B in the USAAC green colour with early national insignia, and it looked great. Needless to say the model is huge and weighs a ton. Unfortunately, they were boxed, but looking through the clear plastic the model looks very nice indeed, the only thing I couldn't see was the landing gear and undersides, the rest looks mean. The price was 190 S$, not expensive really. If it wasn't for the size and weight, and the fact my local shop has it on order for me I'd have bought it there and then. The shop had lot's of CDC's, beautiful Fw190's,Spitfire V's, Bf109's,F4U's,Ju87's,P51's,AV8B/Harrier2's F18's, F16's, F15's, F4's, F117's,F14's, it's like a paradise in there!! The only thing wrong was the P51, they had a beautiful Korean war USAF P51, but for some reason it just doesn't look right, you know when you can't put your finger on something but know it's not right? Anyway, I must dash, take care all,

Justin

Ozz

Hey Justin,
Thanks for the report. I can hardly wait for my pusher to get these in for me. Any word on the ME 262?
I don't know about you but I found the problem with the P-51 is the struts are extended as if it's on approach so when it's on the ground the gear leg doors stop above the tire and it sits way too nose high.
I hope you're enjoying your trip!

__________________
Ozz

ORANGE IS BEAUTIFUL
GO WESTJET!!!
We need more CPAir/CDN and don't forget PWA and BA Landor!

justin

Hi Ozz, sorry I forgot to mention they had the Me262, three versions, Nowotny (very nice, that one), the bomber buster with the huge cannon in the nose (75mm?) and a kind of non descript standard Luftwaffe one. All looked like excellent models, in fact the Nowotny is one of the models I may buy next week. They also had a lot of P38's,P47's and other stuff. Thanks for reminding me about the P51, I remember now the landing gear is exactly the problem, I've noticed it before on the CDC Mustang but for some reason just had a mental block, I must be getting old or something....... They had a USAAC Spitfire V in Mediterranean theatre camo which was superb, it's a nice change from the RAF/Commonwealth air force Spitfire models we usually see. Along with the Nowotny Me262, I am thinking of buying a Fw190 in Eastern front winter markings, one of the tank buster ground attack ones, it looks great in white. Thinking ahead, I do hope CDC will prosper and continue to give us nice models, some suggestions from me for the future would include;

Curtiss P40
Fw190D9/Ta152
Mitsubishi A6M Zero
Mosquito (of course!!!!)
F86 Sabre
Hawker Typhoon or Tempest

And 100's of others.......... Anyway, there's something calling me away again..... Take care all,

Justin

egonzinc

Justin,
Thx for the "frontline" report!
I have yet to decide on which B-25 to get but I think I might pre-order soon.
I have the same situation witht he 262, the Nowotny seems to be the keeper, but we'll see.
I received a Tornado lat week and I have no idea if it is accurate or not but it is BEAUTIFUL!
There is something about desert colors on a plane that make it appealing for me...
I found my favorite reference book from 25 years ago and it has to be the best book for WWII military planes out there.
it has plates of all major types and it gives four sided views of one particular plane and then two pages of side views of different variations. The plates show the planes weatheered and all.
I'll put the full reference later from home but this book is HIGHLY recommended.
Another one of German Aces and their planes is a recent aquisition and also excelent.
Justin I hope I NEVER find a store like the one you walked into!
It would be too painful, or too costly, or BOTH!
Have a good trip and thx again for the info.
Eduardo

justin

Hi E! If your Tornado is the RAF desert storm one then it is very nice, I saw that one and the colour looks as near to being perfect as makes no different to my eyes. One thing about those desert colours was that they faded and weathered very badly, so there is a lot of lattitude to get a good match . The thing about seeing in a shop is the models look so much nicer, CDC's catalogue is terrible, with just artists paintings that show nothing of the models. My local hobby store is ran by a terribly nice old boy who will do anything for his customers, but ordering blind from a catalogue like CDC's is terrible. For instance I was impressed by the P47, this is a fighter I have never liked and probably would never buy usually but one of the ones Isaw looked great when I saw it in the metal, and I was/am very tempted to buy it. I know what you mean about shops being dangerous, I often thinkI should leave my credit card at home before going to visit model shops!!!

Justin

egonzinc

Justin,
Yes that is the one the Desert Sorm Tornado..wow!
I know what you mean about the catalogue.
I'm working on some generic tarmacs/bases to take pictures of these, hopefully the pictures will show how nice these models are.

I want this range to be VERY successful for selfish reasons!

I have one P-47, the Gaberski ,and I love it!
There is something about invasion stripes that I like...maybe it was all the trouble I used to go through to paint them when I used to build models!

The only concern I have of these models is that once out of the box, whenever I finally get to display them, I fear how the gear can hold such heavy models over the long run... anyne else out there thought about this?
E

justin

Hi E, I hope you'll share some pictures with all here when you take them

One of the nice things about these being 1/48 scale is that being one of the main kit scales there is all the GSE and diorama accessories we could ever want available, even well detailed figures for pilots and groundcrew, and external ordinance. I do hope the wheels will hold up over time, but I know what you mean when you feel the weight of a model like the F4..... The WW2 fighters are not so bad but the larger jets weigh a tonne. I used to take the easy way out and use decals for the invasion stripes, the worst scheme to paint for me was the Swedish air force, it used to take a couple of days to build a Draaken or Viggen then a couple of months to paint that camo pattern, but it does look good when finished. Tiger stripes too, what a nightmare painting those Tiger meet jobs! I can't agree more about hoping that CDC do well, they don't seem to have a very go ahead marketing policy as I just fell on this range by accident one day when I saw one my local hobby store owner bought for his own collection, and when he showed me the catalogue and just how many models they make I was amazed. I read a few aviation journals, and while most other model makers advertise or send models for review, but until about two months ago I'd never seen CDC mentioned at all. Also, many aircraft model shops have never heard of them, my own feeling is that if CDC were a bit more up front in advertising these and tried to get a larger number of dealers on board these would sell like hot cakes. Take care,

Justin

egonzinc

Funny you should mention sweedish air force, I had one of those to build and I NEVER got around to it, chicken I guess but the scheme was very complicated, I remember something like hexagons, not to different to the lozenges schemes used by Germany in WWI.
Wouldn't THAT be something if Armour came out with WWI warbirds in 1/48 or even better 1/32! WOW! That would be something!
That is still a work in progress for me, would love to have several DrI,DVII, and AlbatrosIII and V to start!
Last night I saw the white FW190 and couldn't resist, I didn't know they had some new choices. thx for the heads up!
I fell in love with the radial engine FW190 when I bought a Monogram model maybe 33 years ago. When I saw in the instruction sheet all the different armament alternatives I "fell in love"! i remember writing monogram to see if I could buy 8 models directly from them as I wanted to build each and everyone of the alternatives! Never got a response! Decided to go with the one that has twin cannons under each wing in some aerodynamis pod... I loved that model!
Of course I left in place some of the other cannons in the wings...At that moment reality had to take a back seat to "firepower"!!! jajaja!
Last night I also saw another Nowotny model this time another FW190 and it had ome sort of winter camo over the basic camo and alsolooked VERY good!
I have to check the Me109's o see if I see anythig new.
On the weight of the models and the gear I have decided that on the few modern jets I have I will find a way to place some sort of support under the model to relieve pressure from the gear. Its just too heavy. I imagine something similar will have to be concocted for the B-25...
Again thanks for the heads up on the all white FW190...
Eduardo

justin

I know what you mean about loading models up with weapons! When I was a small kid I used to feel short changed if there was anything left in the box when I'd finished, so I had some rather bizarre weapons loads on some of my models, the wheels would have collapsed on them in real life I think

Glad to hear the winter Fw190 hooked you! I thought the Fw190 a great aircraft, it was superior to the Bf109 in every respect yet for some reason never seems to have captured the fame of the Bf109. This is like in the UK, the Hawker Tempest was the best British fighter of the war yet has been forgotten. I loved the late Fw190's too, the -D9 variant, then the high altitude models when they changed it's designation to Ta152 to honour Kurt Tank. The in-line engines gave them a completely different look. Did you see the original Fw190 design models and drawings when the cooling air intake was in the centre of the spinner? Now that would have looked weird!!

Yes, that Swedish camo was painful, all those hexagons, Sweden did modellers a big favour by going low viz! I always found winter colours very hard to get right. I used to make 1/35 AFV's, and when painting the German winter colours it was so tricky because in real life the temporary white paint used to weather badly to reveal the base coat, and even when first sprayed it usually still wasn't white as the base colours would make it appaer more grey, especially early in the war when panzer grey was the base colour. I found the best technique was to spray on a panzer gray or yellow coat, then a light spray of white, then use weathering techniques. I never did get it right

I'd love WW1 machines too, especially a Camel and a Fokker Tri-plane. My favourite bi-plane was from a later era, the trusty old Swordfish, it's amazing the FAA used such an anachronism to such devastating effect in an era when such an aircraft was considered a pathetic joke. Admittedly it was usually used in area's without air opposition or with heavy fighter cover, but it's attack on the Italian fleet in Taranto was one of the FAA's greatest ever successes.

Take care,

Justin

egonzinc

I enjoyed and guess would still enjoy building 1/35 AFV!
You are right on the winter camo. I would paint base color and basically scrub and drybrush some white on. Used similar technique for the DAK "mud-pack" camo. I remember painting a bunch of vehicles (including some captured British vehicles) and the results were interesting. Speaking of DAK schemes my favorite I guess was the late pea green on TigerI and short barrelled PzIIIN, with the red numbers..nice! Now that I think of it my favorite schemes were early and DAK. I still have many AFV in "inventory" and I'll hold on to them as I see myself building some of them... the planes I have can move... My other favorite AFV were the Russian KV monsters and many T-34 varieties. Incredible how the T-34 began and how they developed that baby!
E

justin

My last AFV was a Tamiya Cromwell, a very nice kit of one of Britain's better wartime AFV designs, although that's not such a great compliment when you look at competition like the Crusader and Valentine! I loved the T34, probably the most influential tank design ever, a true masterpiece, it is still in service around the world, I saw quite a few T34/85's in the former Yugoslavia, it looks strange to see such an old design alongside a T72 in the same army. My own favourites to model were the Panther, Tiger, Royal Tiger, T34 and Pz 4, although I built quite a few Sherman's and various other stuff too, like halftracks and trucks, artillery etc. You're right about the DAK veichles being another tricky one to get right! I built a couple of Dragon's "what might have been" models like the Mouse and the super Panther, nice in a collectioneven if they were never built in real life. I guess one day I'll build some more, but I just don't have space at the moment, also I like building the models as parts of diorama's which takes even more space. We are spoiled for choice, companies like Italeri, Tamiya and Dragon make wonderful models in 1/35, in fact I've been tempted a few times to use the Academy Minicraft 1/35 UH60Blackhawk helicopter along with some Dragon modern US army figure sets to make a diorama, I can think of a few nice possibilities there Take care,

Justin

egonzinc

Justin,
Love to do dioramas myself!
I remember buying a Monogram tank waaaaay back an it had a sheet with diorama tips by Shep Paine...my life as a modeler was changed! He also had flyers in the C-47 with Paratroopers and in the large 1/48 B-17 and B-24... I also remember seeing some of his works in a magazine that no longer exists called "Campaigns" and his work was just incredible. He had a boxed dioram of napoleon visiting Frederick the greats tomb that was incredible. The whole scene was illuminated by the light of a hand held candelabre (fibre optics). Other masterpieces that come to mind were the gun deck of the Victory in the middle of a battle and the inside of the turret of the Monitor... INCREDIBLE stuff!
Wonder where all thatstuff is, if its in a museum it would be worth a trip!
E

justin

Hi Eduardo, Shep Pain was inspirational! I had a book of his work, and I remember the diorama of the Victory gundeck,magnificent!! Another great modeller who published a lot of his work was Francoise Verlinden, also inspirational. Both these guys had very distinctive styles and seemed to make the diorama come alive, many diorama's, including my own sadly have a kind of "dead" feel, but those guys really could make small figures come alive. I used to love the centre pages of the Tamiya catalogue where they showcased diorama's. Verlinden made great models too, his resin figures can be incredible when well painted. Often the most simple diorama's can be the most effective, but I love those huge ones with lot's of veichles and men, I once saw a nice once of the Arnhem bridge in a British army barracks which was awesome. Take care,

Justin

egonzinc

Inspirational is the perfect word!
Verlinden's dioramas and then later his products are great!
The PzII in 1/16th scale I built was a Verlinden product.
Expensive stuff but his 1/35 figures when compared to the kit pictures are just light years better. I never enjoyed preparing the resin figures, but once put together, the painting was always a great pleasure... boy talking about this I'm getting the urge to build something, or at least finish building something. I would start building severla kits at once... crazy I know but my airbrushing facilities are not the best and I would then airbrush severla projects at once.
The other modeler whose work was also impressive and always had a feature in the Military Modelling magazine was ( I can't remember his name, Pfister maybe?) but he would make AFV conversions and his results were incredible.
Know what you mean about scenes with lots of figures.. one of my favorites was a group of germans crossing a bridge, don't remember the deetails but remember I would just stare at the picture for a long time lookig at all the details... the bridge itself was a work of art....
"Talking" to you now, I'm wondering why there is not a Models Museum. I bet modelers would love to have a venue for their projects. Then space is not a problem! It would duoble up as a history of warfare museum... I know many museums have models but I have never heard of one for models exclusively. Whi knows there might be somethin like that out there...
take care
E

egonzinc

Justin,
Took some pictures tonight. Tested out a black base with the Tin Plate models and used the same for the PzII I talked to you about. The individual figure looks terrible as the glare doesn't allow one to d=see the figure, but the tank and its figure looks ok.
Kind of like this black base to go with the "natural" black background... Maybe its a good way to take pictures of the Armour models, except foam board might get dented with the heavy models! jaja!
Here they are:

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/Album...a=13864884&f=0

Eduardo

justin

WOW!!! That is impressive! Those Pz2 pics are superb, also the German soldier with panzerfaust! I wish my models were as good! I agree a museum of models would be nice. I only built a handful of Verlinden's figures, although I bought a lot of his "superdetail" packs for model aircraft and to improve plastic 1/35 AFV kits, which could transform a kit. I once bought a Centurion AVRE from a British resin company (accurate armour?-sorry I can't remember) and was really dissappointed, the fit of parts was dreadful and the shape wrong, and it was ***** expensive, so after that I just stuck with Verlinden's figures as far as resin kits go. The same for vac-form aircraft, there are incredible models in vac-form, but after making two I said "no thanks!" as I like to enjoy making models and I found those two vac-forms painful! Take care,

Justin

egonzinc

I knew you would like those pictures. Althought he german figure is "glared-out".
The figure in the tank was a from a Strumschutz pair and it was a full figure which I chopped to fit in the tank and swapped the headdress as it had a M-1943 cap which was not right for a 1941 scene. The crusher cap was perfect. That figure is one of my favorites, it is not Verlinden but its very nice.
I remember seeing the Verlinden detail kits for AFV and planes but I only "dabbled" with some of the AFV pieces. One of my fiorst projects was using resin pieces to convert a PzIV into a tank hunter type.
I think I might use the black background for the Armour pictures to see how they come out.
E

justin

Hi Eduardo, I hope from time to time you can post more pics of these wonderful models! My favourite resin figures were some German troops of the Ardennes offensive in 1944, battle of the Bulge, in the late pattern camo winter smocks and cold weather equipment, really nice. I remember once a story about super detail kits, my girl friend (now wife) bought me a kit in a department store in Shanghai for my birthday, and was really pleased she'd bought me something I might like for once, only thing was it was the Academy Minicraft 1/35 kit to convert a M113 to one of the Israeli ones with the mesh screens and everything, I didn't have the heart to say it wasn't much good without the M113 kit so had to go out and buy one of those and build it without her noticing, oh dear....... Still I ended up with a nice model I probably would never have bought Take care,

Justin

egonzinc

Well justin ANYTHING better than some socks or a tie!
E