By William Chan | 04.01.2023 11:38
Minardi was one of the F1 privateer teams that had never won any grand prix and they were often missed because most of the attention are put on big name teams. Although the team often run with limited budget, Minardi team's strong determination made them on the F1 grid for almost 15 years. None of the major model manufacturers makes Minardi F1. So far I only see Modelers' M198, Club M's M197, Wolf's PS-01 and AMC M193. I found that M193 shape is pretty close to Lotus 107B and McLaren MP4/8. So I bought an AMC M193 decal and tried out the conversion. After more than 15 months of on and off building, the car is finally completed.
By Matej Paluda | 07.01.2019 12:02
To build this model, I used the old Tamiya´s T-34/76, 1943 kit. Although its moulds are from the eighties of 20th century, it is still good and with nice detailing. This article is intended for newcomers to armor modelling showing how to make a winter camouflage.
By Edwing E. Merlo Paredes | 04.02.2017 17:27
As a modeler, I use to build civil vehicles, but well, building an airplane is not “a bad thing from time to time…”, and besides I don’t like to become immersed in only one specialty of static modeling. I’ve built aircraft from Monogram, Testors, Lindberg, Revell, Italeri, Heller, Airfix, Matchbox among others; but somebody recommended me about Hasegawa kits, which was all the rage among modelers....
By Juan Layos Pantoja | 03.01.2017 10:58
Tamiya have recently introduced into the market two kits showing a different decoration belonging to the Japanese Grand Touring Championship based on the Lexus SC 430. This article aims to show a simplified building process, step by step with pictures of each relevant task....
By Eduardo Andreoli | 08.28.2015 11:10
Over the last years, I did not build any Italeri kit and now I had a great expectation since the Sahariana is now featuring a completely new tooled mold, so looking inside the box, I found a detailed static display model depicting the model 42 Desert Vehicle including resin and etched parts, vinyl tires which look a little soft on tread detail, two resin crew figures and a highly detailed reference manual containing a brief history with black-and-white photos, full-color assembly guide for photo etched parts, and camouflage painting guide.
By Eduardo Andreoli | 12.17.2014 19:16
Unfortunately, there are not many kits available to build a Gun Truck. The M35A1 Nancy from AFV Club is the only injection molded kit, though there are other versions of resin Gun Trucks. This kit is highly detailed and includes everything a Gun Truck needs, nevertheless, I found no picture of the Nancy as it comes to be built out of the box. All the reference pictures show the complete trailer-mounted quad .50 fitted into a steel box. Neither the trailer nor the steel box are given in this kit. eel box is easy to make from plastic card, a bit longer than the actual cargo...
By Guy Golsteyn | 10.14.2014 12:21
I intended to build this Ducati almost “out of box”, meaning that I won't execute any sophisticated conversions or intensive super detailing. First of all this kit is already pretty good detailed, in spite of its age, and furthermore it's not a racebike, but a classic streetbike from the ‘80s that has never heard of carbon fiber or electronic devices. The only exceptions I will allow myself are the wiring which I will replace by thinner wires to add some realism, and the joint screws at the cowling exterior...
By Walter Silva | 10.14.2014 10:40
This Eduard kit can be compared with any Tamiya or Hasegawa release, dimensions of scale model are accurate if you take as reference the scale plans from Windsock Datafile Special "Nieuport Fighters Volume 1". It’s important to mention the detailed El Rhone engine and the three-piece figure the kit provides, something that can be used in dioramas.
By Patricio Delfosse | 07.23.2014 12:05
The Hotchkiss H39 first appeared in 1939 and was considered one of the better of the French tanks in 1940. It was intended for use by French cavalry formations. Despite production problems (common to all French tanks in the period before WWII) about 1000 were built. The tank gave a good account of itself in combat during the German invasion of France in 1940, but had too little firepower to compete with the German armor. In addition, French tactics at the time envisaged tanks being used as infantry support rather than in mass formations, diminishing its effectiveness.
By Guy Golsteyn | 06.09.2014 12:03
To be able to execute this conversion I needed a 1/24 Tamiya Porsche 936 as a base. The question was: which one? Tamiya has two kits available: the 1977 Porsche 936 and the 1978 Porsche 936. More research learned me that the Porsche 908/80 in fact turns out to be a mixture of both models. The overall shape of the Porsche 908/80 comes closest to the 1977 Porsche 936, with the high side wings holding a large rear spoiler. But behind the air scoop of the 1977 Porsche are four air intakes which are not present on the 908/80. The central air intake, escorted by two air intakes to both sides and covered by some protective mesh caps are identical as shown on the 1978 model. So I decided to use the 1977 model as a base on which I made the 1978 adaptations. Finally I could start modeling!
By Pablo Martelli | 04.01.2014 11:34
The idea to build this truck came to my mind after looking at a picture. No sooner had I seen it, I knew that I needed to have this model among my collection of desert trucks. Regrettably, manufacturers don’t pay too much attention to trucks and even less if they are British ones. Fortunately, Tamiya make things easier, since this truck shares some parts with the 35045 Quad Gun Tractor. Starting from this kit, and, with some simple scratchbuilt tricks, we’ll get a scale reproduction of the model in the picture that kept me awake.
By Jose Angel García Martin | 03.28.2014 15:54
I’ve always been fond of “flying bicycles”, this is to say the old airplanes with propeller, but my favorite airplane is since long ago the F4 Phantom II. I decided to make this model to be presented to the Ejercito del Aire (literally Army of the Air) awards that every year organizes the Spanish Ministry of Defence. This is the only modeling contest which awards are endowed with 3000 Eur plus a commemorative plate, and let me also say that I was the winner in 2007 with a F104 G Starfighter also from the Ejercito de Aire.
By Guy Golsteyn | 02.04.2014 10:59
I have been building model cars since the seventies, and amongst the hundreds of models I've built, there is exactly one single truck. About time I started building another truck, and in this case it will be a racetruck. It is the Mercedes 1450 LS in which Steve Parrish became European Champion Truckracing in 1990. The Revell kit is based on the truck as it raced during the Nürburgring GP in which Parrish came second, so that's the one I will be building. The scale of the truck is not 1/24, as you would expect, but 1/25.
By Keiichi Aoki | 12.17.2013 21:27
My regular modeling has to do with AFV models, but at a certain time I felt “captivated” by the sleek lines and shapes of car bodies; but as an AFV modeler, I usually look for super detailing both out and inside the model. Because of that, F1 racing cars best satisfy my quest for super detailing in every model I build. That takes me to the fact that a sleek body must be mated to a chassis and engine-transaxle combination with a good deal of detailing. Current F1 cars don’t fit in that “category” due to the aerodynamic body that covers all the innards. That is why my choice went towards old cars, so I chose the HONDA F1 RA273 which raced in the 1966 Italian Grand Prix as my first “incursion” in F1 modeling.
By Alessandro Prini | 11.14.2013 14:19
Generally speaking this is a very fine kit, rather well engineered, well molded with some dimensional inaccuracies in the nose area, front fenders and front wheelwells, too high. Wheels and tires, as well are not perfect. Various material used as usual, resin, photoetched frames, white metal, turned parts and well printed decals.
By Guy Golsteyn | 11.14.2013 10:35
It has been a while since I last built a rally car model in 1/24 scale. Well, I will not tease the rally fans any longer and get to work: I decided to use a CBCom transkit to convert a Ford Escort group A into a Ford Escort WRC. I'm talking about the Ford Escort used by Belgian rally drivers Patrick Snijers and Dany Colebunders during the 1997 Circuit des Ardennes Rally which unfortunately they didn't finish.
By Martin Klein | 09.22.2013 11:25
The Tamiya Ligier is like all the early kits, basically a curbside one with a removable cockpit cowling. Before starting the kit, I was planning to detail it with removable front wing, sidepods and engine cover and with movable skirts, so the first step was to check my books and magazines looking for reference pictures. The result was pretty poor, so, I decided to surf the net, and this was a great success.
By Eduardo Andreoli | 05.17.2013 10:57
I’ve always wanted to build a vehicle of this kind, unfortunately, there are not many available to choose. The only chance was to try the Verlinden conversion, a new reissue but somewhat old; this was what made me doubt about its quality. But as it always happens in this hobby, when we want to build a certain model, we don’t think about the consequences and then we’ve to face the problems. Luckily, this was not the case.
By Juan Layos Pantoja | 04.17.2013 11:46
It’s not usual to find in 1/24 scale, the model we like to build, just because they’re not available in the market, anyway you can get the transkit which includes parts and accessories that allows us to make conversions starting from one vehicle. In this case I’ll convert a Porsche 911 road car into GT3 Le Mans 2000....
By Juan Madrazo Revilla | 03.05.2013 10:33
The Porsche 550 RS is the first serious attempt to create an authentic competition car Ernst Fuhrmann was in charge of designing a competition engine (project 547) and Wilhelm Hild headed the development of a new chassis (project 550). This vehicle was displayed for the first time to public at the 1953 Paris Automobile Salon.
By Mario Covalski | 01.12.2013 18:54
In 1993, when I discovered the 1/12 Tamiya Caterham, I absolutely fell in love with the kit and let me confess that after 15 years, I still feel the same. I've built 13 models based on the 10201, 10202 and 10203 Tamiya kits. Since the kits are so pricey, some of those models were sold to collectors and others were disassembled in order to build new versions. Speaking about this kit, last year in particular was quite intense since I built five models, combining parts, aftermarket...all in all, creating something new from the same parts. The one I'll show you here, was the last of that series, with a vintage look, sport style and some extra details that a car being on the leading edge of technology might have nowadays.
By Walter Silva | 01.12.2013 10:03
This kit has been built almost completely out of the Special Hobby 1/48 box, The instructions look very nice, they appear to be well made, don’t seem to leave anything out and include a clear rigging diagram as well. The kit is well molded, comprising many resin parts, a fret of photo etched parts, and a piece of film to build all the neat looking instruments. It’s easy to build, just only the struts don't have correct length. Model builders will always appreciate Austro Hungarian army aircraft kit releases.
By Giovanni Galvan | 07.01.2012 10:00
The Grumman Avenger needs no presentation, being one of the most famous protagonists of the Pacific War. But until the 90’s, there was in 1/48 scale only an old Monogram toy-style model, until Accurate Miniatures released a “state-of-the-art” mold, which is still one of the best kits ever done. Now the mold is also released by Italeri, at lower price, and it’s very recommendable to all modelers.
By Patricio Delfosse | 04.01.2009 12:10
As Tamiya always do, once again they greatly surprised us all with a Char B, unexpectedly They provided us as usual, an easy to build kit, highly detailed, the right combination and therefore, a good choice for the average modeler. In spite of being one of the most important tanks of the early stage of WWII, to date there was no other option for the modeler than getting one of those expensive resin kits from MB Models (discontinued, of course) that needed a lot of work to get and acceptable replica.
By Crescenzo Consolato | 04.01.2009 11:42
The first pictures I saw of the F2007 were really impressive, for me, one of the most beautiful machines Ferrari have accomplished for the F1, (together with the unsuccessful 1992 F92A) the new combination of colors looked fantastic and at once, the thought of building that model crossed my mind. I would never succumb to the temptation of purchasing one of those inaccurate and full of mistakes die cast replicas, available in the market.
By Mario Covalski | 12.01.2008 11:04
I firmly believe that plastic modeling is an intellectual activity that requires certain artistic gifts, let’s say that at the time you are building a model, you’re an artist, and your work is precisely that…a work of art.
By Modeler Site | 12.01.2008 0
By Mario Covalski | 11.01.2008 11:01
During the last months, I started pondering, as I always use to, about how long life lasts, what we expect to do along it, how many projects do we intend to face that in general we don’t have much time to spend on. I would like to call your attention on a fact I believe use to happen to all modelers, our collection of boxes.
By Modeler Site | 11.01.2008 0
By Mario Covalski | 10.01.2008 10:58
Have you thought about the reasons why you build scale models?. I’ve been asking this to myself since some time, and this month I wish to share with you my thinking.
By Modeler Site | 10.01.2008 0
By Claudio Kalicinski | 09.01.2008 12:39
The machine I decided to depict was a Curtiss JN-4D trainer based at Love Field, Texas during 1918. A picture of this plane can be found at the Profile Publications book about the Curtiss JN.
By Michael Schneider | 09.01.2008 12:36
Most fans of modelcars have the desire to individualize their Porsche. The owners of real Porsches visit tuners like Gemballa, Ruf or Techart. Now the modeler has the opportunity to buy the transkit from Scale Production.
By Mario Covalski | 09.01.2008 11:26
If you know the Pocher kits, you may miss out this part of the note to go straight to the construction steps, nevertheless, if you are a newcomer, I guess you’ll be interested in knowing about the Pocher kits which were produced during 40 years. The aim of this note is to share with the reader the experience of the construction of a kit of this nature. You’ll not find here a pure technique article, cause my main guide was a real step-by-step construction guide on CD, I purchased on eBay, including several models, anyway, each Pocher is different, and I’ll add some comments and pictures as well as giving you practical tips, advices about my techniques...etc.
By Mario Covalski | 09.01.2008 10:50
A conversation with a friend and close contributor, made me think about a subject rarely tackled in the notes published in our magazine, the brands of paints (or their manufacturers).
By Modeler Site | 09.01.2008 0
By Karl-Heinz Pfarr | 08.09.2008 12:28
This model was born as a modeling project to show a tank’s interior. A kind of a museum sample to appreciate the interior of an armored vehicle. My intention was not to build an operative and worn out vehicle, on the contrary to stand out and show the vehicles’ interior that on very few occasions we have the opportunity to see in real life.
By Claudio Kalicinski | 08.01.2008 15:41
The Eduard kit is one of the first releases from this brand (kit. 48007). It’s known as a “multimedia” kit since it includes not only white metal (engine) parts but etched and injection molded styrene parts such as: wing, both fuselage halves, elevators, rudder and cowling . This kit also includes a big fret of PE parts....
By Mario Covalski | 08.01.2008 10:48
During the last weeks, I built some 1/12 motorcycles just for fun and to write some articles. It has been quite long now that I have been receiving e-mails asking when we would be publishing more articles on motorcycles. Unfortunately we do not receive enough articles from the people who build them; so, I decided to go to the mountain… given that the mountain would not come to me.
By Modeler Site | 08.01.2008 0
By Francisco Soldan Alfaro | 07.01.2008 11:59
I always wished to complete my collection of Fw190s, building a A8 Strum as they were modified, with the addition of the armour plates on the fuselage sides to combat the heavy bombers. This Tamiya kit was released years ago, nevertheless, it’s accurate with good fidelity of detail on the parts, and these parts assemble in a trouble free way.
By Modeler Site | 07.01.2008 0
By Mario Covalski | 06.01.2008 10:45
It's quite possible that those who have been building models for years, know very well what I'm going to talk about. For newcomers, perhaps, it will be something curious and many of them will find out that they have been thinking about this, lately.
By Modeler Site | 06.01.2008 0
By Modeler Site | 05.01.2008 0
By Pablo Raggi | 04.01.2008 11:20
When thinking about the projects of Sherman(s) I had in mind, I decided not to start with complicated versions but to build standard kits easily available around the market. The different versions would be built by changing parts (turret, hulls, guns, suspensions, etc). When a Sherman Firefly from Dragon came to my hands, I found out that it had a hull from a M4A4 which was really good, though the turret would be of no use for my purposes. So, I had two options: building an Egyptian M4A4 with 75HB turret (High Bustle) or a post war Israeli M50.
By Mario Covalski | 04.01.2008 10:38
When I think about all I’ve been going through during the last years with regard to modeling, it brings back to my memory 1986, when at a magazines store, I saw for the first time, a popular modeling magazine which had started to be issued in those days.
By Modeler Site | 04.01.2008 0
By Mario Covalski | 03.01.2008 10:35
Talking with some friends, modelers of course, we were discussing/chatting about the difficulties magazines and all web sites devoted to this activity, have today to get good articles. This is something that affects us obviously, so we started to reflect on this matter, the conclusion we reached was that nowadays, modelers don’t spend much of their time on building scale models.
By Modeler Site | 03.01.2008 0
By Eduardo Andreoli | 02.01.2008 10:45
I’ve always had the intention of building a Tamiya SdKfz 7, even knowing it was a very old kit, and like many old items produced by this and other companies, they were not so detailed and accurate kits. I knew this project would take me several months of hard work ahead, besides of a lot of aftermarket and scratch to finish it to my liking. Anyway, I decided to take it on, since today this is the only kit available on the market and also there are detail sets to correct the main mistakes. So, I started to gather the things I would need.
By Mario Covalski | 02.01.2008 10:32
This editorial is specially devoted to newcomers to this activity; of course if you are an experienced modeler, perhaps you may agree or not with it, but it's quite clear that I'm not writing this thinking on advanced modelers. It's more than obvious and I will not list the possibilities modern technology offers nowadays to modelers, and if you've arrived to static modeling about 5 years ago, you'll find as usual the etched sets, resin detail parts, dozens of decal sheets for different versions of the same kit, etc.
By Modeler Site | 02.01.2008 0
By Guy Golsteyn | 01.01.2008 10:52
In this article I will explain step by step how to build the Tamiya Porsche 911 Turbo ‘88, without using special or complicated tricks. I will limit myself to the box parts only and use strictly basic techniques without any scratchbuilding or aftermarket parts. Doing so, I will prove that it is still possible to build a nice and realistic “out of box” model.
By Mario Covalski | 01.01.2008 10:29
Until 1997, I had never worn eyeglasses, my vision was almost perfect and being a teenager, I was very proud of it. After my four-0 birthday, I had to face a common problem people over 40 suffer. It's called "presbyopia". The crystalline lens is less able to focus on close objects.
By Modeler Site | 01.01.2008 0
By Marcelo Scaminaci Russo
This model was released by Dragon in 1993, which made a re-pop of the original kit, manufactured by Trimaster, a Japanese company which is nowadays out of the market. Dragon deleted some white metal parts from the original kit, like the cannon barrel, and replaced them with plastic parts. Anyway, the kit is very good according to Dragon’s usual quality.
By Giovanni Galvan
During the war, the Kingdom of Siam (now Thailand), after a symbolic resistance, agreed a collaboration with the Japanese, which was more or less half hearted. During that period Japan sold some fighter airplanes to Siam, to substitute the old US planes such as the Hawk and the B-10. These planes were mainly old Ki-27 Nate, but in 1944 were released a number of more modern Ki-46 Series I and II. Some Internet friends sent me some rare photos of the Siamese Oscars, which inspired me to make this very exotic example.
By Carlos Pfarr
The SdKfz 11 (Sonderkraftfahrzeug 11) was a half-track military vehicle used by the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War. This vehicle played a critical role in the German war effort and served from the beginning until the end of World War II when several variants were produced and also from 1939, some 16000 of the chassis produced were used for Sd.Kfz.251. Nowadays there are four different AFV kits available to build this vehicle, the SdKfz 11/4 Ref 35051: 3-ton Ammunition Carrier Halftrack for Nebelwerfer units, subject of this article.
By Jorge Juarez
The model here represented is the Dagger C-401 which was manufactured on November 14th 1971, arriving to Argentina on November 26th 1978. On June 8th 1982 it took part in the attack on the Type 12 Rothesay Class frigate (F-126) “HMS Plymouth” at Bahia Agradable....
By Giovanni Galvan
The famous Bf.110 “Zerstörer”, in spite of being frequently described as a fiasco for the Luftwaffe, wad widely used on all fronts, and in almost all roles until the end of the war. One of the most peculiar episodes of its use was the help to the revolt in Iraq against the British in 1941. During the short duration of this local war, Italy and Germany sent some air units to help the rebels, via the Vichy’s Syria. That’s why we can see many Fiat CR.42s or Bf.110s with hastily applied Iraqi insignia, now famous for decidedly more recent wars.
By Javier Alba
By Mario Covalski
By Sean Fischbach
Sam sent us new pictures of the model he had submitted in 2003, here the updated article.
By Michael Wong
The Honda RA272 was a formula racing car that won the Mexican Grand Prix in 1965 which is driven by Richie Ginther which making it be the first Japanese racing car winning the grand prix. After building my first completed Formula racing car, the Tamiya Honda MP4/4, I decided to build another formula racing car and it is RA272. I started this project in mid of October and finished it in 2 weeks time....
By Giovanni Galvan
Yes, I know, the Fishpot series of the Sukhoi Air Defense fighters of the former USSR remains unknown for most of the modelers. This series was a evolution from the famous Fitter ground strike family (Su-7 and the swing wing Su-17 / 20 / 22), in fact both of the versions have common sections, as the fuselage, tail planes, and similar fins. The delta wing characterize the Su-9 and Su-11 (NATO code Fishpot), which was inherited to the later Su-15 Flagon, a similar concept twin engined interceptor.
By Michael Schneider
Some time ago some modelling friends and I, had the idea to build a well known car in different ways. There was only one rule: the base for the model had to be the ´57 Chevy Bel Air kit from AMT/Ertl.
By Giulio Marrucci
By Michael Schneider
By Michael Schneider
Some time ago, Automobilminiaturen offered a wide tire for 1:12 Revell choppers. I intended to use it on a “mean“ Suzuki Hayabusa. The tire wouldn’t fit in the kit rear swing, so I decided to make a one arm swing bar.....
By Keiichi Aoki
During the years that Honda participated in the F1 championship with their own cars, there were different types of cars depending on the year. Moreover, chassis design was different depending on the car number. So, if you want to build an accurate replica of one of this cars, first you’ll have to choose a particular competition number of the car, and then study all the details carefully. For my model, I chose the number 18 car which raced in the 1966 Italian Grand Prix. This car is fully restored and displayed in the HONDA museum located in the Motegi race course park, in the Ibaraki prefecture, about three hours car ride from central Tokyo. I visited the museum and took a lot of pictures to make my model more accurate. Here I will explain how I built it.
By Peter Radcliffe
The origins of 1/43 scale are the early dinky toys, which were originally produced as accessories for O gauge model railways which were popular at the time, this was a real "bastardisation" of a scale being 7 mm to 1 foot! O gauge lost its popularity but by then Dinky was established and the scale stayed as the standard for diecast toys although for some strange reason most commercial vehicles were made in 1/50th.
By Marcelo Scaminaci Russo
Major Wolfgang Späte (born 8 September 1911 in Dresden – died 30 April 1997 in Edewecht) was German World War II Luftwaffe 99 victories Flying ace. Serving with Jagdgeschwader 54 on the Eastern front, Jagdgeschwader 400 and Jagdgeschwader 7 in Western Europe, he is credited with the destruction of 99 enemy aircraft shot down in over 600 combat missions. He claimed five confirmed victories with the Messerschmitt Me 262.