tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-385697712024-02-20T12:39:47.101-08:00Barnett on Aviation History and ModelingReviews of Aviation books and resources, as well as commentary on aviation history and related topics.
Look for a focus on "transitional-era" aircraft - the first all-metal stressed-skin fighter or the last fighter biplanes to see combat ... planes noteworthy because of their place in aviation history.Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-39255487831471701062014-02-18T23:12:00.000-08:002014-02-18T23:20:02.312-08:00Model Stash Manager Product Comparison - My Hobby Info, Scalemates and KitBase<!--[if !mso]>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
Ned Barnett</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Executive
Summary:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>This head-to-head
comparison has grown in the telling (so to speak) – in it, I give you
everything you’ll ever need to know to decide which of the two main online
stash-management services is right for you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After going through the entire process and actually using both systems,
here are my choices.</div>
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<br /></div>
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For pure stash management, which is what I was
looking for, hands-down for <a href="http://myhobbyinfo.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, if you’re looking for a
comprehensive modeling social networking site – Facebook for Modelers – which
also includes a stash manager, <a href="http://www.scalemates.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates</b></a> has and is that social
network. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b> has a forum, but that’s not its purpose. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates</b> has a stash manager system,
but that’s not its primary purpose.</div>
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<br /></div>
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My solution, for me, is simple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m using <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b> as my stash manager – I find it more user-friendly,
and it has more of the features I want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, when I’m doing research or want to view endless galleries of
great models, I’ll log into <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates</b>
and find more than I ever dreamed possible.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Why A
Product Comparison?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>I am a life-long
modeler, a life member of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>IPMS/USA, and
a guy with a stash that has more kits than I care to count.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Currently, I’ve got my two-car garage set up
with warehouse shelves, and at least two-thirds of those shelves are stacked
floor-to-ceiling with un-built model kits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As they say, “you do the math.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But this may help explain why I wanted to do a head-to-head product
review of stash managers – I’ve got a stash in desperate need of management.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I usually buy kits with the best intentions for
building them, but occasionally I buy them to collect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For instance, I have – I think – all of the
available kits of several of my favorite subjects, from Cleveland-class light
cruisers to PT-Boats, from P-39s to Fokker D.XXIs, from M3 Gun Motor Carriages
to NX-01 Starship Enterprise kits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
are just some subjects I can’t get enough of.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I buy most of my kits from a variety of locations:
local hobby shops including RarePlane Detective (it’s local – otherwise I’d buy
from them online), friends in online model groups, clicks-and-mortar online
hobby dealers like Squadron, eBay and from vendors at hobby shows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also sometimes sell some of my excess kits
in one of several locations – hobby shows, eBay, modeler’s lists and – perhaps
sometime – RarePlane Detective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
“excess kits” brings up the reason why I sometimes sell kits. </div>
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<br /></div>
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My big challenge is keeping up with what I have,
especially when I’m away from my garage. That’s why I sometimes have excess
(duplicate) kits to sell.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For instance,
right now I have three copies of the Williams Brothers 1/72<sup>nd</sup> Scale
B-10 bomber – I discovered this when they reissued the kit with 15 new decal
options (which I obviously want so I can build a colorful B-10).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even without the new issue, I have two
more B-10s than I’ll ever realistically build.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For that kit – from Williams Brothers, one is enough.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Criteria For
a Product Comparison:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>I want a
system that will allow me to keep track of my stash, and preferably one that
is:</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Free – since there are ad-supported free systems
out there, I see no reason to divert kit-buying money into a database.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Easy to use – I’m not a “gear-head” when it
comes to digital technology – I can sort-of-manage on Excel, but have never
tried Access, and I have no idea about how to take Excel online (though I’ve
heard it can be done).</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>User-friendly from a time perspective, as well
as from a technology perspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every
minute I spend working on my inventory is a minute I can’t spend building or
researching or lusting after models, writing on my WW-II never-ending-novel
about the air war in the Pacific, 1941-42, playing Solitaire or watching war
and aviation films on YouTube or Netflix.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Responsive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No online kit database can have all models or after-market items. I want
to be able to add in odd things I pick up, and I want the owner to add in kits
I have that are not listed.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Available on the cloud – I want to be able to
check it form my laptop, my phone, my pad or my desktop – but mostly from my
portable devices when I’m away from home.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Geared to the needs of model kit builders – I
don’t want to have to adapt one of the online inventory management systems that
proliferate to my own particular needs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
Those are the basic criteria I’ve used in
evaluating the model-specific stash-manager systems I’ve been able to find.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The
Process:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>In preparing for this
review, I’ve posted to close on to 50 model group sites on Facebook, asking tens
of thousands of group members for suggestions on stash management systems I
could use. I was inundated with replies – far more than 100 modelers made
specific or general recommendations, and some single-group online discussions
involved 25 or more modelers on a single thread.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
This was very helpful in several ways:</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>It told me that my search conclusions might
interest other modelers</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>It gave me an idea of what’s currently out there</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>It told me what I could do if I was a tech-head
who didn’t mind doing what I call “programming” but which is probably something
else</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
So I asked if the members were interested and if
the groups would welcome this review, and got lots of encouragement from them
to write this head-to-head product review.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Specifically, I was referred to three systems that
are designed for model kits, plus lots of tech-head customization tools that
would require more time than I want to invest.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
From a new user perspective – and as someone with
limited technical skills, and limited patience in learning more tech-skills – I
decided to test out those three modeling-oriented versions of database
inventory managers – in short, model stash organizers. These were <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b></a>, <a href="http://www.scalemates.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates</b></a>,
and <a href="http://www.suisoft.co.uk/kitbase/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">KitBase</b></a>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast">
However, I quickly learned that <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">KitBase</b>:</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Resides in my computer (instead of in the
cloud), so it’s not easily accessible from hobby shops or the vendor rooms at
model shows </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Free version is just a trial version, and </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>The functional version requires a $44.99 USD/
24.99 GBP license</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
I decided, “N’yet interested” in spending nearly
$50 bucks when there seemed to be two perfectly good free solutions out there,
so I chose to discontinue my evaluation of KitBase and focus on the two free
online versions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">First
Conclusions:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>Both <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates</b> function as useful online stash managers – you won’t go
very far wrong using either system. However, one is optimized for stash
management, and one is optimized to becoming a comprehensive online social
network for modelers, and includes a stash manager among many other
features.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Also,<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> Scalemates</b>
is created and operated in Belgium, and it has a particular EU cast to it in
terms of vendors, magazines, prices and other features. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b> comes from – as politicians say – the Great State of
Texas, and it has an American focus with American prices and vendors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However both sites appeal to a broad
international market, and the “American” version has users in 61 countries at
last count, while the EU-focused service has nearly 400 American users.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Having done the evaluation, I know which one is
for me, but to help you decide, I’m going to objectively lay out the
comparative features and let you decide which one works best for you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
In making the evaluation, I created a head-to-head
comparison table of features, which I’ve posted below.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also created some lists of features, a few
tables demonstrating how information is offered, and some other tools I hope
you find useful in selecting the right system for you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think this will help interested modelers
decide which of the two (if either of the two) makes more sense to them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Right at the start, I noticed that there seems to
be a strong philosophical difference between the two systems.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby
Info: </b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a system whose primary
purpose is to help their users manage kit stashes. It was created by a modeler,
based on the Excel system he’d set up to manage his own kit stash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The features that tend away from kit-stash
management and toward social networking – such as the forum – exist on another
website – <a href="http://modelerssocialclub.proboards.com/">Modeler’s Social
Club</a>. In this way, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b>
users who want to connect with one another can do so, but that connection
doesn’t interfere with the prime focus, managing your stash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
The system’s owner, Bill Plunk, has an easy system
to add kit listings, which he does at no charge for any registered user.
Finally, while international, this is a US-based system, which (as you’ll see
below) has decided advantages for US-based modelers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
At this writing, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b> has 1,328 registered users, but it has grown by adding
more than 40 users in the last month.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
has 26,458 models from 313 manufacturers in the areas of Aircraft, Armored
Vehicles, Autos, Figures, Ships and Dioramas, with a matching catalog of 24,621
prices from online retailers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
While setting up an account is fast and free, you
can use <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b> without registering
an account.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You also are offered the
option of subscribing to the weekly update newsletter, which focuses on the new
kits listed in the previous week, a helpful feature for keeping your stash
up-to-date. However, neither the registration nor the subscription are
conditions of use. I found that impressive.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
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<div class="WordSection1">
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby
Info’s</b> kit listing page has five categories that provide a clean
presentation of the kit along with relevant information:</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.75pt;" valign="top" width="192">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Kit Illustration</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.75pt;" valign="top" width="192">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Date Added</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.75pt;" valign="top" width="192">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Kit Details</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.75pt;" valign="top" width="192">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Kit Title</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.8pt;" valign="top" width="192">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Add To Wish List</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.75pt;" valign="top" width="192">
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.75pt;" valign="top" width="192">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Eduard 1/48 <br />
#8066</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.75pt;" valign="top" width="192">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">P-39L/N Profipack</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.75pt;" valign="top" width="192">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">P-39L/N Profipack</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 95.8pt;" valign="top" width="192">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Add To Wish List
(button)</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
My Hobby Info has a separate page grid for prices,
with seven columns:</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 73.65pt;" valign="top" width="147">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Kit Illustration</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 68.95pt;" valign="top" width="138">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Date added</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 69.65pt;" valign="top" width="139">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Kit Details</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 66.6pt;" valign="top" width="133">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Kit Title</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 70.7pt;" valign="top" width="141">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Retailer</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 67.6pt;" valign="top" width="135">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Price</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 61.65pt;" valign="top" width="123">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Price Check</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 73.65pt;" valign="top" width="147">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 68.95pt;" valign="top" width="138">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Feb. 14, 2014</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 69.65pt;" valign="top" width="139">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Dragon 1/35 #3548</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 66.6pt;" valign="top" width="133">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">M103A1 Heavy Tank</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 70.7pt;" valign="top" width="141">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Sprue Brothers (hot
link)</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 67.6pt;" valign="top" width="135">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">$65.49 USD</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 61.65pt;" valign="top" width="123">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Price Check
(button)</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>Scalemates’ mission, on the other hand,
is to be the Facebook of modeling – stash management is clearly an add-on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want to be a part of a virtual
modeling community – complete with many of the features that make Facebook so
popular, this might be what you’re looking for.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br />
The site claims a database of 121,000 kits, but this includes kits,
aftermarket, decals, paint colors, books and other listed items.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A search can go into the following broad
categories:</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 103.55pt;" valign="top" width="207">
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Main
Sections</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Products</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Gallery</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 91.25pt;" valign="top" width="183">
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Market
Place</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 115.15pt;" valign="top" width="230">
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Reference</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Books</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Walkarounds</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Projects </span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 96.0pt;" valign="top" width="192">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">All
Profiles</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Users</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Sites</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Shops</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 72.85pt;" valign="top" width="146">
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">All
Sections</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
A challenge with the Scalemates search came up when
I did a search for “F-15 Eagle” – I got 917 responses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These obviously are not all model kits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I limited the search to “product” and got 599
hits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought I could narrow the
search by choosing to hit the “edit” key, but there’s no way I could find to
refine the search by product, scale or manufacturer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words, this product search is not
optimized for kit-stash management, but for an overall global search of
available products.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
I had to figure out on my own that I needed to add
1/72 to the search parameters, which limited the search to 199 hits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still a lot, but a much more manageable
number.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For something like the P-51, the
initial search yields 1,147 hits, and by narrowing it to 1/72<sup>nd</sup>
scale, I still got 372 hits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This helped
me to understand why one user suggested to me that Scalemates is liking to take
a drink from a fire hose – the water’s there, but in such an abundance that
it’s really impractical.</div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="mso-break-type: section-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Scalemates’ kit listing page has three categories,
but in two of them, they cram a lot of information into a small space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Actions can be taken from links in the Action
Box. </div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.45in;" valign="top" width="209">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Kit Illustration</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.8pt;" valign="top" width="430">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Kit Listing</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 159.6pt;" valign="top" width="319">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Actions</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 1.45in;" valign="top" width="209">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 214.8pt;" valign="top" width="430">
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.scalemates.com/products/product.php?id=173945"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">ENGLISH ELECTRIC
LIGHTNING F.2A</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
Airfix 1:72<br />
A04054</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">2013 | New tool</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 159.6pt;" valign="top" width="319">
<ul type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="background: #888888; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.scalemates.com/"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Actions</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.scalemates.com/"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Stash</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list .5in;"><a href="http://www.scalemates.com/"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Wall</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"><img alt="Add to favorites" border="0" height="16" src="file:///C:\Users\Ned\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.gif" width="16" /></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">View related
content:<br />
</span><a href="http://www.scalemates.com/topics/topic.php?id=1612"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Topic Page</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> | </span><a href="http://www.scalemates.com/search.php?q=%22English+Electric+Lightning%22"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Search topic</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
Edit:<br />
</span><a href="http://www.scalemates.com/products/product.php?id=173945&m=edit" target="m"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Edit
product details</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
Report:<br />
</span><a href="http://www.scalemates.com/ajax/reportp.php?id=173945&s=2"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Double</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> | </span><a href="http://www.scalemates.com/ajax/reportp.php?id=173945&s=N"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Bad naming</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> | </span><a href="http://www.scalemates.com/ajax/reportp.php?id=173945&s=E"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Errors</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
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Unfortunately, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates </b>also has an abundance of ads on its pages – including ads
(I’m looking at one right now) of a woman in a swimsuit with symbols that make
it clear the product is a sudden-weight-loss item for women – hardly an asset
to a model site.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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This was soon replaced by an ad with a demonic
smiley face and the message: “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Congratulations
– THIS IS NOT A JOKE – YOU ARE THE 100,000<sup>th</sup> VISITOR! Click Here</i>”
(I can only imagine what that is for, but I doubt that it’s modeling).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s a small annoyance, but one not found at,
which only offers ads that are relevant to modeling.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> My Hobby Info</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Features: </b>–
The table located at the end of this blog lists the listed Features to be found
on each site, in the order presented by the site itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates</b>
has many more features, because it is primarily a social networking site, with
forums and discussions, galleries and walkarounds, as well as a stash
manager.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b> focuses at least 85 percent of its site to managing
stashes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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The feature comparison is illustrated in an
extensive table and has been moved to the end of the blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you are interested in a direct comparison
of features, do check it out.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Feature
Conclusion:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>As I noted, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates</b> has far more features than
does <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b>, but most of
those features have nothing to do with stash management.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you’re looking for a comprehensive
modeling site – whether you want to manage your stash or not, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates</b> is for you.</div>
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<br />
However, if you really just want to manage your stash, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b> is, in my opinion, the better of the two sites, and
for a lot of reasons. Easier use. More functionality. A responsive owner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But mainly, I prefer it for my stash
management because <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b> is
all about managing your stash, and that’s what I was looking for in the first
place.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Head-To-Head:
</b>The following is my head-to-head description of the various features I
found relevant to me as a modeler and as a stash-manager.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These all represent my personal opinions
based on in-depth reviews of the sites in question, including playing around
with their functionality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could write
a book (but I’ll restrain myself) about this, but if you’re still not sure, I
hope you’ll find the following table helpful to you.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div align="center" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info (MHI)</b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.myhobbyinfo.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;">http://www.myhobbyinfo.com</span></b></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;"></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div align="center" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates (SM)</b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.scalemates.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;">http://www.Scalemates.com</span></b></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;"></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div align="center" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Comments</b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;">(my personal opinions)</span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Design and core
mission</span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Site
laid out intuitively – designed by a non-technical modeler who based it on
his own stash management needs</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Site
is not laid out intuitively – designed by someone who’s very technical, who
has ability to create social media site.</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">MHI
wins hands down over SM in this feature.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Core
mission – create the best Stash Manager available. If you want an integrated
modeling social networking experience, this one is not for you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want a stash-manager ability, that’s
what this is all about.</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Core
mission – create a modeling version of Facebook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want an integrated modeling social
networking, this is the one for you. If you want a stash-manager ability, not
so much.</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This is
where the modeler must choose – what is he most interested in – if you want
to manage your stash, MHI is the way to go – if you want social networking,
SM is for you</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Features </span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Stash
Management features ARE the basic design</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Stash
Management features seem shoehorned into basic social networking design –
searches especially are cluttered by the “noise” of social networking</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This
again is a choice box – if you want pure stash management, MHI is far
superior to SM, because SM searches are cluttered with unrelated material</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 58.45pt; mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 58.45pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">You can
create multiple stash lists</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 58.45pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">You can
create only one stash list</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 58.45pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This
gives primacy to MHI for modelers who sort their stashes by model types
(armor, aircraft, etc.).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like this
feature, since I model it all.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Easy
learning curve </span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Long
learning curve – unless you’re a tech-head</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">As a
non-tech-head, a short learning curve is welcome – I was using MHI within
five minutes, and that’s impressive to me</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 8;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Navigation
is intuitive</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Navigation
is complex, not intuitive</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This
has to do with SM’s super-abundance of features. It especially hinders
focused searches.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 9;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Navigation
stays in same place on page</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Navigation
moves around on page</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This
just makes it easier to navigate – the same nav-guides are in the same place
on all MHI pages – for SM, not so much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not a biggie, but a feature.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 10;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">If you
search for something, adding what you find to your stash requires one click</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">If you
search for something, it’s hard to add into the stash</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This is
a major benefit to MHI for me, since I want an easy-to-use stash
manager.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, if you have
different goals than managing a stash, SM might prove more helpful.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 11;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Can
customize stash list</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Can’t
customize stash list</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This
MHI feature was hugely important to me – but would be irrelevant to someone
who wants a single generic stash list.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 12;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Hot
kits are featured prominently</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Hot
lists are available in a wide variety of topics, including kits</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This is
a toss-up from a stash management point of view – if you want the whole
social networking, you’ll love all the hot lists and other lists – but there
goes your modeling time.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 13;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Stash
manager laid out in simple, logical placement, with features optimized for
stash management</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Stash
manager not optimized for stash management, but it has a huge database (which
is good and bad)</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Again,
it depends on what you want.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like
the elegant simplicity of MHI, but the abundance of SM features is
impressive, if a bit confusing</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 14;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Price Spy
gives useful pricing info</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">If SM
has a price list, I couldn’t find it. They do, however, provide price
information via the marketplace and in search results.</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This is
a key MHI advantage for kit collectors and those wanting to know the value of
their stashes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MHI’s inventory is
useful for insurance purposes.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 15;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Off-site
forum for modelers</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">On-site
forum for modelers, with links to other forums</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">If you
want a zillion forums, you’ll find them on SM – but their results clutter the
site and skew the metrics (important for advertisers). That last item about
skewed metrics is only relevant to advertisers, but since I have an
advertising background, I thought it might prove helpful to them.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 16;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">A
simple and site-focused “community” with blog and “friends,” but not much
more</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">An
over-abundance of “community” – that’s what SM is really all about</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">For me,
I’ll go to SM if/when I want to search out galleries, but the off-site MHI forum
is clean and useful, as are its blogs and insights – all focused on kit stash
management.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 17;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Tech Features </span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 18;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Optimized
for export into Excel – CSV feature is designed to open in Excel</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Exporting
is difficult if you’ve added details (new features) – that added info doesn’t
export out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can export in multiple
formats – PDF, CSV, Excel, Tab-Separated (for Access Database)</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This
isn’t something I need or want, but it’s important to Excel power users.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make the most of what you see here.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 19;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">No bulk
uploads at this time</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">No bulk
upload from an Excel file </span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Because
bulk uploads are a tech-head feature, I don’t miss the absence of a
bulk-upload feature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I
mention this for those who currently use Excel, as many DIY stash-manager
modelers do</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 20;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">No
ability to go to eBay at this time.</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Ability
to go to eBay (using eBay search term) – but it’s just a shortcut, not a live
link to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>an eBay auction </span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Because
it doesn’t link to an actual auction, its value is limited – if you use eBay,
you already know how to search it.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 21;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Currently
primarily but not exclusively featuring US-based vendors – but the site is
currently reaching out to credible hobby vendors across the globe </span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Only
one US vendor – Sprue Brothers (all others European) – not particularly heavy
in Japanese/Asian vendors</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This
reflects the national origins of the two services, as well as their purposes.
Obviously a social networking site will be more international.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 22;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Will
add new kits on request, in short time</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Add
kits using a Wiki Approach – People can propose a change</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I
prefer to ask a human person to do this for me, rather than to master some
online service, so this is a MHI win.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For those not intimidated or who like learning new tech-head
techniques, this is an SM advantage.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 23;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Searches</span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 24;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Search
engine is flexible </span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Search
Engine is picky about what it searches – for instance, doesn’t easily search
by kit numbers as listed on kit box</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This is
huge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was overwhelmed with the
content of the search engine searches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>TMI to the max – like trying to find one on-sale kit at a new Squadron
5,000-kit sale.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 25;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Searches
intuitive and clearly spelled out</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Search
capabilities are explained at start, but they’re designed for technical
approaches, not intuitive approaches</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 26;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Search
focuses on kits in stash manager</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Searches
produce prodigious content – not just including stash management (F-15 example
– 917 “hits”)</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 27;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">If you
search for something, adding what you find to your stash requires one click</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">If you
search for something, it’s hard to add into the stash</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This is
a major benefit to MHI for me, since I want an easy-to-use stash
manager.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want more or different
than a stash manager, SM might be more appropriate for you</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 28;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Wide
variety of search filter parameters</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Only
use their very specific, limited filters – scale, kit/AM, military/Civilian -
</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I don’t
want to keep harping, but this is a critical MHI benefit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The SM searches are cluttered with social
networking feature hits, and it’s hard (or impossible) to customize the
searches beyond a given point,</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 29;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Not a
social network – Forum is on another modeling forum site</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">To turn
off social networking, you have to know to do it and do it manually – and
it’s not easy (he wants you to use social media)</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 30;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Aftermarket, Accessories and </span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Reference Materials</span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 31;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">You can
keep track of books on MHI – a new “My Book” feature was added this week – you
can also treat books, reference materials or paints like unassigned aftermarket
items </span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">You can
keep track of books and paint</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">This is
a plus for SM, but if you’re listing unassigned aftermarket items in MHI,
doing the same for books or paints is no problem.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 32; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 166.5pt;" valign="top" width="333"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Does
not catalog aftermarket product – you can add, but not cataloged</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Catalogs
aftermarket products – information includes kit builds, reviews, lots of
discussion</span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 148.5pt;" valign="top" width="297"><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bottom Line:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>there are several major differentiators
between <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates </b>that I, as a modeler looking
for a stash manager, found compelling.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Technical Design</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b> was
created with the stash management user in mind, by an active modeler who’s a
stash-management user himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
created solutions designed first to be user friendly, then tested with actual
modelers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New stash-management features
and refinements have been added at a rate of several times per month – a new
one was incorporated this week – and almost all of them so far have been
recommended by actual users. MHI is nothing if not responsive to requests for
useful technical enhancements.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates</b> was apparently
created by someone with excellent technical skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He seems to have provided technical solutions
that are functional, but – at least to me – not always user-friendly. </div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Design Philosophy </b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
MHI
is a comprehensive stash management system, with a few social networking
features added on to give end-users a way of interacting with the owner and
other modelers, and “improving the breed.”</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
SM
is a comprehensive social networking system that works very well indeed in that
role.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>IT has incorporated a
technically-sound but not always intuitive or user-friendly stash management
system that in some areas (searches) gets bogged down by the wealth of
integrated social networking information in the system.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Searches</b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
MHI
searches are easy to refine – the refinement is literally built into the
search. Each search is provided with a number of fields – scale, type of model,
kit manufacturer, etc. – that allows directs users to focus their searches.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
To
me, this is SM’s weakest feature and, for me, a literal “deal-killer” when it
comes to using the stash manager. Each search I’ve done has been like that
online user’s comment about “trying to take a drink from a fire hose.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
I’m
not great when it comes to searches on Google or YouTube – I have to keep
refining the search terms until I get it right. MHI makes this both possible
and easy for non-techies like me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>SM
doesn’t offer any good solution I could find.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Upgrades<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
SM
notes that some features on the site are still “beta,” and the site invites
user input.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, when it comes to
adding new kits, it’s strictly DYI.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
MHI
is operational, and adding new features based on user recommendations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New kits are added by the owner, within a day
or two of user requests for those new kits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Each user can check in the system to see how many of his recommendations
and requests have been used.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br />
Since I’m not a DIY tech-head, I like the MHI hands-on approach. Others, more
technically oriented, may prefer the DIY approach.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bottom line:</b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
I
like both sites for different reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If I want to see model galleries, and I often do, or if I want to seek
out what other modelers are saying about a kit, I’ll go to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, for my
stash manager needs, I’ve already selected <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My
Hobby Info</b> as my sole source for keeping track of my stash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now all I’ve got to do is carry my laptop
down to my two-car garage/slash/model kit warehouse and start entering all
those kits.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">End-Note</b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br />
The “Features” section, originally found in the middle of this blog, is so
extensive that I decided to move it to the end, so only those who really care
about Features will be forced to wade through the comprehensive list.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Features: </b>–
The following table lists the listed Features to be found on each site, in the
order presented by the site itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates</b> has many more features,
because it is primarily a social networking site, with forums and discussions,
galleries and walkarounds, as well as a stash manager.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My
Hobby Info</b> focuses at least 85 percent of its site to managing stashes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="479"><div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.myhobbyinfo.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;">http://www.myhobbyinfo.com</span></b></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;"></span></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 239.4pt;" valign="top" width="479"><div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates</b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://modelerssocialclub.proboards.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;">http://modelerssocialclub.proboards.com/</span></b></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt;"> </span></b></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Home Page</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Hot 20 Latest Kits</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">New Prices</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">About</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Tools: Info & Search</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Tools: Stash Manager</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Tools: Price Spy</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">FAQ & Trouble-shooter</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Terms of Use</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Contact <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby
Info</b></span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Advertise</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Main Desk</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Latest Info</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Wish List</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Wish List</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Kit Search</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Catalog Browser (search by kit mfg)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Stash Manager</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Stash List</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Add Stash Kits</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Search Stash Kits</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My A-to-Z Kit List</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Completed Kits</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Add Completed Kit</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Completed List</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Aftermarket Items</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Add </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">Aftermarket</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Assigned
Aftermarket</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Unassigned
Aftermarket </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">(adding
in otherwise not listed AM items to your stash)</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">A-to-Z Full List</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Books</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Book List</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Add Book</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Price Spy</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Price Search</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Community</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">MHI Insights</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">MHI Blog</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Advertise</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Brand Directory</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Forum </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">(hosted at Modeler’s Social Club)</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Friends</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Current Friends</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Add Friends</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Pending Requests</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Accepted Kits</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Suggest Kits</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Home Page</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Reference Search Engine</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Stash Management</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Events Calendar</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Hobby Shop Locator</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Social Networking</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Recent Posts – Knowledge Engine</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">New on the Web – </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">Latest Articles Added to Our Search Engine</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Hot Products – </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">New or future releases seen on many
wishlists</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Login</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Notifications</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Profile</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Albums</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Projects</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Topics</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Stash</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Books</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Wishlist</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Tradelist</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My Colors</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Contribute</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Add Product </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Add Book</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Members Currently
Online</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Mobile Setting</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Links</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Scale Modeling
Clubs</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Newest Clubs </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">All Scale Modeling
Clubs</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Online Magazines</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Forums</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Press</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Other</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Shops</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Facts</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Products</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Wanted Kits</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Bought Kits</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Built Kits</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Tradeable Kits</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Topics</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Favorite
Topics</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Built Topics</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Released
Topics</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Scale</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Built Scales</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Released
Scales</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Companies</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Biggest Kit
Producers</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Biggest Aftermarket
Companies</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Modelers</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Largest Stash</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Largest Wishlist</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Productive
Mates</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Productive
Modelers </span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Scale Modeling
Magazines</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Popular
Magazines</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Contributors</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Top Contributors
This Week</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Top Contributors</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Scale Modeling
Websites</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Gallery
Articles</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Reviews</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Walkarounds</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Popular Online
Magazines</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Popular Forums</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Paint Ranges</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level4 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most Popular Paint
Ranges</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Scale Modeling
Shops</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Aircraft</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Tank destroyers</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">APC/IFVs</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Missiles</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Motorcycles</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Ships</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Motorships</span></div>
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</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Science Fiction</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Superheros</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Space Western</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Star Trek</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Fantasy</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Battlestar
Galactica</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Star Wars</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Space Opera</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Maschinen Krieger</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Comics</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Anime</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Comics</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Manga</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Other</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Figures</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Music</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">TV Series</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Food</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Science</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Expositions</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Movies<br />
Space</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Accessories</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Animals</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Fortifications</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Plants</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Fire Weapons &
Arms</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Buildings<br />
Other</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Hobby Material</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Tools</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Bits & Pieces</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">To be classified</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">§<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Unknown</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Shops</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Hobby Shop Locator</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Scale Model Shops</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Your Hobby Shop is missing?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Events</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Upcoming Events</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Hobby Event Locator</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Is your event missing?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Courier New";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">o<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">News Feed </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9.0pt;">(forum posts about upcoming events)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Contribute
(Contributor Area)</span></div>
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Club/Website/Forum</span></div>
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Without a Topic (kits without a topic field)</span></div>
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topics</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Feature
Conclusion:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>As I noted, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates</b> has far more features than
does <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b>, but most of
those features have nothing to do with stash management.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you’re looking for a comprehensive
modeling site – whether you want to manage your stash or not, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Scalemates</b> is for you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br />
However, if you really just want to manage your stash, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b> is, in my opinion, the better of the two sites, and
for a lot of reasons. Easier use. More functionality. A responsive owner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But mainly, I prefer it for my stash
management because <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">My Hobby Info</b> is
all about managing your stash, and that’s what I was looking for in the first
place.</div>
Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-58976023991700587042010-11-09T13:38:00.000-08:002010-11-09T13:41:49.975-08:00Monogram Chips - for the Last Time<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;background:white"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><img width="1" height="1" id="_x0000_i1025" src="http://r20.rs6.net/on.jsp?llr=wqufxybab&t=1103890680681.0.1101414978070.1710&ts=S0547&o=http://ui.constantcontact.com/images/p1x1.gif" alt=" " /><o:p></o:p></span></p> <div align="center" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Eagle Editions has pulled another venerable Monogram chestnut out of the dustbin of history - this color chip set - which I first obtained mega-decades ago - is superb and incredibly useful to modelers and rivet-counting historians who care about precise colors. </span> </div><div align="center" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />These are the last of the books available, so act now or lose them forever (to borrow a line from Top Gun). I'm ransacking the boxes in my garage, hoping I still have a set but not willing to let this slip away if I can't find it. So wait until I order mine, then buy out the store!</span></div><div align="center" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br />This is really the best there is, and if you're serious about accuracy, don't let this slip by.</span></div><div align="center" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div align="center" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Ned</span></div><div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;background:white"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";display:none;mso-hide:all"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <div align="center"> <table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="600" style="width:6.25in;mso-cellspacing:0in;mso-yfti-tbllook:1184;mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in"> <tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:0;mso-yfti-firstrow:yes"> <td width="75" style="width:56.25pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><img width="66" height="1" id="_x0000_i1027" src="http://img.constantcontact.com/letters/images/spacer.gif" /><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="15" valign="top" style="width:11.25pt;background:#D8D8D8;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><img width="14" height="14" id="_x0000_i1028" src="http://img.constantcontact.com/letters/images/topcorner.gif" /><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="510" style="width:382.5pt;background:#D8D8D8;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"> <table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" style="width:100.0%;mso-cellspacing:0in;mso-yfti-tbllook:1184;mso-padding-alt: 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"> <tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:0;mso-yfti-firstrow:yes"> <td valign="top" style="padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#666699">November 8, 2010</span></b><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> <o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td valign="top" style="padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#996600">Eagle Editions Ltd. Newsletter</span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#666699">Official U.S. A/C colors 1908-1993 Restocked</span></b><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman""><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="mso-yfti-irow:1;mso-yfti-lastrow:yes"> <td width="115" valign="top" style="width:86.25pt;padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"></td> <td valign="top" style="padding:3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt 3.75pt"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black">Dear Ned,</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black">Hello from Eagle Editions Ltd.<br /> We have received more copies of this very limited item.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black">Official U.S. Aircraft Color chips 1908-1993 formerly produced by Monogram Aviation Publications <o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr style="mso-yfti-irow:1"> <td colspan="3" style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"> <table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" style="width:100.0%;mso-cellspacing:0in;mso-yfti-tbllook:1184;mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in" height="35"> <tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:0;mso-yfti-firstrow:yes;mso-yfti-lastrow:yes"> <td width="16" style="width:12.0pt;background:#666699;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><img width="16" height="35" id="_x0000_i1029" src="http://img.constantcontact.com/letters/images/left-round.gif" /><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td style="background:#666699;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#FFFFCC">Monogram Color Chips</span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr style="mso-yfti-irow:2"> <td valign="top" style="padding:3.75pt 0in 0in 9.0pt"></td> <td valign="top" style="background:#D8D8D8;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> <o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="510" valign="top" style="width:382.5pt;background:#D8D8D8;padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=wqufxybab&et=1103890680681&s=1710&e=001J7yY2u9CCgCfvxtNIeymp4kqlW1xlOV_zF050MU1QiZJGfUMk5yQoB_TzmxP9465Ik31nW1JSoE3wcG7a10Snw2Q6hHzzqUeFJJxCC7CBORA3eK4E--BP3I6CDK2c-zQU_itpF8Z5Oc=" shape="rect"><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:none"><img border="0" width="280" height="290" id="_x0000_i1030" src="http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs063/1101414978070/img/192.jpg" hspace="5" vspace="5" align="center" /></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black">Through a special arrangement with the former Monogram Aviation Publications owners, Eagle Editions has acquired a few copies of a unique booklet of the Official United States Aircraft Color Chips 1908 - 1993.<br /> This is the ultimate reference of U.S. color chips originally produced for the successful and sold out Monogram series of color chip books. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black">Originally produced for insertion into the four volumes published many years ago by Monogram are the actual color chips for the 4 USN volumes plus the single USAAF volume.<br /> <br /> Each spiral bound volume measures 9 x 12 with 14 individual pages plus stiff fronts and backs. On the inside of the back cover is printed "The Scale Effect of Color." <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=wqufxybab&et=1103890680681&s=1710&e=001J7yY2u9CCgAHb6TdbBi2RU1vA_vpxKcfxRnsfCLlGLkUkIPngS8uP2ipUjeto6pINbZncZNW0BM905cnrSpUJ1rZ0ufmqTP_s3RJQsmXP7JJOZGKhmeS_eSpu5xwFEQ3-2JlP35cQOI=" color="#996600" shape="rect"><b><span style="color:#996600">Order today - final restock now here.</span></b></a> <o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="mso-yfti-irow:3"> <td colspan="3" style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"> <table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" style="width:100.0%;mso-cellspacing:0in;mso-yfti-tbllook:1184;mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in" height="35"> <tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:0;mso-yfti-firstrow:yes;mso-yfti-lastrow:yes"> <td width="16" style="width:12.0pt;background:#666699;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><img border="0" width="16" height="35" id="_x0000_i1031" src="http://img.constantcontact.com/letters/images/left-round.gif" /><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td style="background:#666699;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#FFFFCC">Actual color chips-not printed</span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr style="mso-yfti-irow:4"> <td valign="top" style="padding:3.75pt 0in 0in 9.0pt"></td> <td valign="top" style="background:#D8D8D8;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> <o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="510" valign="top" style="width:382.5pt;background:#D8D8D8;padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#996600">Each chip is 1.75 inches square</span></b><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=wqufxybab&et=1103890680681&s=1710&e=001J7yY2u9CCgCfvxtNIeymp4kqlW1xlOV_zF050MU1QiZJGfUMk5yQoB_TzmxP9465Ik31nW1JSoE3wcG7a10Snw2Q6hHzzqUeFJJxCC7CBORA3eK4E--BP3I6CDK2c-zQU_itpF8Z5Oc=" shape="rect"><span style="text-decoration:none;text-underline:none"><img border="0" width="400" height="238" id="_x0000_i1032" src="http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs063/1101414978070/img/193.jpg" hspace="5" vspace="5" alt="USAAF page" align="center" /></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";color:black">This is an actual page from the handbook of the Official United States Aircraft Colors 1908 - 1993. There is a total of 9 color chip pages, one of which is a fold out. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:black">Only a very small number of these booklets are available.<br /> Only $40.00 each, plus s/h <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=wqufxybab&et=1103890680681&s=1710&e=001J7yY2u9CCgCfvxtNIeymp4kqlW1xlOV_zF050MU1QiZJGfUMk5yQoB_TzmxP9465Ik31nW1JSoE3wcG7a10Snw2Q6hHzzqUeFJJxCC7CBORA3eK4E--BP3I6CDK2c-zQU_itpF8Z5Oc=" color="#996600" shape="rect"><b><span style="color:#996600">visit our website to place your order</span></b></a> <o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr style="mso-yfti-irow:5"> <td colspan="3" style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"> <table class="MsoNormalTable" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" style="width:100.0%;mso-cellspacing:0in;mso-yfti-tbllook:1184;mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 0in 0in" height="35"> <tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:0;mso-yfti-firstrow:yes;mso-yfti-lastrow:yes"> <td width="16" style="width:12.0pt;background:#666699;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""><img border="0" width="16" height="35" id="_x0000_i1033" src="http://img.constantcontact.com/letters/images/left-round.gif" /><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td style="background:#666699;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px;"><br /></span></span></p></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:6"><td valign="top" style="padding:3.75pt 0in 0in 9.0pt"><br /></td><td valign="top" style="background:#D8D8D8;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"><br /></td><td width="510" valign="top" style="width:382.5pt;background:#D8D8D8;padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in"><br /></td></tr><tr style="mso-yfti-irow:7;mso-yfti-lastrow:yes"><td valign="top" style="padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"><br /></td><td valign="bottom" style="background:#D8D8D8;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"><br /></td><td valign="top" style="background:#D8D8D8;padding:0in 0in 0in 0in"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div>Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-47723328882640116902008-09-14T03:34:00.000-07:002008-09-14T04:04:11.996-07:00Double Triplane - Eduard's Fokker Dr. I Dual Combo<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDdmCAPUaF1RsI56UJGo_iu1EQNgqUzPP-NHcCfZBfwOkZknw50RSxrWQgUBx6dE1MTTUdRwK33_Jc1d8CFOEP3SsLTjQ6sd1pYjb0J5fzgNeDuA2idvd56COj2vUTLxJqB3oSlQ/s1600-h/378px-Fokker_dr1_silhouette.PNG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDdmCAPUaF1RsI56UJGo_iu1EQNgqUzPP-NHcCfZBfwOkZknw50RSxrWQgUBx6dE1MTTUdRwK33_Jc1d8CFOEP3SsLTjQ6sd1pYjb0J5fzgNeDuA2idvd56COj2vUTLxJqB3oSlQ/s320/378px-Fokker_dr1_silhouette.PNG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245826436021971858" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />"Mama got two for the price of one and so can you ..." was the tag-line of a fast-talking used car lot commercial, owned by identical twins, that I grew up with -and decades later, Eduard has finally given us a "two for the price of one" that we can enjoy. Eduard has taken their excellent Dr.I and packaged two identical kits - with decals for six different colorful versions, none of them with the German's trademarked Lozenge camouflage, which means that they can be produced without painting or <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">decaling</span> nightmares.<br /><br />Like the Fokker D.VII, the Fokker Dr.I has few flying wires - it is clean, uncluttered and, for a biplane, remarkably easy to build. There are many good ways of rigging a model biplane (or triplane) but none of them are very easy. Which is one more reason why so many modelers like building Fokker Dr.I. It is historically-significant as the favored mount of the mythic Red Baron, it is visually appealing and distinctive, it is usually colorful and it is far less complex than - for instance, the Bristol Fighter, with it's spider-web of rigging and struts.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Csfy80Nf111IsROvjNMiaNouEV7xC3W8vgTBdomHINbiyyVLLnAdOUOasL1qk7-68-vGMK3qkyypE3_I1UJNlIkwAnT7Mau72SfBOr1p2Tssi3htuj6yIqeK4-4QYOZmiZpfWg/s1600-h/300px-Fokker_Dr._I_USAF.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Csfy80Nf111IsROvjNMiaNouEV7xC3W8vgTBdomHINbiyyVLLnAdOUOasL1qk7-68-vGMK3qkyypE3_I1UJNlIkwAnT7Mau72SfBOr1p2Tssi3htuj6yIqeK4-4QYOZmiZpfWg/s320/300px-Fokker_Dr._I_USAF.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245826566690578514" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The Fokker Dr.I was the ultimate triumph of maneuverability over speed - with an underpowered rotary engine and the extra weight and drag of the third wing, the Dr.I was never going to set any speed records. But that extra wing - along with the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">sesquiplane</span> strut between the two wheels - gave the aircraft incredible lift and maneuverability - it could turn on a dime and give you seven cents change. <br /><br />However, by late in the war, the Fokker Dr.I had "an issue" that was to come back years later - in late '44 and early '45, with the Heinkel He-162 - when glue-manufacturing production standards fell off and wooden wings started to come apart in the air. After a few fatal accidents, German pilots were - for the most part - eager to move up to another type of aircraft - a late-model Albatros or the world-beating Fokker D.VII - but Richthofen stayed with the triplane right up until he met his end at the hand of either an Australian fighter pilot or an unknown Tommy.<br /><br />Eduard has done their typical exceptional best in crafting this model - and the Dual Combo package gives you two for the price of one. If you want to add a colorful World War I fighter aircraft without having to deal with a lot of rigging, this is the plane, and the model, for you.Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-20993409321401849412008-09-14T03:10:00.000-07:002008-09-14T03:34:13.093-07:00Weekend Fokker<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIrNr1E-vdl1fs4J6aP7XRkMvIThkP3bKcx31DGzSHSxUctKVioSvD0yfp49ZtiD7GwymtPj5zuw_qyQiQN2FMqFE6PV05WCy7WRb9kQq75Qq6tIKHOnRBaPhoWf5M0l5FfcQH1w/s1600-h/rhinebeck_fokker_d_vii.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIrNr1E-vdl1fs4J6aP7XRkMvIThkP3bKcx31DGzSHSxUctKVioSvD0yfp49ZtiD7GwymtPj5zuw_qyQiQN2FMqFE6PV05WCy7WRb9kQq75Qq6tIKHOnRBaPhoWf5M0l5FfcQH1w/s320/rhinebeck_fokker_d_vii.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245821495361634786" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />For those who want to build World War I aircraft, but don't want to be overwhelmed with rigging wires and such, the Fokker D.VII is an ideal kit - clean, powerful and almost bereft of flying wires. Which is why I like the Fokker D.VII Weekend Edition - it takes a relatively simple biplane and makes it even simpler. <br /><br />As with other Eduard Weekend Editions, the markings are for a single aircraft - in this case, the D.VII flown by Oblt. Herman Goering. Overall white, it isn't the most colorful D.VII, but it is distinctive and - because of Goering's later career - historical. The aircraft kit itself is up to Eduard's usual standards (which - especially for a limited run kit - is remarkably high). <br /><br />There's not a lot to say that hasn't been said about the actual aircraft - the Fokker D.VII was perhaps the best single-seat fighter that saw service in World War I - it was the only German/Central Powers aircraft specifically mentioned in the Versailles Treaty which formally ended the war. Copies were taken back to the US and were used operationally by the nascent US Army air service for four or five years after the end of the war. At the very end of the war, Dutchman Tony Fokker slipped the parts to manufacture 50 or more Fokker D.VIIs across the border into neutral Holland, and used those to get his company restarted in Holland.<br /><br />The Eduard kit captures the rugged elegance and efficient lethality of the Fokker D.VII - it makes up into a remarkable kit, and the Weekend Edition does it with ease and simplicity. If you want to add a Fokker D.VII to your collection, this is a great kit.Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-8247310896611923042008-09-14T02:11:00.000-07:002008-09-14T03:06:40.794-07:00Wulf in Eagle's Clothing - Eduard Takes The Next Step in Fw 190 Modeling<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeRK6NTDaN_xzPFWsiAY55DD56gPCSSVHLMw_dy9ZevfUNR3PQL9u6WvDdPJxisKvNwsV3px3TwJBZlpstjSRmlVUHYLfH85jhoJKR2OM8XUcG2Q_lvp7KnuE61kYl2fCiNJE3NQ/s1600-h/fw+190+camo.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeRK6NTDaN_xzPFWsiAY55DD56gPCSSVHLMw_dy9ZevfUNR3PQL9u6WvDdPJxisKvNwsV3px3TwJBZlpstjSRmlVUHYLfH85jhoJKR2OM8XUcG2Q_lvp7KnuE61kYl2fCiNJE3NQ/s320/fw+190+camo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245816280655230018" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_3xokYqlC1yyHHuPjsceE8ApYp9A94HhWQFQj57rpdOlTQU-bIMLp9Xcjj-h5-v-MKzcsy_Kiy7K8Ho4qKZYGHIlsyylYngMig-7oASKznapIxBR9lCD-5sQvjbPCvoKieRumRA/s1600-h/FW+190+box_cont.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_3xokYqlC1yyHHuPjsceE8ApYp9A94HhWQFQj57rpdOlTQU-bIMLp9Xcjj-h5-v-MKzcsy_Kiy7K8Ho4qKZYGHIlsyylYngMig-7oASKznapIxBR9lCD-5sQvjbPCvoKieRumRA/s320/FW+190+box_cont.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245816114018858914" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Take a plane that "seems" to have been designed based on Howard Hughes' high-speed racer - the smallest, sleekest aircraft built around a powerful air-cooled radial engine - and offer it to a leadership that wasn't interested in it. That was the Focke Wulf 190. Succinctly, it was a plane that the powers-that-be in Berlin had little interest in. The war would be won, they believed, with the planes already in hand - in other words, the Bf 109 and Bf 110. Why waste time, money and production resources on a new plane, they wondered, when the war was all but won.<br /><br />Focke Wulf was pushing the Fw 190 - Kurt Tank's remarkably powerful fighter - in part because they had nothing much to build for the Luftwaffe beside the long-range patrol bomber, the Fw 200 Kondor, a converted airliner which served an important, but limited role in the war. They'd rather build their own designs than subcontract Messerschmitt fighters, so they had to come up with a fighter that was better than the Bf 109, without competing for strategic resources such as the Daimler-Benz aircraft engines. Which is at least one reason why Tank selected a tightly-cowled radial - with a cooling fan between the propeller and the engine - it was used for second-line aircraft, but not for high-priority strategic aircraft.<br /><br />Initially, the Fw 190 was designed to be a point-defense interceptor fighter, which meant that it could climb quickly, carry a heavy machine-gun-and-cannon armament, and had excellent all-round visibility - just what was needed for intercepting enemy bombers flying over Festung Europa. The Fw 190's first assignment was on the French coast, defending the Reich from daylight raids by British fast bombers and fighter sweeps. However, it wasn't long before Operation Barbarossa - the invasion of the Soviet Union - stalled; instead of a lightning assault, it became a grinding ground war. Stukas were once again in fashion - they could serve as flying artillery and destroy anything on the ground. However, they couldn't defend themselves, and there weren't enough Bf 109s in the theater to both hold aerial superiority and fly escort for the increasingly-vulnerable Stukas.<br /><br />What the Germans needed was a plane which could carry a meaningful ground-attack bomb load, deliver its attack, then fight its way out of trouble. And that, it appeared, was the Fw 190. At first, A-model Focke Wulfs were used in that dual-mission Jabo role, but it was quickly seen that for survival on the Eastern Front, ground attack Fw's needed extra armor protection - Soviet ground fire was deadly and increasingly heavy, and with aircrew attrition reducing pilots' average skill level, every bit of extra protection was needed.<br /><br />Oddly, some of the armor developed for Eastern Front ground-attack versions later appeared in up-armored bomber-attack versions designed to survive the massed .50 caliber machine-gun fire from hoards of B-17s in tight formation.<br /><br />Eduard has been creating a number of truly exceptional radial-engined Fw 190s - A-5, A-8 and other variants - and it isn't surprising that they adapted those molds to create the F-8, essentially the ultimate ground-attack Focke Wulf. It took seven light-olive-colored sprues, along with clear parts, photo-etched parts and masks to cover all the options of this remarkably engineered kit. The engine alone has something like 17 million parts, and the cockpit another 147,000 parts. I've read some reports that the Eduard Focke Wulf kits were "over-engineered" - but that is a judgment call, and a call I don't share. This kit is overwhelmingly remarkable - and to some, just plain overwhelming - but I have never seen such an exquisitely designed and engineered kit. Not for the faint of heart, for sure - for those modelers (and that includes me, every time I want to relax) who ARE faint-of-heart, Eduard has their Focke Wulf Fw 190 Weekend Edition (which is a hell of a kit in its own right).<br /><br /><br /><br />What Wikipedia Says about the F-model Focke Wulf:<br /><br /><h2><span class="mw-headline">Attack versions</span></h2> <p>While nearly all variants of the Fw 190 could carry bombs and other air-to-ground ordnance, there were two dedicated attack versions of the Fw 190. The <i>Luftwaffe</i> was looking for aircraft to replace the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henschel_Hs_123" title="Henschel Hs 123">Henschel Hs 123</a> biplane, which were seriously outmatched in 1942, as well as the slow and heavy <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_Ju_87" title="Junkers Ju 87">Junkers Ju 87</a>. The excellent low-level performance and reasonably high power of the Fw 190 suggested it would be a "natural" in this role. Two versions of the Fw 190 were eventually built, customized for this mission.</p> <p><a name="Fw_190_F" id="Fw_190_F"></a></p> <h3><span class="editsection"></span><span class="mw-headline">Fw 190 F</span></h3> <div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 182px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:FW_190_F.jpg" class="image" title="Restored Fw 190 F-8 in late war markings."><img alt="Restored Fw 190 F-8 in late war markings." src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/FW_190_F.jpg/180px-FW_190_F.jpg" class="thumbimage" width="180" border="0" height="120" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:FW_190_F.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"><img src="http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" alt="" width="15" height="11" /></a></div> Restored Fw 190 F-8 in late war markings.</div> </div> </div> <p>The Fw 190 F was started as a Fw 190 A-0/U4. Early testing started in May 1942. This A-0 was outfitted with centre-line and wing mounted ETC 50 bomb racks. The early testing was quite good, and Focke-Wulf began engineering the attack version of the Fw 190. New armor was added to the bottom of the fuselage protecting the fuel tanks and pilot, the engine cowling, and the landing gear mechanisms and outer wing mounted armament. Finally the <i>Umrüst-Bausätze</i> kit 3 was fitted to the aircraft by means of a ETC 501 or ER4 centre-line mounted bomb rack and up to a SC250 bomb under each wing. This aircraft was designated the <b>Fw 190 F-1</b>. The first 30 Fw 190 F-1s were renamed Fw 190 A-4/U3s; however, Focke-Wulf quickly began assembling the aircraft on the line as Fw 190 F-1s as their own model with 18 more F-1s built before switching to the F-2. The <b>Fw 190 F-2</b>s were renamed Fw 190 A-5/U3s, which again were soon assembled as Fw 190 F-2s on the production line. There were 270 Fw 190 F-2s built according to Focke-Wulf production logs and RLM acceptance reports.</p> <p>The <b>Fw 190 F-3</b> was based on the Fw 190 A-5/U17, which was outfitted with a centre-line mounted ETC 501 bomb rack, and two double ETC 50 bomb racks under each wing. 432 Fw 190 F-3s were built.</p> <p>Due to difficulties creating an effective strafing Fw 190 F able to take out the Russian T-34 tank, the F-4 through F-7 models were abandoned, and all attempts focused on conversion of the Fw 190 A-8.</p> <p>The <b>Fw 190 F-8</b> differed from the A-8 model with a slightly modified injector on the compressor which allowed for increased performance at lower altitudes for several minutes. The F-8 was also outfitted with the improved FuG 16 ZS radio unit which provided much better communication with ground combat units. Armament on the Fw 190 F-8 was two <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG_151/20" title="MG 151/20" class="mw-redirect">MG 151/20</a> 20 mm cannon in the wing roots and two <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG_131" title="MG 131" class="mw-redirect">MG 131</a> machine guns above the engine. According to RLM acceptance reports at least 3,400 F-8s were built, probably several hundreds more in December 1944 and from February to May 1945 (data for these months is missing and probably lost).</p> <p>Dozens of F-8s served as various testbeds for anti-tank armament, including the WGr.28 280 mm ground-to-ground missile, 88 mm <i>Panzerschreck</i> 2 rockets, <i>Panzerblitz</i> 1 and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R4M" title="R4M" class="mw-redirect">R4M</a> rockets.</p> <p>There were also several <i>Umrüst-Bausätze</i> kits developed for the F-8, which included: The <b>Fw 190 F-8/U1</b> long range JaBo, outfitted with underwing V.Mtt-Schloß shackles to hold two 300-liter fuel tanks. ETC 503 bomb racks were also fitted, allowing the Fw 190 F-8/U1 to carry one SC 250 bomb under each wing and one SC 250 bomb on the centre-line.</p> <p>The <b>Fw 190 F-8/U2</b> torpedo bomber, outfitted with an ETC 503 bomb rack under each wing and a centre-line mounted ETC 504. The U2 was also equipped with the TSA 2 A weapons sighting system that improved the U2's ability to attack seaborne targets.</p> <p>The <b>Fw 190 F-8/U3</b> heavy torpedo bomber was outfitted with an ETC 502, which allowed it to carry one BT-1400 heavy torpedo. Due to the size of the torpedo, the U3's tail gear needed to be lengthened. The U3 also was fitted with the 2,000 PS BMW 801S engine, and the tail from the Ta 152.</p> <p>The <b>Fw 190 F-8/U4</b> created as a night fighter, was equipped with flame dampers on the exhaust and various electrical systems such as the FuG 101 radio altimeter, the PKS 12 automatic pilot, and the TSA 2 A sighting system. Weapons fitted ranged from torpedoes to bombs; however, the U4 was outfitted only with two MG 151/20 cannon as fixed armament.</p> <p>The <b>Fw 190 F-9</b> was based on the Fw 190 A-9 but with the new Ta 152 tail unit, a new bulged canopy as fitted to late-build A-9s, and four ETC 50 or ETC 70 bomb racks under the wings. According to RLM acceptance reports 147 F-9 were built in January 1945, probably several hundreds more from February to May 1945 (data for these months is missing and probably lost).</p> <p><a name="Fw_190_G" id="Fw_190_G"></a></p> <h3><span class="editsection"></span><span class="mw-headline"><br /></span></h3>Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-2649736499142925272008-09-14T01:28:00.000-07:002008-09-14T02:10:45.821-07:00Yakkity Yak - Don't Shoot Back ... Soviet Yaks by Eduard<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwv9BvHmSX96cjtZdBJ8kiS54Tvfn2f8K-Fj571GT6tiNL3AVoxkU-MY47et9gdWRGMmMX-Y8VmtfNeVNr-fdxOPf7hUSd8_lhxQeIbQo27KofpH0WgV3wOktzyqBBy477tbJFg/s1600-h/Yak3Taxying.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwv9BvHmSX96cjtZdBJ8kiS54Tvfn2f8K-Fj571GT6tiNL3AVoxkU-MY47et9gdWRGMmMX-Y8VmtfNeVNr-fdxOPf7hUSd8_lhxQeIbQo27KofpH0WgV3wOktzyqBBy477tbJFg/s320/Yak3Taxying.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245801864965875762" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn9vgfSC17tXEM-M40g6QpN6OyspZSD1acF_zYrM4c_bjVFvodMfu4eWNT-Pbuxq_mko9tPFyXGXouLk05DNklWr9eaMBRul-MJ1eK78-P1hTW9_ezZUsvmZdU0ZdZ9WXUMjFhkg/s1600-h/yak3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn9vgfSC17tXEM-M40g6QpN6OyspZSD1acF_zYrM4c_bjVFvodMfu4eWNT-Pbuxq_mko9tPFyXGXouLk05DNklWr9eaMBRul-MJ1eK78-P1hTW9_ezZUsvmZdU0ZdZ9WXUMjFhkg/s320/yak3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245801712727118866" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Take a weekend, build a Yak 3 - what could be easier? Eduard thinks that nothing should be easier, and they know what they're doing.<br /><br />The Yak 3 was one of a series of four high-performance Yak fighters produced in World War II, designed by the team lead by Alexander Sergeivich Yakolev. Powered by a Klimov M-105P liquid-cooled engine that was the rough equivalent of the Daimler Benz DB 600-series, the Merlin and the Allison liquid-cooled fighter engines, the plane was crude by western standards, and relatively lightly armed. However, the combination of a hard-hitting 20mm cannon and one or two rapid-fire .50 caliber machine guns firing through the nose, making it easier to hit what the pilot was aiming at.<br /><br />In the right hands, the lightweight Yaks were far more maneuverable than either the Bf 109 or the Fw 190, themselves no slouches when it came to low-level maneuverability.<br /><br />The Yak series of fighters was the next generation beyond the Polikarpov I-16 that, in its day, was a world-beater - the first retractable gear cantilever monoplane fighter with a 1,000 horsepower engine and more than two puny rifle-caliber machine guns - the plane set the pattern for all the single-seat, single-engined fighters that served in World War II.<br /><br />However, the I-16 was not only Polikarpov's stellar achievement, it was his swan-song. Nothing he designed afterwards was successful, and failure was not something that endeared even a successful designer to Stalin. However, Yakolev was just beginning to come into his own, and the Yak 1 (followed by the Yak 7, Yak 9 and Yak 3 - not necessarily in numerical order) began a successful series of aircraft that endured throughout the Cold War.<br /><br />The Yak 3 is clean and uncomplicated, especially by western standards. Sleek, swift, maneuverable and attractive - Eduard has captured the look and the power, and done so in a Weekend Kit that has relatively few parts, and decals for but a single aircraft - but it is a particularly colorful aircraft, which makes up into a remarkable model. Incredibly, a well-built Weekend kit looks nearly as good as a 500-part mega-masterpiece - yet it literally can be built in a weekend, especially if you've got a long weekend.<br /><br />For those who want more information, here's some of what Wikipedia has to say about the Soviet's Yak 3:<br /><h2><span class="mw-headline">Armament</span></h2> <p>The first 197 Yak-3 were armed with a single 20 mm <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShVAK_cannon" title="ShVAK cannon">ShVAK cannon</a> and one 12.7 mm <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berezin_UB" title="Berezin UB">UBS</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_gun" title="Machine gun">machine gun</a>, with subsequent aircraft receiving a second UBS for a weight of fire of 2.72 kg (6.0 lb) per second using high-explosive ammunition.</p> <p><a name="Variants" id="Variants"></a></p> <h2><span class="editsection"></span> <span class="mw-headline">Variants</span></h2> <div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 252px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Yak3.jpg" class="image" title="Yakovlev Yak-3 (replica)"><img alt="Yakovlev Yak-3 (replica)" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Yak3.jpg/250px-Yak3.jpg" class="thumbimage" width="250" border="0" height="178" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Yak3.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"><img src="http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" alt="" width="15" height="11" /></a></div> Yakovlev Yak-3 (replica)</div> </div> </div> <dl><dt><b>Yak-3</b></dt><dd>main production version</dd><dt><b>Yak-3 (VK-107A)</b></dt><dd><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klimov_VK-107" title="Klimov VK-107">Klimov VK-107</a>A engine with 1,230 kW (1,650 hp) and 2x 20 mm <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berezin_B-20" title="Berezin B-20">Berezin B-20</a> cannons with 120 rounds of ammunition each. After several mixed-construction prototypes, 48 all-metal production aircraft were built in 1945-1946. In spite of excellent performance (720 km/h (447 mph) at 5,750 m (18,860 ft)), VK-107 was prone to overheating and it was decided to leave the engine for the better-suited <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakovlev_Yak-9" title="Yakovlev Yak-9">Yak-9</a>.</dd><dt><b>Yak-3 (VK-108)</b></dt><dd>Yak-3 (VK-107A) modified with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klimov_VK-107" title="Klimov VK-107">VK-108</a> engine with 1,380 kW (1,850 hp), and armed a single 23 mm <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudelman-Suranov_NS-23" title="Nudelman-Suranov NS-23">Nudelman-Suranov NS-23</a> cannon with 60 rounds of ammunition. The aircraft reached 745 km/h (463 mph) at 6,290 m (20,630 ft) in testing but suffered from significant engine overheating. Another Yak-3 with 2x 20 mm <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berezin_B-20" title="Berezin B-20">Berezin B-20</a> cannons was also fitted with the engine with similar results.</dd><dt><b>Yak-3K</b></dt><dd>tank destroyer with a 45 mm <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nudelman-Suranov_NS-45&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Nudelman-Suranov NS-45 (page does not exist)">Nudelman-Suranov NS-45</a> cannon, only a few built because <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakovlev_Yak-9" title="Yakovlev Yak-9">Yak-9K</a> was a better match for the weapon</dd><dt><b>Yak-3P</b></dt><dd>produced from April <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1945_in_aviation" title="1945 in aviation">1945</a> until mid-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1946_in_aviation" title="1946 in aviation">1946</a>, armed with 3x 20 mm <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berezin_B-20" title="Berezin B-20">Berezin B-20</a> cannons with 120 rounds for the middle cannon and 130 rounds for each of the side weapons. The three-cannon armament with full ammunition load was actually 11 kg (24 lb) lighter than that of a standard Yak-3, and the one-second burst mass of 3.52 kg (7.74 lb) was greater than that of most contemporary fighters. Starting in August 1945, all Yak-3 were produced in the Yak-3P configuration with a total of 596 built.</dd><dt><b>Yak-3PD</b></dt><dd>high-altitude interceptor with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klimov_VK-105" title="Klimov VK-105" class="mw-redirect">Klimov VK-105</a>PD engine and a single 23 mm <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudelman-Suranov_NS-23" title="Nudelman-Suranov NS-23">Nudelman-Suranov NS-23</a> cannon with 60 rounds of ammunition, reached 13,300 m (43,625 ft) in testing but did not enter production due to unreliability of the engine.</dd><dt><b>Yak-3RD</b> (<b>Yak-3D</b>)</dt><dd>experimental aircraft with an auxiliary <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Glushko_RD-1&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Glushko RD-1 (page does not exist)">Glushko RD-1</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid-fuel_rocket" title="Liquid-fuel rocket" class="mw-redirect">liquid-fuel rocket</a> engine with 2,9 kN (650 lbf) of thrust in the modified tail, armed with a single 23 mm <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudelman-Suranov_NS-23" title="Nudelman-Suranov NS-23">Nudelman-Suranov NS-23</a> cannon with 60 rounds of ammunition. On May 11, 1945, the aircraft reached 782 km/h (485 mph) at 7,800 m (25,585 ft). During the August 16 test flight, the aircraft crashed for unknown reasons, killing the test pilot <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=V.L._Rastorguev&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="V.L. Rastorguev (page does not exist)">V.L. Rastorguev</a>. Like all mixed powerplant aircraft of the time, the project was abandoned in favor of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbojet" title="Turbojet">turbojet</a> engines.</dd><dt><b>Yak-3T</b></dt><dd>tank destroyer version armed with 1x 37 mm <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudelman_N-37" title="Nudelman N-37">Nudelman N-37</a> cannon with 25 rounds and 2x 20 mm <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berezin_B-20" title="Berezin B-20">Berezin B-20</a>S cannons with 100 rounds each. Cockpit was moved 0.4 m (1 ft 4 in) back to compensate for the heavier nose. Engine modifications required to accept the weapons resulted in serious overheating problems which were never fixed and the aircraft did not advance beyond the prototype stage.</dd><dt><b>Yak-3T-57</b></dt><dd>single Yak-3T with a 57 mm OKB-16-57 cannon</dd><dt><b>Yak-3TK</b></dt><dd>powered by a VK-107A engine, and fitted with an exhaust turbocharger.</dd><dt><b>Yak-3U</b></dt><dd>Yak-3 fitted with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shvetsov_ASh-82" title="Shvetsov ASh-82">Shvetsov ASh-82</a>FN radial engine with 1,380 kW (1,850 hp) in an attempt to increase performance while avoiding the overheating problems of VK-107 and VK-108. Wingspan increased by 20 cm (8 in), wings moved 22 cm (9 in) forward, cockpit raised by 8 cm (3 in). Armament of 2x 20 mm <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berezin_B-20" title="Berezin B-20">Berezin B-20</a> cannons with 120 rounds per gun. The prototype reached 682 km/h (424 mph) at 6,000 m (19,680 ft) and while successful did not enter production because it was completed after the war.</dd><dt><b>Yak-3UTI</b></dt><dd>two-seat conversion trainer based on Yak-3U powered by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shvetsov_ASh-21" title="Shvetsov ASh-21">Shvetsov ASh-21</a> radial piston engine. The aircraft became the prototype for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yak-11" title="Yak-11" class="mw-redirect">Yak-11</a>.</dd></dl> <p><a name="Operators" id="Operators"></a></p> <h2><span class="editsection"></span><span class="mw-headline">Operators</span></h2> <dl><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_France.svg" class="image" title="Flag of France"><img alt="Flag of France" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Flag_of_France.svg/22px-Flag_of_France.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="15" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France" title="France">France</a></dt><dd>(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normandie-Niemen" title="Normandie-Niemen">Normandie-Niemen</a> squadron)</dd><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Poland.svg" class="image" title="Flag of Poland"><img alt="Flag of Poland" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Flag_of_Poland.svg/22px-Flag_of_Poland.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="14" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland" title="Poland">Poland</a></dt><dd><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_of_the_Polish_Army" title="Air Force of the Polish Army">Air Force of the Polish Army</a></dd><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.svg" class="image" title="Flag of the Soviet Union"><img alt="Flag of the Soviet Union" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.svg/22px-Flag_of_the_Soviet_Union.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="11" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union">Soviet Union</a></dt><dd><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Air_Force" title="Soviet Air Force" class="mw-redirect">Soviet Air Force</a></dd><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_SFR_Yugoslavia.svg" class="image" title="Flag of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia"><img alt="Flag of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/71/Flag_of_SFR_Yugoslavia.svg/22px-Flag_of_SFR_Yugoslavia.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="11" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Federal_Republic_of_Yugoslavia" title="Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" class="mw-redirect">Yugoslavia</a></dt><dd><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SFR_Yugoslav_Air_Force" title="SFR Yugoslav Air Force">SFR Yugoslav Air Force</a></dd></dl> <ul><li>39th Fighter Aviation Division <ul><li>111th Fighter Aviation Regt - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skoplje" title="Skoplje" class="mw-redirect">Skoplje</a></li><li>113th Fighter Aviation Regt - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagreb" title="Zagreb">Zagreb</a>-Pleso</li></ul> </li><li>44th Fighter Aviation Division <ul><li>112nd Fighter Aviation Regt - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mostar" title="Mostar">Mostar</a></li><li>254th Fighter Aviation Regt - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mostar" title="Mostar">Mostar</a></li></ul> </li><li>21st Mixed Aviation Division <ul><li>204th Fighter Aviation Regt - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zadar" title="Zadar">Zadar</a></li></ul> </li></ul> <p><a name="Modern_recreations" id="Modern_recreations"></a></p><h2><span class="mw-headline">Specifications (Yak-3)</span></h2> <p><big><b>General characteristics</b></big></p> <ul><li><b>Crew:</b> 1</li><li><b>Length:</b> 8.5 m (27 ft 10 in)</li><li><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingspan" title="Wingspan">Wingspan</a>:</b> 9.2 m (30 ft 2 in)</li><li><b>Height:</b> 2.39 m (7 ft 11 in)</li><li><b>Wing area:</b> 14.85 m² (159.8 ft²)</li><li><b>Empty weight:</b> 2,105 kg (4,640 lb)</li><li><b>Loaded weight:</b> 2,692 kg (5,864 lb)</li><li><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum_Takeoff_Weight" title="Maximum Takeoff Weight">Max takeoff weight</a>:</b> kg (lb)</li><li><b>Powerplant:</b> 1× <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klimov_VK-105" title="Klimov VK-105" class="mw-redirect">Klimov VK-105</a>PF-2 V-12 liquid-cooled piston engine, 962 kW (1,290 hp)</li></ul> <p><big><b>Performance</b></big></p> <ul><li><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_speeds#Vno" title="V speeds">Maximum speed</a>:</b> 646 km/h (401 mph)</li><li><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_%28aircraft%29" title="Range (aircraft)">Range</a>:</b> 650 km (405 miles)</li><li><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceiling_%28aeronautics%29" title="Ceiling (aeronautics)">Service ceiling</a></b> 10,700 m (35,000 ft)</li><li><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rate_of_climb" title="Rate of climb">Rate of climb</a>:</b> 18.5 m/s (3,645 ft/min)</li><li><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_loading" title="Wing loading">Wing loading</a>:</b> 181 kg/m² (36.7 lb/ft²)</li><li><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power-to-weight_ratio" title="Power-to-weight ratio">Power/mass</a>:</b> 0.36 kW/kg (0.22 hp/lb)</li></ul> <p><big><b>Armament</b></big><br /></p> <ul><li>1x 20 mm <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShVAK" title="ShVAK" class="mw-redirect">ShVAK</a> cannon,</li><li>1x or 2x 12.7 mm (.50 caliber) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berezin_UBS" title="Berezin UBS" class="mw-redirect">Berezin UBS</a> machine guns</li></ul><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Sergeevich_Yakovlev" title="Alexander Sergeevich Yakovlev" class="mw-redirect"></a>Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-8147730011763034792008-09-13T23:35:00.000-07:002008-09-14T01:19:12.397-07:00What The Hell ... Cat! - The 1/48 Eduard Hellcats<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZPO4Pd8GxH87yUWRo9MHHkNWiltJZYTuq2hd1YG2D5rDC-MJ_VyYdEcX0RdYyPpWBSjBF6fOnCg-DDno8GQJGqTo40OxpGuXu7KlkFtsgExj_NIPg9nTKgvrkwpK4eAgfsuKxFg/s1600-h/hellcat.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZPO4Pd8GxH87yUWRo9MHHkNWiltJZYTuq2hd1YG2D5rDC-MJ_VyYdEcX0RdYyPpWBSjBF6fOnCg-DDno8GQJGqTo40OxpGuXu7KlkFtsgExj_NIPg9nTKgvrkwpK4eAgfsuKxFg/s320/hellcat.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245767567077708114" border="0" /></a><br /><img src="file:///C:/Users/Ned/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg" alt="" /><img src="file:///C:/Users/Ned/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg" alt="" />Holy Hellcat, Batman!<br /><br />Twenty to one? That's a pretty good won-loss ratio in anybody's league. But when it comes to life-and-death combat, that kill ratio is about as good as it gets. Few planes have done so well - not even the Zero at the very start of World War II, when that incredible fighter destroyed every plane crazy enough to challenge it for aerial supremacy - but even the Zero's unflagging supremacy in 1941 couldn't challenge the almost unbelievable win-loss record of the Hellcat.<br /><br />In the 1930s, the US Navy had a strong and effective pattern - as soon as a new fighter was in production, they called for the next generation design. As a result, no sooner had the Wildcat gone into production when the Navy asked Grumman and a few other manufacturers to come up next-generation designs. Grumman had an excellent track record, going back a decade to the FF-1 and SF-1 two-seat fighters, the F2F and F3F hotrod fighters - and after a blip with the original XF4F biplane was a non-starter, Grumman was back as the Navy's pre-eminent fighter manufacturer with the F4F-3/4 Wildcat (and it's General Motors follow-up, the FM-1 and the FM2 "Wilder" Wildcat. But when the original XF4F failed, Grumman realized that they didn't have an automatic lock on Navy fighter production. Instead of playing it safe, Grumman decided to put everything they'd learned about producing fighters into the design of the XF6F Hellcat.<br /><br />While the US wasn't already in the shooting war at the time they started this new design, Grumman and every other US aircraft manufacturer was carefully studying all the lessons of aerial combat coming out of France, England, Poland and the rest of the world already at war. So they knew that it had to be rugged, armored, with self-sealing fuel tanks and heavy armament. They knew it had to have long range - defending carriers was best done as far away from the ships as possible. And it had to be easy to fly - both Grumman and the Navy knew that if the US was drawn into a shooting war, the Navy would be training a lot of new pilots and pushing them into combat long before they'd had the kind of in-depth training they would have received in the pre-war Navy.<br /><br />There is a widespread and hard-to-kill rumor - even alluded to in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F6F_Hellcat) - that the Hellcat was designed specifically to combat the Japanese Zero. Reality is somewhat different. The Hellcat was ordered in the summer of 1941, six months before Pearl Harbor - and it first flew on June 26, 1942 - roughly the same day that America first discovered an abandoned Japanese Zero shot down near Dutch Harbor in a sideshow to the Battle of Midway. The plane's design had been largely locked down before that damaged Zero had been repaired and put through flight tests. By the time we knew just how maneuverable and lightly-built the Zero really was, the Hellcat was already in production.<br /><br />Initially, the Hellcat was designed around the R-2600 radial engine, a reliable and rugged 1,700 horsepower engine that powered Grumman's Avenger torpedo bomber, as well as the B-25 Mitchell and A-20 Havoc. However, the 2,000 horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-2800 offered nearly 25 percent more power - and while it was new and relatively unproven, it was already powering the B-26 Marauder, the P-47 Thunderbolt and the soon-to-be-combat-ready F4U Corsair. The R-2600-powered Hellcat was test-flown in June, 1942, and the R-2800 version flew just a month later.<br /><br />Because the Corsair had some initial problems with Carrier Qualifications - due largely to a too-bouncy landing gear, along with a long nose that obscured the carrier deck just before touchdown - the Hellcat was "to the manor born" - designed from the outset to be a carrier plane. So, early in 1943, the Navy gave the Corsair to Marine and land-based Navy squadrons, while the Hellcat went to the carriers. While the Corsair was far more of a handful to fly, both planes were outstanding combat aircraft, and shared similar characteristics - rugged, long-ranged, heavily-armed - and were superb as both air-combat fighters and as ground-attack aircraft.<br /><br />However, the Hellcat was far slower - in part because of the very characteristics that made it a good plane to fly from carriers - and it far more quickly faded from view after the war. This is often attributed to the Corsair's superiority in several areas, but it also reflects the fact that while Chance Vought had no suitable follow-on propeller fighter - instead, they kept upgrading the Corsair -Grumman chose to focus on next-generation fighters. Grumman built the F8F Bearcat - literally the smallest plane that could be built around the powerful R2800 - as the fleet-protection hot-rod, while Grumman built the F7F Tigercat as a long-range, twin-engined air defense, ground attack and night/all-weather fighter. In any case, jets - including Grumman's own F9F Panther - quickly pushed both next-generation prop fighters onto the sidelines, while specialized ground-attack versions of the Corsair were produced right through the Korean War, 1950-53.<br /><br />But in it's day, and in its war, the Hellcat was the best carrier-based plane on earth. Once the Corsair was finally carrier-qualified, it carried a full load, but it was never as forgiving for new pilots, never quite as rugged or quite as maneuverable as the Hellcat.<br /><br />During the war, more than 12,000 Hellcats were produced - not bad for a fighter that didn't first fly until six months after the war started - and in that war it destroyed more than 19 Japanese planes for every Hellcat lost in air-to-air combat. It had a well-earned reputation for bringing its pilots home, and, as one Hellcat pilot put it, "if it could cook, I'd marry it."<br /><br />Eduard has produced a couple of kits of the Hellcat - essentially the same in all the important particulars - one is a two-for-one (two models in one box) kit of the Royal Navy/Fleet Air Arm's Hellcat Mk. I and Mk. II - essentially the US Navy's F6F-3 and F6F-5, which had few visible changes besides a rear window. The plane was constantly upgraded during the war, but the upgrades were minor - the plane was "right," right from the start. This makes it easier for a kit manufacturer to produce a single kit that covers both major versions.<br /><br />I have to admit to being an Eduard Junkie - they produce more fascinating aircraft, with more remarkable add-ons - PE, Resin, Masks, optional parts, the whole nine yards. In this kit - in both Eduard Hellcat kits - they have not disappointed. For those who like FAA aircraft, the Hellcat Mk. I and Mk. II is a significant step in the process between outmoded two-seat fighter-reconaissance fighters like the Fulmar and converted short-range land-based fighters like the Sea Gladiator, Sea Hurricane and Seafire and modern made-for-carrier single-seat fighters. While the FAA had fewer than 900 Hellcats, they fought in Norway (in a strike against the Tirpitz - one of the few times the Hellcat took on German front-line fighters), across Southeast Asia and in the approaches to Japan.<br /><br />This kit offers markings for six FAA aircraft - Mk. I Hellcats from 800 Squadron flown by Lt. Blythe Ritchie when he shot down a Focke Wulf Fw 190 on May 8, 1944; another aircraft from 800 Squadron during D-Day and on through the invasion of Southern France in August, 1944; and one from 1844 Squadron fighting in the Southeast Asia/Pacific Theater. Mk. II aircraft include an 808 Squadron in the Pacific theater; an 1839 Squadron Hellcat in the invasion of Okinawa that was flown by ace Sub-Lieutenant WMC Foster and another 1839 Squadron Hellcat which saw combat over Formosa and Okinawa. Considering the limited number of aircraft in service, Eduard provided a wide variety of camouflage and markings - they would have been hard-pressed to find a better or more diverse selection of aircraft.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVoOBz0Og3U1ttsDi13He8lptQ-onUgGr72yLq2g1CWGZ1CMbuT-dO54ARKHsVjcN1D_MDAgUl6DZcY_SFmEBs35y6fegkdJgfbQllccWsN6UtcsjhuJU6_l4hfXEAgGOgabJbJw/s1600-h/hellcat+edu_8221_title.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVoOBz0Og3U1ttsDi13He8lptQ-onUgGr72yLq2g1CWGZ1CMbuT-dO54ARKHsVjcN1D_MDAgUl6DZcY_SFmEBs35y6fegkdJgfbQllccWsN6UtcsjhuJU6_l4hfXEAgGOgabJbJw/s320/hellcat+edu_8221_title.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245785062371411234" border="0" /></a><br /><h3>The Kit</h3> <table width="250" align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody><tr> <td><a href="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_parts1.jpg"><img src="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_parts1t.jpg" alt="F6F Kit" width="250" border="0" height="168" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_parts2.jpg"><img src="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_parts2t.jpg" alt="F6F Kit" width="250" border="0" height="92" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_parts3.jpg"><img src="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_parts3t.jpg" alt="F6F Kit" width="250" border="0" height="144" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_parts4.jpg"><img src="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_parts4t.jpg" alt="F6F Kit" width="250" border="0" height="145" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_parts5.jpg"><img src="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_parts5t.jpg" alt="F6F Kit" width="250" border="0" height="152" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_parts6.jpg"><img src="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_parts6t.jpg" alt="F6F Kit" width="250" border="0" height="122" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_parts7.jpg"><img src="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_parts7t.jpg" alt="F6F Kit" width="250" border="0" height="191" /></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_decals.jpg"><img src="http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/edu/images/edu_8221_decalst.jpg" alt="F6F Kit" width="250" border="0" height="156" /></a></td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p>I've received the essentially identical FAA kit. <span style="font-weight: bold;"> Cybermodel</span> reports: "Eduard has done an excellent job with this one!"<br /></p><p>One of the areas that all modelers have looked at for accuracy on any new Hellcat involves the shape of the plane's rear fuselage. Eduard caught this shape right, something no other kit maker has done - not Otaki or Hasegawa or Trumpeter or any of the others who've tackled this seemingly straightforward but oddly illusive aircraft.<br /></p> <p>The Hellcat cowling is another detail that had always eluded Hellcat kit manufacturers and aftermarket accessory makers - up till now. Compound curves are hard to capture, which makes a spot-on model hard to capture, but the Hellcat's chin scoop and engine opening have never been caught quite right. However, Eduard has caught this detail in the kit. In short, this kit has it all.<br /></p> <h3>Markings</h3> <p>Markings are provided for five aircraft:</p> <ul><li>F6F-3, BuNo 66016 (probabe), #32, VF-16, USS Lexington, 1943</li><li>F6F-3, BuNo 25813, #13 (33-F-13), VF-33, Ondonga, 1943, as flown by Lt. C.K. Hilderbrandt</li><li>F6F-3, BuNo 40090, #9, VF-1, USS Yorktown, 1944, as flown by Lt William Moseley</li><li>F6F-3, BuBo 40467, #19, VF-6, USS Intrepid, 1944, as flown by Lt Alexander Vraciu</li><li>F6F-3, BuNo unk, #17, VF-27, USS Princeton, 1944, as flown by Lt Richard Stambook</li></ul>Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-70869064716871684922008-09-13T21:42:00.000-07:002008-09-13T21:43:57.831-07:00What Would Joe Foss Do?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhh9_0xw09R8uWsYgvybvq79T1gi9TDLEjPoGklHFSnezwKwgPbt69FdxkNPrpsCw6vQpkTOPc8U2VGQmpJmONeYwp5ZWJTwCx2SvzyOEzPff_-AKSUBse2Yr5vK0eF_jr2yF-Fw/s1600-h/Moh_right.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhh9_0xw09R8uWsYgvybvq79T1gi9TDLEjPoGklHFSnezwKwgPbt69FdxkNPrpsCw6vQpkTOPc8U2VGQmpJmONeYwp5ZWJTwCx2SvzyOEzPff_-AKSUBse2Yr5vK0eF_jr2yF-Fw/s320/Moh_right.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245733140091239778" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR652QhzLh3m05uTc6N4m6j6tGYJyGdlgwNrAKhhNWYo59oIHEFcVp7dwo2-D4-IPEeKnNh0gabDqQPvoLMT78B4BuSimoDsHgU0U3Cq9vTP_kbpzUuC7qTlnoMrLHlClLroyOqw/s1600-h/476px-Foss_JJ_USMC.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR652QhzLh3m05uTc6N4m6j6tGYJyGdlgwNrAKhhNWYo59oIHEFcVp7dwo2-D4-IPEeKnNh0gabDqQPvoLMT78B4BuSimoDsHgU0U3Cq9vTP_kbpzUuC7qTlnoMrLHlClLroyOqw/s320/476px-Foss_JJ_USMC.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245733024220234178" border="0" /></a><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">What would Joe Foss do?<br />Commentary by Ned Barnett</span><br /><br />Joe Foss was a poor kid from South Dakota, growing up in the Depression, when his dad died.<br /><br />He had a dream, though - he'd met Charles Lindbergh in 1928 and seen a Marine Fighter Squadron barnstorming through his neck of the prairie in 1930 - and that dream required college - a tough act for a poor orphaned kid, but he managed to do it, earning both a bachelor of business administration and a private pilot's license.<br /><br />His dream was to be a Marine aviator - but in those pre-war days, the odds against even qualified applicants were two in 100 - he hitchhiked 300 miles to Minneapolis, took the test with 100 young men, and was one of the two.<br /><br />After completing training and a 9-month tour as an instructor (something only the best trainee pilots were assigned - and few liked) he was assigned to an observation squadron (aka "target") in San Diego instead of a fighter squadron - but he noticed that a lot of trainee aviators were "buying the farm" - he went to the base commander (a Navy Commander who hated Marines) and offered to trade duty as "funeral officer" for stick-time in a fighter. In three months, he racked up more than 150 hours in a Wildcat - that was more than 3 hours per day for 47 consecutive days (all while fulfilling his assigned duties as an observation-unit pilot AND funeral officer).<br /><br />As the only carrier-qualified Marine aviator in San Diego, he was named Exec of a squadron about to sail into combat, even thought many thought of him as "the old man" - too old for fighter combat (he was 27 - average age of new fighter pilots, 23).<br /><br />His first combat mission over Guadalcanal he had his engine shot out and made a "hot" dead-stick landing - but only after he'd shot down the first of many deadly Japanese Zeroes to fall under his guns.<br /><br />The fourth time he was shot down, he realized that "one more and I'll be a Japanese Ace" - but by that time he'd shot down something like 19 confirmed first-line Japanese planes (mostly Zeros, piloted by the cream of the best in the Imperial Japanese Air Force - the Tainan Wing).<br /><br />One time, after downing three or four Japanese fighters, combat damage to his engine forced him to ditch his Wildcat two miles of the beach of Malaita Island (about 50 or so miles from Guadalcanal). The plane sank fast, his foot caught in his seat, and before he knew it, he was 30 feet under and "breathing" seawater. Convinced he was going to die, instead of panicking, he calmed himself, figured out how to free himself and used his Mae West life preserver to get him back to the surface (breathing more seawater along the way). To tired to swim, he decided to float on his back until his strength came back - until he saw a couple of shark-fins. Then he saw a couple of canoes - convinced they were Japs looking for him, he decided to "face down" the sharks - until he heard an Australian voice and surfaced again. The next day, Major Mad Jack Cramm - the personal pilot to the Marine Air Commander (General Geiger) - taxied his PBY Catalina right up onto the beach to retrieve Foss - and two days later, he was back in combat, shooting down a couple more Japanese fighters in the process.<br /><br />He finished his tour of duty with 26 confirmed kills - tying Eddie Rickenbacker (WW-I American Ace of Aces) - but unlike some self-centered Aces, Foss led a unit that fought with him - together with Foss, his flight (Foss's Flying Circus) shot down 72 confirmed enemies - literally all of those young-buck grass-green fighter pilots he'd brought into combat (except the two who didn't survive) became aces in their own right under Foss's masterful training and leadership. Aces like von Richthofen often couldn't remember the names of their wingmen - Foss made medal-bedecked aces of them.<br /><br />His technique was simple - he flew so close to the enemy that he couldn't miss (of course, they couldn't, either, which is why he was nearly a Japanese ace, too) - his flight-members used to joke that he'd leave "powder burns" on his targets by holding fire until he was in slow-pitch softball range of his enemy. The results - 26 confirmed kills leading a team of eight "novice" pilots that together scored 72 confirmed kills - speak for themselves.<br /><br />Amazingly, Foss did all this while flying a plane considered obsolete even before the war began (the F4F Wildcat was slower in level flight, slower in the climb and much less maneuverable than the Zero - it also had much less range). He was the highest-scoring ace in Marine history, and won the Congressional Medal of Honor - the highest award available to American servicemen (most who earn it do so posthumously).<br /><br />After the war, a bureaucratic bungle denied him a "Regular" commission in the Marines - so he founded the South Dakota Air National Guard. He served in the regular Air Force in Korea, and retired a Brigadier General.<br /><br />Retiring from the Guard, he became the Governor of South Dakota, the Commissioner of the American Football League, the host of two TV programs (running, together, for about 10 years) and - late in life (as in, during his 70s) he became President of the National Rifle Association.<br /><br />At age 87, airport "security" in Phoenix (this was after 9/11) tried to stop him from boarding a plane for a flight to New York (where he was scheduled to address the Cadets at West Point) for carrying a "dangerous weapon" - the five-pointed star of his Congressional Medal of Honor.<br /><br />What would Joe Foss do? Apparently, he laughed it off (I understand he actually let the idiot security guard live).<br /><br />Now, when I'm in a tough spot, I ask myself, "what would Joe Foss do?" (hint - move in close before opening fire - never give up - never slow down - and never take "no" for an answer).Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-4207535948787508252008-09-13T21:32:00.000-07:002008-09-13T21:40:46.649-07:00Big Ed - Eduard's Do-it-All Sets ...Eduard - those remarkable Czechs who have all but revolutionized the customization and super-detailing of plastic model kits - have come up with a remarkable way to package up their goodies in one box. They call these packages "Big Ed" - and when you think about what they offer, they really are just about everything you need to super-detail your favorite model kits. As always with Eduard, the quality is second to none, the results all but unbelievable.<br /><br />Big Ed - 1/72 B-17 F/G Flying Fortress/Academy Kit: This includes PE landing flaps, exterior detail, bomb bay, and self-adhesive pre-painted interior photo-etched parts to dress up your Academy kit.<br /><br />Big Ed - 1/48 A6M5c Zero/Hasegawa Kit: What you need to detail the landing flaps, the interior and the kit in general. The Hasegawa kit is all but complete - but this Big Ed set took it to the next level.<br /><br />Big Ed - 1/32 P-47D-20 Thunderbolt/Trumpeter Kit: This is one of the BIG Big Ed sets: it includes gun bays, exterior PE, engine details, wheel well details, self-adhesive cockpit placards and self-adhesive cockpit details ... for the ultimate Trumpeter Thunderbolt, this Big Ed can't be beat.<br /><br />Big Ed - 1/38 Fw 190A-8/Hasegawa Kit: Eduard has done a number of Focke Wulf "Big Ed" sets - for their own remarkable series of Fw 190s as well as for those kits produced by competitors. This provides details, landing flaps and self-adhesive cockpit details for the Hasegawa kit. However, whichever Focke Wulf you're building, Eduard seems to have a Big Ed set for you.<br /><br />This blog post will grow over time ... stay tuned, or contact me for critiques on specific Big Ed sets.Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-30751142937444142402008-09-13T21:23:00.001-07:002008-09-13T21:31:09.811-07:00Late-war SPAD XIII - French Powerhouse by Eduard in 1/48<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHMnT8LlOS4Il9dqIdkKqLqoc9D-iRYVttyo670XGR4DbWht5CRWwEZmP3tB9GtjX_3RFwU0hPan4iyg82NAnRhpwFphSGwyD5SsgAlDBFkF7OV9Z3Tg6-EetBHMR-56osvT8vog/s1600-h/SpadXIII.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHMnT8LlOS4Il9dqIdkKqLqoc9D-iRYVttyo670XGR4DbWht5CRWwEZmP3tB9GtjX_3RFwU0hPan4iyg82NAnRhpwFphSGwyD5SsgAlDBFkF7OV9Z3Tg6-EetBHMR-56osvT8vog/s320/SpadXIII.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245729521607315506" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf5tSuwrsxZo3Dgv9g4Vkn7IJgWiTVoTQNTQm18OlkbALIPGwj31pNqltzw82O-cYKsyj2tpWz14F5GEK3AgZVMf0nUeRAeKp7yEmJcVtXjhtmJctOZzbylNuQCGL4exbX73qndQ/s1600-h/spad+xiii+kitbox.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf5tSuwrsxZo3Dgv9g4Vkn7IJgWiTVoTQNTQm18OlkbALIPGwj31pNqltzw82O-cYKsyj2tpWz14F5GEK3AgZVMf0nUeRAeKp7yEmJcVtXjhtmJctOZzbylNuQCGL4exbX73qndQ/s320/spad+xiii+kitbox.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245729376957143170" border="0" /></a><br />The SPAD XIII was one of the most remarkably effective fighter aircraft of the First World War - superior to the Nieuport that it replaced, and at least as effective as the Camel and SE5 fielded by the Royal Flying Corps. While conventional wisdom asserts that the Fokker D-VII was the pre-eminent operational fighter of that war - and in this case, "conventional wisdom" might just be right - the SPAD XIII was able to hold its own in aerial combat, right up to the end of the war. The SPAD XIII - an upgraded and upgunned version of the SPAD VII - served in combat with the air forces of France, Great Britain, the USA, Italy, Belgium - and, after the war, with the newly-born states of Poland and Czechoslovakia.<br /><br />Eduard has been creating some remarkable World War I fighter aircraft - word on the street is that they've done all in this area that they intend to do - but before they end the series, they've just released the late-version of the SPAD XIII in 1/48th Scale. In addition to several beautifully-molded sprues of light brown plastic, the kit comes complete with some exquisite decals (for several versions), as well as PE and masks for the limited clear part(s). The PE includes gunsights, perforated engine screens, pre-colored instruments - as well as seat belts that add much to the overall appeal of the cockpit.<br /><br />I've built and reviewed maybe a couple-dozen Eduard kits over the years - I still can't get over the remarkable quality and attention to detail that Eduard provides. And like all of the best professionals, they make it look easy. If you like lots of wings and lots of wires, you'll like the Eduard SPAD XIII.<br /><br /><h2><span class="mw-headline">Operators</span></h2> <div class="thumb tright"> <div class="thumbinner" style="width: 182px;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flying,-Spads-.jpg" class="image" title="Spads, 1930s magazine illustration with the French Great War fighter plane flown by all of the Allied airforces"><img alt="Spads, 1930s magazine illustration with the French Great War fighter plane flown by all of the Allied airforces" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5b/Flying%2C-Spads-.jpg/180px-Flying%2C-Spads-.jpg" class="thumbimage" width="180" border="0" height="168" /></a> <div class="thumbcaption"> <div class="magnify"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flying,-Spads-.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"><img src="http://en.wikipedia.org/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" alt="" width="15" height="11" /></a></div> Spads, 1930s magazine illustration with the French Great War fighter plane flown by all of the Allied airforces</div> </div> </div> <dl><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Argentina.svg" class="image" title="Flag of Argentina"><img alt="Flag of Argentina" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/Flag_of_Argentina.svg/22px-Flag_of_Argentina.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="14" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina" title="Argentina">Argentina</a></dt><dd>(Two aircraft)</dd><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Belgium_%28civil%29.svg" class="image" title="Flag of Belgium"><img alt="Flag of Belgium" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Flag_of_Belgium_%28civil%29.svg/22px-Flag_of_Belgium_%28civil%29.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="15" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium" title="Belgium">Belgium</a></dt><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Brazil.svg" class="image" title="Flag of Brazil"><img alt="Flag of Brazil" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Flag_of_Brazil.svg/22px-Flag_of_Brazil.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="15" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil" title="Brazil">Brazil</a></dt><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Czechoslovakia.svg" class="image" title="Flag of Czechoslovakia"><img alt="Flag of Czechoslovakia" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2d/Flag_of_Czechoslovakia.svg/22px-Flag_of_Czechoslovakia.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="15" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovakia" title="Czechoslovakia">Czechoslovakia</a></dt><dd>(Post-war)</dd><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_France.svg" class="image" title="Flag of France"><img alt="Flag of France" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c3/Flag_of_France.svg/22px-Flag_of_France.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="15" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France" title="France">France</a></dt><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Greece_%281828-1978%29.svg" class="image" title="Flag of Greece"><img alt="Flag of Greece" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/Flag_of_Greece_%281828-1978%29.svg/22px-Flag_of_Greece_%281828-1978%29.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="15" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece" title="Greece">Greece</a></dt><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Italy_%281861-1946%29.svg" class="image" title="Flag of Italy"><img alt="Flag of Italy" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ad/Flag_of_Italy_%281861-1946%29.svg/22px-Flag_of_Italy_%281861-1946%29.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="15" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy" title="Italy">Italy</a></dt><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Japan.svg" class="image" title="Flag of Japan"><img alt="Flag of Japan" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Flag_of_Japan.svg/22px-Flag_of_Japan.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="15" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan" title="Japan">Japan</a></dt><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Poland.svg" class="image" title="Flag of Poland"><img alt="Flag of Poland" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Flag_of_Poland.svg/22px-Flag_of_Poland.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="14" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland" title="Poland">Poland</a></dt><dd>(Post-war)</dd><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Russian_Empire_1914_17.svg" class="image" title="Flag of Russia"><img alt="Flag of Russia" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Russian_Empire_1914_17.svg/22px-Russian_Empire_1914_17.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="15" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Empire" title="Russian Empire">Russian Empire</a></dt><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Thailand.svg" class="image" title="Flag of Thailand"><img alt="Flag of Thailand" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Flag_of_Thailand.svg/22px-Flag_of_Thailand.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="15" /></a></span> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siam" title="Siam" class="mw-redirect">Siam</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand" title="Thailand">Thailand</a>)</dt><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Spain_%281785-1873_and_1875-1931%29.svg" class="image" title="Flag of Spain"><img alt="Flag of Spain" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/Flag_of_Spain_%281785-1873_and_1875-1931%29.svg/22px-Flag_of_Spain_%281785-1873_and_1875-1931%29.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="15" /></a></span> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Spain" title="Kingdom of Spain" class="mw-redirect">Kingdom of Spain</a></dt><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Turkey.svg" class="image" title="Flag of Turkey"><img alt="Flag of Turkey" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Flag_of_Turkey.svg/22px-Flag_of_Turkey.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="15" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey" title="Turkey">Turkey</a></dt><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg" class="image" title="Flag of the United Kingdom"><img alt="Flag of the United Kingdom" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg/22px-Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="11" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom" title="United Kingdom">United Kingdom</a></dt><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_the_United_States.svg" class="image" title="Flag of the United States"><img alt="Flag of the United States" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Flag_of_the_United_States.svg/22px-Flag_of_the_United_States.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="12" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" title="United States">United States</a></dt><dt><span class="flagicon"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_Uruguay.svg" class="image" title="Flag of Uruguay"><img alt="Flag of Uruguay" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Flag_of_Uruguay.svg/22px-Flag_of_Uruguay.svg.png" class="thumbborder" width="22" border="0" height="15" /></a> </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay" title="Uruguay">Uruguay</a></dt></dl> <p><a name="Specifications_.28SPAD_S.XIII.29" id="Specifications_.28SPAD_S.XIII.29"></a></p> <h2><span class="editsection"></span><span class="mw-headline">Specifications (SPAD S.XIII)</span></h2> <p style="margin: 0pt; padding: 0.2em; font-size: 90%;"><i>Data from</i> Sharpe, 2000. p 272.</p> <p><big><b>General characteristics</b></big></p> <ul><li><b>Crew:</b> 1</li><li><b>Length:</b> 6.25 m (20 ft 6 in)</li><li><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingspan" title="Wingspan">Wingspan</a>:</b> 8.25 m (27 ft 1 in)</li><li><b>Height:</b> 2.60 m (8 ft 6.5 in)</li><li><b>Wing area:</b> 21.1 m² (227 ft²)</li><li><b>Empty weight:</b> 566 kg (1,245 lb)</li><li><b>Loaded weight:</b> 856 kg (1,888 lb)</li><li><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum_Takeoff_Weight" title="Maximum Takeoff Weight">Max takeoff weight</a>:</b> 845 kg (1,863 lb)</li><li><b>Powerplant:</b> 1× <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispano-Suiza_8Be" title="Hispano-Suiza 8Be" class="mw-redirect">Hispano-Suiza 8Be</a> 8 cylinder vee-type, 220 hp (164 kw)</li></ul> <p><big><b>Performance</b></big></p> <ul><li><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_speeds#Vno" title="V speeds">Maximum speed</a>:</b> 218 km/h (135 mph)</li><li><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceiling_%28aeronautics%29" title="Ceiling (aeronautics)">Service ceiling</a></b> 6,650 m (21,815 ft)</li><li><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rate_of_climb" title="Rate of climb">Rate of climb</a>:</b> 2 m/s (384 ft/min)</li></ul> <p><big><b>Armament</b></big><br /></p> <ul><li><b>Guns:</b> * 2 x .303-cal. (7.7 mm) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_machine_gun" title="Vickers machine gun">Vickers machine guns</a></li></ul>Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-16988576115862872952008-09-13T19:16:00.000-07:002008-09-13T20:40:41.370-07:00Lysander - A Plane Out of Time<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZelUas3HCYuQwEiqQrdXrqO30xz6lilYI7pMnZzzwpKUKL5x90ckts-416y2SnZqxemhAthQOjR-CluDekoWgfZkLhYfWRkposEZv_KY05Q7uenEyHz-t1ecg-fZP86hMvqe0Ow/s1600-h/EDU-01138_L.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZelUas3HCYuQwEiqQrdXrqO30xz6lilYI7pMnZzzwpKUKL5x90ckts-416y2SnZqxemhAthQOjR-CluDekoWgfZkLhYfWRkposEZv_KY05Q7uenEyHz-t1ecg-fZP86hMvqe0Ow/s320/EDU-01138_L.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245716814076685234" border="0" /></a><br />A Review of the Lysander III - a remarkable new kit by Eduard.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLRaPFrgcEEz1-VV4tN1i85x055VATpZbQwsC8mHMexLHj4nGqErZNsJdxez7t7XNigq9k4r1kENX3FiXbN8aisYpXUcxhuR1qLjs2LInaxuVmyV3mHKf7D_WJGBlH-0o0J7AZqA/s1600-h/lysander-05.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLRaPFrgcEEz1-VV4tN1i85x055VATpZbQwsC8mHMexLHj4nGqErZNsJdxez7t7XNigq9k4r1kENX3FiXbN8aisYpXUcxhuR1qLjs2LInaxuVmyV3mHKf7D_WJGBlH-0o0J7AZqA/s320/lysander-05.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245697011313092578" border="0" /></a><br />Lysander was a gifted Spartan general who defeated Athens in the 4th Century BC - how that relates to the ungainly aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft Company for the Royal Air Force, beginning in the mid-1930s is something of a mystery. Certainly, even at it's best, the "Lizzie" was never intended for aggressive combat operations.<br /><br />It is more-or-less axiomatic that generals prepare to fight the last war, rather than the next war, and in the Depression-era 1930s, far too many generals prepared to re-fight the deadlocked trench warfare of 1914-1918 - in fact, one reason that the Germans did so well early in World War II is that their generals, having lost the last war, looked for alternatives to trench warfare, and more-or-less discovered Blitzkreig. Oddly, however, it was a few gifted innovators in the Royal Army who "discovered" the signature element of the Blitzkreig - combined-arms tank warfare - in exercises on Salisbury Plain in the late 1920s. But while the British generals ignored the lessons, a young German officer, Heinz Guderian, paid close attention, and put it to work a decade later to lead Hitler's legions to victory in Western Europe.<br /><br />In the 30s, though, most generals planned to re-fight the last war, and developed the technology needed to win that fight. Infantry-cooperation tanks such as the British Matilda and the French Char Bis had near-impregnable armor along with weapons more adapted to fighting entrenched soldiers than highly-mobile tanks - whereas the Germans created lighter, faster, more mobile tanks well-suited to fighting other tanks. This perspective also translated into aircraft design.<br /><br />When it came to aircraft, many countries produced Lysander-like aircraft - big, relatively powerful aircraft designed to "cooperate" with ground forces. They were powerful - for instance, the Lysander used an 850 hp Bristol Mercury engine - and they were big. The Lysander, for instance, had a wingspan of 50 feet and it's take-off weight was more than three tons.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitXLl-GGByMEpCb2fop8kf1uaDUYuAettlVaMZttD9h3T759Vy6BogOeRtXxlrOkLOSUrARIgC4TD86k0l7pY6Qqik1mhMkxCiovuimL3bZVtGWRK1iJlZ5cmeXQyGZYahu2lv6w/s1600-h/300px-NA_O-47.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitXLl-GGByMEpCb2fop8kf1uaDUYuAettlVaMZttD9h3T759Vy6BogOeRtXxlrOkLOSUrARIgC4TD86k0l7pY6Qqik1mhMkxCiovuimL3bZVtGWRK1iJlZ5cmeXQyGZYahu2lv6w/s320/300px-NA_O-47.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245701467396486850" border="0" /></a>In the US, the equivalent was the even-larger North American Aviation O-47 (3.5 tons, 975 horsepower); and in Germany, the Henschel HS-126, which was nearly identical to the Lysander in size, overall layout, power and performance. What these had in common was the belief that "army cooperation" involved conducting armred reconaissance over the enemy's trenches, usually with heavy fighter aircraft coverage. These planes were not intended to fly without escort.<br /><br />However, the second world war taught a different lesson - instead of big, heavy "targets" designed to track activities over enemy trenches and fixed fortifications, front-line reconaissance in mobile combat needed to be conducted by light spotter aircraft that could land in the field - or carry the commander over the terrain ahead. In fact, many front-line commanders became pilots - both Rommel and Eisenhower were able to fly light aircraft, and frequently did.<br /><br />The German flew the Fiesler Fi-156 Storch, an ungainly and awkward-looking two-man aircraft specially designed with a variety of sophisticated high-lifte devices that enabled it to land and take off in incredibly-short distances over unprepared "runways" - often dirt roads or fairly level pastureland.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ_tbzad0-dH4vpXXBfnlVQtyy2XRQF3Roei4GLCPIu2Lbb_HT0UC8DnSX-0TTV-_b8xjHCogECFg6Jed68lZl50riKAbwjWg_Xep1JsN-HFOAHpbabtPK2gDMWDj35UsJxWJhYg/s1600-h/300px-Fieseler_Fi_156_Storch.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ_tbzad0-dH4vpXXBfnlVQtyy2XRQF3Roei4GLCPIu2Lbb_HT0UC8DnSX-0TTV-_b8xjHCogECFg6Jed68lZl50riKAbwjWg_Xep1JsN-HFOAHpbabtPK2gDMWDj35UsJxWJhYg/s320/300px-Fieseler_Fi_156_Storch.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245703509626567202" border="0" /></a>The US and the RAF took a different approach - they took light civilian two-man aircraft "off the shelf" and turned them into front-line observation and liaison aircraft. The US Air Corps "drafted" the Piper Cub, the Taylorcraft and their light-plane stablemates, while the RAF used the largely similar Auster. After the Battle of France in May and June, 1940, no major military force used heavy, powerful "Army Cooperation" aircraft - at least not for the combat missions these planes had been built to fulfill.<br /><br />The Lysander - a sophisticated, powerful and expensive aircraft - had been designed to help win the last war, and was incapble of fulfilling its over-the-front-lines mission in the Second World War. In the US, this meant that the O-47 was built in very few numbers and quickly retired from anything but safe, Stateside second-line duties.<br /><br />But the RAF still had a lot of Lysanders - and dared not shut down their production lines as long as the aircraft could be profitably used for some mission. With France occupied and British forces driven from the continent, a sudden need arose to clandestinely transport "Special Operations" forces into France and to bring out shot-down pilots, "blown" secret agents and others more valuable alive and in England than dead or in the Germans' hands. Several thousand Lysanders were built and used throughout the war, and in almost every combat zone.<br /><br />Lysanders were also sold or given to several other countries, including the US Army Air Force - where it was used as a target tug - Portugal, India, Estonia ... and Finland. The Lysander in Finnish service is the subject of Eduard's latest "Limited Edition" kit, the "<span style="font-weight: bold;">Lysander Mk. III in Ilmavoimat Service</span>." Finland's two wars with the Soviet Union - the "Winter War" and the "Continuation War" (which ended when the Finns signed a separate peace with the USSR and declared war on its former ally, Nazi Germany). Because Finland did not have indigenous light Piper Cub-like aircraft, and because the war with the Soviets tended to be rather static - battling between Leningrad and Helsinki in the Karelian Peninsula - the Lysander still had a role to play, and in combat, it did it's job reliably (if unspectacularly) - observing enemy formations, dropping light bombs to disrupt those formations, and - as a utility aircraft - do whatever else was needed.<br /><br />This Limited Edition kit has it all - two sprues of exquisitely-molded gray-plastic parts, a separate sprue of crystal-clear parts, a PE fret, resin parts - even masks that help when it comes to painting the metal framework on the clear canopy.<br /><br />I've built many of the Lysander kits that have been on the market, and - no surprise, this is the best of the lot, by far. Eduard knows that some modelers like to build models - instead of a engine-like blob, for instance, they give you a crankcase and nine individual cylanders, as well as a wiring harness and an exhaust system that gets the job done. The visibile internal structure is just that - visible. The machine guns look like guns, not gun-like lumps of plastic. The propeller features individual blades, which must be properly afixed to the hub. They even include 15 parts that were intended for other versions of the Lysander released by Gavia or Eduard - these parts will be welcome additions to any modeler's spare-parts box.<br /><br />As with many "limited production" kits coming out of Eastern Europe, there are no locating holes and pins - builders need to take the extra step of dry-fitting parts and making minor adjustments to ensure proper fit ... and of course, some of the parts have a bit of flash ... but nothing any modeler worth his putty can't handle.<br /><br />I am going through my "Finnish" phase, building everything I can find that flew in the Winter War and the Continuation War. I have done this several times before, in part because the Finns had a rare gift for taking hand-me-down aircraft nobody else wanted (or thought of as front-line combat aircraft) and turned them into battle-winners.<br /><br />For instance, the Brewster Buffalo - decimated by the Japanese in Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and over Midway Island - proved incredibly effective against far more modern Soviet aircraft - including those made in the West and easily a generation later in concept and design than the Buffalo. The Blenheim - which in RAF service was one of the most efficient ways of turning highly-skilled British bomber crews into German POWs - was, in the hands of Finnish pilots, remarkably successful in its intended role. Other aircraft long-since obslolete in the hands of more well-equipped air forces fought well and effectively in the hands of the Finns - the Curtiss H-75 (in US service, the P-36 - the father of the P-40) and the Morane MS-406 joined the Buffalo and successful air-to-air combat over higher-performance Soviet aircraft.<br /><br />Oddly, the Soviets were also strangly gifted in turning "also-ran" aircraft into war winners. Some of the Soviet's must successful combat aces scored against the best Luftwaffe had to offer while flying the P-39 Airacobra, a late-30s "transition-era" aircraft that was a mediocre place-holder when used by the US Army Air Force - holding the line in the Southwest Pacific and in North Africa until really "modern" aircraft - P-38 Lightnings, P-47 Thunderbolts or P-51 Mustangs - could be brought into service and meet the Germans and Japanese on more equal terms. While these US pilots were eager to fly almost anything else except the Airacobra, many of the Soviet Union's best pilots demanded more "Kobras," knowing that in the right hands (theirs), it could easily "best" even the latest German Bf 109s and Fw 190s, right up to the fall of Berlin in 1945.<br /><br />Go figure.<br /><br />The Finns were the same - they flew mid-30s-era P-36s, Moranes and Buffalos right up till the end of the war, and never lost their edge over skilled and well-equipped Soviet pilots.<br /><br />And while the Lysander wasn't a front-line fighter aircraft, it was - in the hands of the Finns - an effective combat aircraft right up to 1945. And like the Buffalo and the Morane, it was so ugly that it is in some ways attractive. If you want something odd and ungainly in your collection, this Eduard kit is one you ought to consider.<br /><br /><br /><p align="left"><span style="font-family:Arial;"><strong>History:</strong><small> The Lysander was the first British airplane stationed in France during World War Two but was soon found to be vulnerable because of its relatively slow speed. Withdrawn from frontline service, this two-seat, high-winged monoplane would soon become famous for its nocturnal flights into occupied Europe, dropping supplies and agents behind enemy lines.<br /><br />The Lysander was built by Westland as an army co-operation aircraft at the request of the RAF. The first prototype was flown on June 15, 1936, and a contract for 144 more was signed. The Lysander began its service with No. 16 squadron of the RAF in June of 1938. The Lysander also saw service with France, Turkey and Ireland. Apart from dropping spies and equipment into occupied France, the Lysander also served as a target tug, and performed invaluable service during air-sea rescue operations over the English Channel.<br /><br />The Lysander was also built under license in Canada, where 225 were constructed by the end of the war. There are approximately 20 surviving Lysanders today, all but one having served with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). </small></span><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:78%;">[History by <a href="mailto:DGM5@excite.com.nospam">David MacGillivray</a>]</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Arial;"><strong>Nicknames:</strong><small> <em>Lizzie</em>; <em>Flying Carrot</em></small></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Arial;"><strong>Specifications (Lysander III):</strong><br /></span><span style="font-family:Arial;color:#000000;"><small> Engine: One 870-hp Bristol Mercury XX nine-cylinder radial engine</small><br /><small> Weight: Empty 4,365 lbs., Max Takeoff 6,318 lbs.</small><br /><small> Wing Span: 50ft. 0in.</small><br /><small> Length: 30ft. 6in.</small><br /><small> Height: 14ft. 6in.</small><br /><small> Performance:</small><br /><small> Maximum Speed: 212 mph</small><br /><small> Ceiling: 21,500 ft.</small><br /><small> Range: 600 miles</small><br /><small> Armament: None</small></span></p>Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-33626289771522233342008-08-11T20:20:00.000-07:002008-08-11T20:21:20.950-07:00P-39: Transitional-era Fighters Go Head-to-Head<h3 class="post-title entry-title"> <a href="http://barnettoutofthebox.blogspot.com/2007/01/p-39-transitional-era-fighters-go-head.html">P-39: Transitional-Era Fighters Go Head-to-Head</a> </h3> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS3r57ADSXwNOn-HtQGaS6vt3BfLcEkeW7GYL8upFtBrshJ6MI_kvXeeCOqDETCf0q2XMRYcI6SaCRNFJgfyh5Me7nm2tvmu-NOW_SanIhnxJfTO7rIYJB-NjEJdL7SO3grZkh/s1600-h/accurate+miniatures+racing+p-39.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS3r57ADSXwNOn-HtQGaS6vt3BfLcEkeW7GYL8upFtBrshJ6MI_kvXeeCOqDETCf0q2XMRYcI6SaCRNFJgfyh5Me7nm2tvmu-NOW_SanIhnxJfTO7rIYJB-NjEJdL7SO3grZkh/s320/accurate+miniatures+racing+p-39.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026130165791653106" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI-pszusPU3jnE4pCegAWon_ZWp44EtgUKhavsUiqKyw7Q-jwfeshtmgVD3229SizxJvWIgb9Rk7g4sjQaSC2KPx6j5MtT1J5jnqPfHlhvlRs2YDozBk2g_r7GibR2sDBl6LcY/s1600-h/hasegawa+p-400.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI-pszusPU3jnE4pCegAWon_ZWp44EtgUKhavsUiqKyw7Q-jwfeshtmgVD3229SizxJvWIgb9Rk7g4sjQaSC2KPx6j5MtT1J5jnqPfHlhvlRs2YDozBk2g_r7GibR2sDBl6LcY/s320/hasegawa+p-400.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026130041237601506" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The Accurate Miniatures P-39 vs. the Hasegawa P-400 Airacobra<br />Ned Barnett (Review copies provided by author)<br /><br /><br />The Aircraft<br /><br />Transitional Era: The P-39 is an ideal example of what I like to call a “transitional-era” fighter. The Airacobra is from the late-1930s-generation of early all-metal, enclosed-cockpit, retractable-gear fighters with a militarily-significant armament (rather than the legacy WW-I-era armament of two rifle-caliber machine guns). This was a generation of fighters that included the American Air Corps P-35, the P-36 Hawk and early P-40 Tomahawks, as well as the Soviet I-16, the Fleet Air Arm’s Fairey Fulmar, the Japanese A5M “Claude” and the US Navy’s F2A Buffalo and F4F Wildcat.<br /><br />These transitional-era planes were all forced into combat in World War II, fighting against later generation fighters – and though some were clearly outclassed, some (and this includes the P-39, the P-40 and the Wildcat) soldiered on right to the end of the war. What is even more remarkable, many of these transitional-era aircraft actually proved quite effective, though generally in very limited combat situations. Though it accomplished little for the U.S. Army Air Corps, the P-36 Hawk and the F2A Buffalo – a total failure for the Marines at Midway – achieved remarkable success in the hands of the Finnish Air Force. In the skies over Midway – and later over Guadalcanal – the seemingly-inferior F4F Wildcat scored a 7-to-1 kill ratio over the arguably superior A6M Zero Fighter. The same thing happened with the P-39 Airacobra – in the hands of Soviet fighter pilots, including some of their highest-scoring aces – was wildly successful against even late-model Luftwaffe fighters and skilled “experten.”<br /><br />As an aside – for a more detailed review, go to http://barnettonaviation.blogspot.com/2007/01/hey-little-kobra-dont-ya-know-youre.html – the remarkable book “Attack of the Airacobras: Soviet Aces, American P-39s and the Air War Against Germany,” which was written by a Russian author (and WW-II Soviet tank commander who commanded a Lend-Lease Sherman) – details the Soviet view that below 17,000 feet, the Airacobra was faster, more maneuverable and superior in the vertical plane than the Bf-109 F and G, and A-model Fw-190s. While this seems a remarkable assertion to westerners who tend to think of the Airacobra as a second-line “dog,” and who believed the oft-told tale that the Soviets liked the P-39 for its tank-killing 37mm Oldsmobile auto-cannon, this book contends that in Soviet hands the P-39 was used primarily in air-to-air combat during the last two years of the war – from March, 1943 to May, 1945. Further, it was the mount of some of the Soviet Union’s top-scoring aces, including one remarkable pilot who shot down 50 confirmed Luftwaffe aircraft while flying P-39s … and lived to tell the tale.<br /><br />This remarkable series of exploits is further recounted in Osprey’s new Soviet Lend-Lease Fighter Aces of World War II (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces Vol. 74) (link). The latter book emphasized that these P-39s were used for air-to-air combat – they had no armor-piercing ammunition for their 37mm cannon and were not assigned to ground assault missions – though they frequently flew escort for ground-attack IL-2 Sturmoviks, which did have AP ammo for their wing-mounted anti-tank cannons.<br /><br />Just as some Finns turned the Buffalo and the Fokker D.XXI into decisively-effective combat aircraft, and just as seemingly grass-green USMC fighter pilots in F4F Wildcats defeated some of the best-trained Zero pilots in the Imperial Japanese Navy, these Soviet pilots developed tactics that were ideally-suited to giving the P-39 the upper hand in air-to-air combat. In doing so, they quickly learned how to turn their Airacobras into deadly “exterminators.”<br /><br />Adapting the American technology to their own use, they wired the separate triggers for the machine guns and the cannon together, making it easier to fire concentrated plane-killing bursts of bullets and cannon shells. They spent endless hours perfecting combat radio discipline, enabling them to coordinate the attacks to bring superior numbers of Airacobras to bear on a single aerial target, even when outnumbered two or three to one. They learned how to use the Airacobra’s often-criticized weight to good effect in diving attacks. They learned how to close to point-blank range where they could use the concentrated firepower of two nose-mounted .50 caliber machine guns and the hard-hitting 37mm auto-cannon to literally rip sturdy, well-built and well-armored Luftwaffe fighters and bombers into shreds.<br /><br />In short, these Soviet fighter pilots – who, after two years of getting their heads handed to them on a silver platter by more experienced and better-equipped German “experten,” ultimately led the VVS to victory – found a way of making the Airacobra live up to it’s potential. They were the survivors of an incredible and brutally Darwinian process of survival of the fittest; and these pilots used everything they’d learned to turn that “dog” – the unloved and unwanted P-39 Airacobra – into a war-winning weapon. They did this at a time – 1943 to 1945 – when the other Allies were retiring these aircraft as quickly as they could be replaced by “better” combat aircraft. I’ve presented more information on this aspect of the P-39 in my review (link) of “Attack of the Airacobras: Soviet Aces, American P-39s and the Air War Against Germany.”<br /><br />At a time when the US Army Air Corps saw its mission as coastal defense, the P-39 was initially designed as a turbo-supercharged high-altitude, high-performance interceptor. The original XP-39 became the first US fighter – perhaps the world’s first fighter aircraft – to be able to fly faster than 400 mph. However, inexplicably, the Air Corps mandated that the P-39 be stripped of it’s turbo-supercharger and loaded with a ton or so of armor, self-sealing fuel tanks, added armament – and turned a sleek, high-altitude greyhound into low-altitude beast-of-burden. What they Army couldn’t take away was the aircraft’s low-altitude maneuverability and exceptionally heavy cannon and machine-gun armament, and these two attributes proved the plane’s worth in the skies over Russia and New Guinea. In his autobiography, an ace of no less ability than Japan’s Saburo Sakai commented favorably on the low-level speed and maneuverability of the P-39s he encountered over New Guinea. In the skies over the southern Soviet Union, some of Russia’s highest-scoring aces in the Air Force’s most elite Guards fighter regiments ran up their scores flying P-39s – and a few came as close to open revolt and mutiny as was tolerated in the strict Soviet system when they were ordered to change from their agile, hard-hitting P-39s to more politically-acceptable Soviet-build fighters.<br /><br />Those transitional-era fighters which “survived” to serve more than briefly in World War II all morphed into more advanced machines: the F4F became the FM-2 “Wilder Wildcat,” the P-36 Hawk became the P-40 Tomahawk – which in turn evolved into a more advanced and harder-hitting (though perhaps aesthetically less-pleasing) Kittyhawk and Warhawk. Likewise, the P-39 evolved – through the XP-39F – into the superior P-63 Kingcobra, a far better aircraft based around the same 37mm cannon and center-mounted engine. Like the P-39, the Kingcobra was build in large numbers for the Soviets, but unlike the P-39, the Kingcobra was not used in combat by the U.S. Army Air Forces. With it’s many refinements, the Kingcobra – like the Seversky P-35, which evolved into the Republic P-43 Lancer and ultimately into the war-winning P-47 Thunderbolt – had evolved away from the “transitional era.”<br /><br />However, the P-39 served in almost all combat theaters – the Southwest Pacific, Guadalcanal, the Aleutians, across the vast Soviet “Eastern Front,” and in North Africa, and fought in the hands of the Americans, the Soviets, the Free French and the allied Italians after the fall of Fascist Italy. In every theater, the P-39 performed more effectively than its post-war reputation would suggest – and although it was virtually out of US service by the time the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs ended the war – the Soviets, the French and the Italians all used the aircraft well into the late 1940s. And when stripped of combat gear, the P-39 proved to be an exceptional low-level pylon racer – which is why the kitting of the Cobra I and Cobra II is a welcome edition to the collection of P-39 kits.<br /><br />The Kits<br /><br />Sometime in the dim, dark past of modeling – about 1965 if memory serves – Revell had a roughly 1/4th-scale kit of the Tex Hill Thompson Trophy racer, the “Cobra II.” At a time when most decent kits were built in either odd scales or the emerging British 1/72nd scale, this was a remarkable kit. I haven’t seen one in decades, but – like a few other kits I built in the ‘60s (I remember a large-scale Grumman amphibian flying boat that I’ve never seen again, but would love to build) – but I’ve never stopped looking. No doubt it is crude by today’s standards, but that didn’t change the memories – but now I can stop looking. Accurate Miniatures has issued a truly superior “one-size-fits-all” P-39 kit that includes optional parts (primarily a belly cooling scoop to support the souped-up engine) for the Cobra I and Cobra II Thompson Trophy racers.<br /><br />“When it rains, it pours.” Accurate produced this kit at roughly the same time that Hasegawa issued the first of what is no doubt going to be a series of P-39 kits, beginning with the P-400. Until recently, in 1/48th scale, we had only the Monogram P-39 kit – a remarkably decent kit considering its age (and one that, with the addition of some after-market enhancements) still makes up into a remarkably accurate-looking P-39. But that kit can now go to the collectors’ auctions, because two fully-modern state-of-the-art kits are available.<br /><br />The Accurate Miniatures Kit<br /><br />The Accurate Miniatures kit is packaged as a P-39Q, but a quick look at the parts break-down and the incredibly-detailed instructions make it clear that Accurate intends this kit to be a one-size-fits-all model kit, one that can be made up into any of the production versions of the P-39 series. This is actually less difficult than it might seem – the visible external differences in the operational P-39s were largely confined to the wing guns, the cannon and to the exhaust stacks. A detailed parts review of the Accurate kit suggests that it has all the parts for all the versions – there are a number of clearly-unused parts not needed for the P-39Q or the Thompson Trophy racers – all except perhaps for the 20mm cannon found in the P-400. There is one un-named part which “may” be intended as the 20mm cannon barrel, but it doesn’t have the bands I’ve seen in some photos of the Hispano cannon mounted in the built-for-the-British P-400. Other photos of P-400s in US service indicate a smooth barrel – my suggestion: check clear photos of the specific aircraft you’re looking to model and either use the unmarked-barrel from the kit or modify it (bands of Tamiya tape ought to work just fine).<br /><br />There is one other part that seems to be missing – and this one’s a real frustrating problem (though not insoluble, and certainly not a “deal-breaker”). The Cobra II Thompson Trophy racer had a very distinctive arrowhead pitot tube – nose-mounted in place of the central cannon – and while this is shown clearly in the box art, it is nowhere to be found on the parts-sprue. Oddly, what looks to be an apparently shorter version of this distinctive arrowhead pitot tube is found on the Hasegawa P-400 kit, made to be mounted on the port wing outboard of the wing guns. I say “apparently shorter” – it may, in fact, be the ideal length, but I’ll need to mic it out from photos of the P-400 and the Cobra II before I can be sure. However, it’s clear that the Accurate Miniatures kit has two problems in building into the P-400 version – the cannon (which may be easily worked around) and the distinctive arrowhead pitot tube. This may be a bigger problem – I’ve found at least one photo of a late-model P-39Q that also has the arrowhead pitot tube. However, since the excellent Hasegawa P-400 is now available and has the correct pitot tube, this is hardly a liability – if you’re ready to scrap the Hasegawa kit for the single part. An easier solution would be to create the arrowhead wedge and glue it to the straight-shaft Accurate Miniatures pitot tube – something that our British cousins would call “fiddly.” Fiddly indeed!<br /><br />A further benefit of having dueling kits on the market – while the Accurate Miniatures kit doesn’t mention nose-weights – an odd oversight – the Hasegawa kit indicates that 15 grams will be needed to ensure that it stays on its nose wheel. The kits are so close in dimension that it’s a reasonable assumption that the Accurate Miniatures kit will require the same weight. Just to be safe, I plan to use about 20 grams on each model – I like my trikes to be firmly-planted on terra firma.<br /><br />I was pleased to note that the cockpit doors are molded in clear plastic – this makes far more sense than Monogram’s choice of putting a clear window into a colored-plastic door; considering the challenges of gluing clear parts without messing with their clarity, this works very well indeed. Hasegawa also chose to make their doors clear. Kudos to both manufacturers for this choice.<br /><br />While no kit is perfect, the Accurate Miniatures P-39Q comes damned close. The detail is subtle and effective – recessed, subdued and base don all the sources I’ve checked, right on target. The instructions are superb, and they give information on the paint colors needed from half-a-dozen lines of paint: Federal Standards (a guideline, not a brand) as well as Tamiya, Humbrol, Revell, Testor’s and Gunze. By comparison, the Hasegawa instructions highlight the needed colors from only two paint lines: Creos and Mr. Color.<br /><br />The items that aren’t “here” that I’ve noted aren’t inaccurate items, but rather apparently missing items – the distinctive arrowhead pitot tube, the 20mm cannon barrel – and those are easy to replace from the ever-popular spare parts bin that every serious modeler seems to maintain. There is one other item that seems to be lacking – not even “missing” but just damned difficult to do without – the distinctive nose markings found on the Cobra I and Cobra II. These are not unlike the “tulip” markings found on some late-war Bf 109 fighters – Erich Hartmann often flew tulip-marked fighters – and because of their sharp angles, they’ll be damned hard to mask off and paint. However, an after-market set of Luftwaffe tulip markings might be adapted far more easily – I plan to try this and will revise this review when the attempt has been completed, successful or not. While there are many attractive Airacobra markings available, this kit will be built as Tex Johnson’s Cobra II Thompson Trophy racer.<br /><br />The Hasegawa Kit<br /><br />I’ve read a few reviews of the Hasegawa kit that suggest it’s the best kit on the market. That’s a bold claim, but understandable. Head-to-head with the Accurate Miniatures kit, there’s not a lot to choose between the two. Both are exceptionally well-molded, virtually flash-free and both share a variety of features – minor items in the cockpit, for instance, parallel one another to a remarkable degree.<br /><br />The Hasegawa kit has a few features that are superior to the Accurate Miniatures kit – I found this especially in the armament area. For instance, the Hasegawa kit’s gun barrels all appear hollowed-out, where the Accurate Miniatures are solid. Sure, they can be drilled out, but especially with the .30 caliber wing guns, the Accurate Miniatures parts are remarkably delicate – drilling will be a problem. Hasegawa has a few extra parts related to the wing guns – parts that seem unnecessary to me (they add complexity without adding to the appearance of the finished features. However, since so many modelers like added details, this isn’t much of a problem. I prefer features that benefit from being molded separately, but my standards are far from universal.<br /><br />The Hasegawa kit is – as is the Accurate Miniatures kit – dimensionally on-target; even more important to those of us who aren’t “rivet-counters,” the kit looks like an Airacobra. Markings for the P-400 are for two aircraft – one serving in New Guinea and one in Guadalcanal. Both are excellent combat machines, famous and well-known (with many available references); would I be kvetching too much to bemoan the lack of RAF or Soviet markings? Both countries also used the P-400.<br /><br />However, while the RAF chose not to put their Airacobras into combat, those are nonetheless attractive looking aircraft – and the Soviets did use their hand-me-down RAF P-400 in combat. Unlike the RAF, the Soviet army Air Force – the VVS – flew every combat plane they had available – and in 1941, even the P-400 was vastly superior to the surviving I-15s and I-16s, obsolescent aircraft that nonetheless carried so much of the brunt of combat in 1941 and 1942. Soviet markings would be welcome indeed – I’ll be looking for them among after-market decal developers, and will report on them if found.<br /><br />Because of my long-term passion for the Guadalcanal campaign (I’ve published articles on it in several historical journals, and I’m currently writing an analysis of the aerial combat between Wildcats and Zeroes over Guadalcanal), I expect I’ll build the Hasegawa kit as one of the Guadalcanal ragged, rugged warriors. Though if this kit is even half as good as it looks in the box, I may be building several of them – and the New Guinea markings will be my second choice, unless, of course, I can find some Soviet markings for the P-400 version of the Airacobra.<br /><br />Check my review of the Warbird Tech P-39/P-63 Airacobra & Kingcobra – it’s a good introductory source of information on the P-39, and invaluable to anybody building either of these kits. Also check out my review of Attack of the Airacobras - a book that proves this plane is far more than the Army Air Force and the RAF thought it was ... (both reviews can be found at my blog, Barnett on Aviation)Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-80543565339857693152008-03-02T13:09:00.000-08:002008-03-02T14:03:46.017-08:00Crandall's Master-Work - the Fw 190 Dora D-9 (Volume 1)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj1v8ToX2k0S6RrYZXlS6_STWi2oT1wcNRNMQUfTkIHtFwX5UJs4Su_7k4AFK_VJa5-5ITzt-qJklKtjoQqqAcevqlDzRkHUI8CRz_ZE46zV8j-zrV8hVE5FVZMoVNldmltqqpGw/s1600-h/DORA-Cover-V-2.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj1v8ToX2k0S6RrYZXlS6_STWi2oT1wcNRNMQUfTkIHtFwX5UJs4Su_7k4AFK_VJa5-5ITzt-qJklKtjoQqqAcevqlDzRkHUI8CRz_ZE46zV8j-zrV8hVE5FVZMoVNldmltqqpGw/s320/DORA-Cover-V-2.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173257469982320466" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2t6tg94hNroSyJ0S0gUWr35MFzLV_Z9Kk3-3oox7SNiBngRY9cbMQQVGbF23Psakgl5kE3PL5MkirvCOn4Ar-d3CEoqose-YP6ZbeS3ucd80PGmQiWWZ2jgySLQuaTNSNF4iAYw/s1600-h/35-FW190D-9-White-17.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2t6tg94hNroSyJ0S0gUWr35MFzLV_Z9Kk3-3oox7SNiBngRY9cbMQQVGbF23Psakgl5kE3PL5MkirvCOn4Ar-d3CEoqose-YP6ZbeS3ucd80PGmQiWWZ2jgySLQuaTNSNF4iAYw/s320/35-FW190D-9-White-17.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5173257238054086466" border="0" /></a><br />Jerry Crandall is an aviation historian of no mean skill - he's worked pretty much his entire adult life capturing the life stories of German WW-II aces, publishing books of exceptional historical value and working with the History Channel and A&E networks. He could often be found supporting others (often financially) as they try to ply the aviation history trade, or underwriting the memoirs of surviving-but-aging Luftwaffe Experten. <br /><br />Along the way, he's authored a number of books - but nothing to match what I choose to see as his life's work: "The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 Dora - Volume 1." By any standard - from content to production values - this is a remarkable book, especially if you're an aviation modeler or military historian/history buff. It's got literally everything - and this is no exaggeration.<br /><br />The D-9 was the first operational German fighter to really match the rugged power of the late-model American P-47 Thunderbolt or the RAF's ground-chewing Typhoon. With a massive and powerful engine (originally developed for a bomber) on a stretched fuselage with extended wings, the Dora-9 gave the impression of size and power often lacking from the Luftwaffe's more diminutive fighter aircraft. And, like the Thunderbolt, it would climb like a homesick angel and was at it's best at high altitude ... which didn't stop it from providing effective top-cover for the Me 262 jets during their high-vulnerability landings and take-offs ... or in last-gasp low-level strikes such as Operation Bodenplatte. It was maneuverable at all altitudes, with impressive acceleration and a hard-hitting cannon armament. It was also way too late - thank God!<br /><br />Readers of this blog know that I try to put the subject matter into historical perspective. By September, 1944, when the D-9 began to be delivered to squadrons (and to be very poorly received, as Crandall notes, quoting skeptical Experten) only the most delusional among the Germans could honestly believe that victory could be salvaged from the debacle Hitler had created. An unstoppable Soviet army - hell-bent on revenge and conquest - was grinding up Germany's eastern front army, and the Western Allies - having come ashore in Normandy and Southern France were in Belgium and sidling up to the West Wall, Germany's version of the Maginot Line. <br /><br />Yet designers and pilots alike did not let impending defeat dampen their enthusiasm or patriotism. As an aside, it always amazes me that dictatorial regimes can command such devoted patriotic loyalty - both Stalin and Hitler did - and I have to assume that the real loyalty was to the Fatherland (Vaterland) or Motherland (Rodina) rather than to the regimes themselves. This was certainly so of the designers of the Dora-9, as well as of the pilots - old hands and fresh meat alike - who were tagged to fly this potent new fighter.<br /><br />Prototype design had begun in 1942, and if the Luftwaffe had gotten their thumbs out and pushed through this exceptional design, the fate of the 8th and 15th Air Force bomber fleets might have been much different. Considering that the 8th AF's bomber crews suffered more casualties than the entire US Marine Corps during the entire Pacific War, this is saying a lot. In 1942, Germany had aircraft that could have really dented the bomber streams, day and night - the Fw 190D-9 during the day and the world-beating Heinkel He 219 Uhu (Owl) at night - yet they were denied the construction priorities needed to give the Luftwaffe the best fighters in the sky. Even without the jets and rockets (which also could have been in squadron service much earlier), Hitler's Luftwaffe had - potentially - the aircraft (and certainly the skilled pilots) in 1942 and 1943 to have made the Allied bombing offensive prohibitively expensive in terms of men and equipment. But they didn't, and as the son of a veteran, I'm just as glad that Goering's Luftwaffe purchasing commission was so incredibly inept.<br /><br />By September '44, the war was lost - but the bleeding had another eight months to go, and especially in the hands of a skilled warrior, the newly-arriving Fw 190D-9s helped to contribute to that bleeding. While - with it's potent cannon armament - the Dora-9 was an effective bomber-destroyer - it's forte was mixing it up with the best of the Allied long-range fighters on at least equal terms. <br /><br />Back to the book.<br /><br />I am both a modeler (and IPMS life member) and a military historian. I've been writing about military aviation since 1972 and talking about it on The History Channel since 2000 - which means I've read a lot of exceptional books on military aviation. I'd rank Jerry's new book (which is volume 1 - volume 2 is still in production, but looks gorgeous) at the very top of the list. This book has it all:<br /><br /><ul><li>Production history, from prototype to final production</li><li>Variations - such as an analysis of the five known cowlings (vital for modelers)</li><li>Pilot evaluations and observations on their use of the Dora in combat<br /></li><li>Incredible art - one sample's here in the blog, but there is far more art (72 profiles)and color photos than you'd expect</li><li>Detailed discussion of controversial late-war colors as worn by the Dora</li><li>Detailed drawings pointing out differences between the D, the D-9, and the D-9 with the Ta 152 tail (among many others)</li><li>More than 400 photos - most of which you've never seen - nearly 50 of these in color</li><li>Scale drawings by masters at their craft</li><li>Photos to inspire hundreds of diorama ideas - like the Blue-9 with an American GI in the cockpit or sitting astride the propeller's spinner or bellied-in wrecks (that show you the D-9's wooden props don't bend, they splinter)</li><li>Lots more in its 350 or so 9x12 pages, but you get the point<br /></li></ul>Not surprising, Eagle has decals also available to go with this book - remarkable 1/32nd D-9 decals of planes illustrated in the book - more than enough to get me to dust off my Hasegawa kit and see what I can do to bring out the detail inherent in this book. As noted elsewhere, Eagle-Cals are as good as the best in the market - accurate to a fault, easy to use and thin enough to snuggle down on details, giving them a painted-on look.<br /><br />Back to the book. Jerry Crandall has found either pilots or the notes they left behind - you get a driver's eye view of the D-9; its foibles and manifest strengths. You'll even learn about the Fw-190D-9 that was "shot down" by an errant partridge during Operation Bodenplatte on January 1, 1945 - usually referred to as the Luftwaffe's last gasp (which is extensively covered as well). And you'll see remarkable photos that have the potential to inspire a thousand dioramas and vignettes. Historical aviation fan or serious modeler, this book is for you.<br /><br />You can order this book from the publisher - Jerry's Eagle Editions - at: http://eagle-editions.com/dorabook.htmNed Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-31544520530612118052007-02-14T13:24:00.000-08:002007-02-14T13:25:23.094-08:00New Mosquito Book Captures Essence of Elegant Multi-Mission Aircraft<span style="font-weight:bold;">de Havilland Mosquito - an Illustrated History<br />Crecy Publishing (dist. in USA by MBI, and available on Amazon)<br />Review by Ned Barnett<br />Review copy courtesy Crecy and MBI</span><br /><br />The new Mosquito book (de Havilland Mosquito - an Illustrated History) by Crecy arrived today, and though I'm on deadline with a client, I just spent two enraptured hours browsing through it - reading some of the chapter introductions and not less than a hundred or so captions. The book is mostly previously unseen photos and remarkably detailed (I mean REMARKABLY detailed) captions. Never seen anything quite like it.<br /><br />I cannot believe that any modeler wanting to build a Mosquito could do so without this book - it has details beyond galore, markings I'm not used to seeing on RAF aircraft (American-style nicknames, mission-marks, etc.), battle damage, weird offshoot uses ... everything - including a special section on the anti-sub version with a 57mm (aka 6-pounder) cannon. <br /><br />As for historians, no one can really understand the operation of this magnificent flying machine without wading deep into the operational specifics of individual aircraft, and this book does it in spades. A final "thank you" to the author - those war-time de Havilland ads are eye-poppers - one of them showed the aircraft at an angle that made me immediately realize how much later DH aircraft (the NF Sea Venom is what I'm thinking of) were based on the design work of the Mosquito - but all show a real taste for the wartime nature of Britain, one I found enchanting (as I did all those photos of the UK's own "Rosie the Riveters" building the Mosquitos).<br /><br />Cap that off with the clear superiority of Crecy book manufacturing standards (remember, I've worked with a half-dozen publishers and had nine of my own books published - and I wish any of my publishers or publisher-clients did half so good a job at producing a fine-quality product), and this is a remarkable, fantastic book. <br /><br />Bottom line - if you have any interest in the Mosquito - you NEED this book. Distributed by MBI in the States, Crecy in the UK and who knows in Oz and elsewhere - but on Amazon and certainly well worth picking up.<br /><br />I'll publish a more detailed review later - but this is too good to wait.Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-66458499811832642362007-02-04T22:09:00.000-08:002007-02-04T22:17:37.783-08:00A Reign of Bombs – Ju 87 Stuka: King of the Dive-bombers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaBRTsYXdmI-NJcG9OE2W-v7gZqmQ3xjYeGcV6_n5j8aPWFi1-ZlL9O2Nt19ceh6p-_-XkPnDSw_F5KmfChBR9s1_ufTEU6sMb3wcAiulj725lh66dAFzGXnhUJZsg7WvPwseOjg/s1600-h/07-2-4+Stuka+cover+image+1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaBRTsYXdmI-NJcG9OE2W-v7gZqmQ3xjYeGcV6_n5j8aPWFi1-ZlL9O2Nt19ceh6p-_-XkPnDSw_F5KmfChBR9s1_ufTEU6sMb3wcAiulj725lh66dAFzGXnhUJZsg7WvPwseOjg/s320/07-2-4+Stuka+cover+image+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5027930306844491250" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9AHwlQzT0KjXTAgA3xq7T1q_Ci73EZu2hXuz3L1QecS96Zpo9_5NP03eJT_uxcbPMb3hWi0tNljOfQyRFEYnBb148RbbNj0COuVAUXwlLYeI7H4HJESvVLvD4HnVlgHsCEgJKPA/s1600-h/07-2-4+Ju+87+book+cover+image+2.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9AHwlQzT0KjXTAgA3xq7T1q_Ci73EZu2hXuz3L1QecS96Zpo9_5NP03eJT_uxcbPMb3hWi0tNljOfQyRFEYnBb148RbbNj0COuVAUXwlLYeI7H4HJESvVLvD4HnVlgHsCEgJKPA/s320/07-2-4+Ju+87+book+cover+image+2.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5027930238125014498" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyFMJdlpI_7HXl-Ifndp0aWK-8vbTB70tbt41bReF7c306haCxWXzz060k6NEa5t8d5cyi1xKsbhYBfGRmeL7PH8-KWCLy9hmZfjazf3xgC9dSHv_9vVM24t1ectyZVpgeG9bfrA/s1600-h/07-2-4+Junkers_Ju87+image+1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyFMJdlpI_7HXl-Ifndp0aWK-8vbTB70tbt41bReF7c306haCxWXzz060k6NEa5t8d5cyi1xKsbhYBfGRmeL7PH8-KWCLy9hmZfjazf3xgC9dSHv_9vVM24t1ectyZVpgeG9bfrA/s320/07-2-4+Junkers_Ju87+image+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5027930160815603154" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi01GUaxl6R0iguZSy8oufJONg4sbyEP-6MaMpBPpEi7WiLsetNYIz0pNF5TEWENPIGmpi7_GAuXOlf5-xuL8OtwN8dO1zL4okbdxvW7UlUJgzy9fX3-G379pRtTjprabu9NleDBA/s1600-h/07-2-4+Ju+87+Luftsieg_ueber_Polen+image+4.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi01GUaxl6R0iguZSy8oufJONg4sbyEP-6MaMpBPpEi7WiLsetNYIz0pNF5TEWENPIGmpi7_GAuXOlf5-xuL8OtwN8dO1zL4okbdxvW7UlUJgzy9fX3-G379pRtTjprabu9NleDBA/s320/07-2-4+Ju+87+Luftsieg_ueber_Polen+image+4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5027930079211224514" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_VaER4k4imusQxgg9SB5uSPV5NlQ2fZpY1_YPxLkdFfjKdoUhZFR0OlFEnMXUKOhzzJzaaj29oeDrThpwPKskHE95hC3dTJljlWKm0ySnyazgdDEZ0Jh0rBDEXXtRJi34EXdk1Q/s1600-h/07-2-4+-Ju87_G2+image+2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_VaER4k4imusQxgg9SB5uSPV5NlQ2fZpY1_YPxLkdFfjKdoUhZFR0OlFEnMXUKOhzzJzaaj29oeDrThpwPKskHE95hC3dTJljlWKm0ySnyazgdDEZ0Jh0rBDEXXtRJi34EXdk1Q/s320/07-2-4+-Ju87_G2+image+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5027930001901813170" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKcO86CFcCr-2VkFrJpTevapaScs3Wl8i5-4qmyzkTnWnmSAzpUmdZTxIHWKpqkVr9bzV0g6imNx2MUhgZkkwgk3hnbXs6Y14FxMwOxPfCb3ZBw33AQkOL44ncnzEh8WcFubgJQ/s1600-h/07-2-4+Ju87_G2+image+3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNKcO86CFcCr-2VkFrJpTevapaScs3Wl8i5-4qmyzkTnWnmSAzpUmdZTxIHWKpqkVr9bzV0g6imNx2MUhgZkkwgk3hnbXs6Y14FxMwOxPfCb3ZBw33AQkOL44ncnzEh8WcFubgJQ/s320/07-2-4+Ju87_G2+image+3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5027929937477303714" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Reviews of Two Books:<br /><br />Hitler’s Stuka Squadrons – The Ju 87 at War 1936-1945 <br />John Ward – Motorbooks International (MBI)<br /><br />Stuka Volume 1 <br />Luftwaffe Ju 87 Dive-Bomber Units 1939-1941<br />Peter Smith – Luftwaffe Colours/Classic Colours (an Ian Allen Imprint) – Specialty Press</span><br /><br />Review by Ned Barnett <br />Review copy of Hitler's Stuka Squadrons from Reviewer<br />Review Copy of Luftwaffe Ju 87 Dive-Bomber Units 1939-1941 courtesy Specialty Press<br /><br /><br />The Ju 87 Stuka is the ultimate “transitional-era” aircraft – though it replaced a single-seat biplane ground attack aircraft (the Hs 123, which itself was called back into combat service in 1941 by a desperate Luftwaffe and used until 1944), it was barely “modern” in and of itself. Yet it kept soldiering on because there was nothing better to replace it. Like the American DC-3 airliner/transport (which served the military as the C-47 from World War II through Vietnam – where it fought as an armed gunship more than 30 years after it first went into production), the only replacement for a Ju 87 was another Ju 87.<br /><br />Ground attack versions of the exceptional Focke Wulf Fw 190 “Butcher Bird” were remarkable aircraft in their own right – and might have replaced the Ju 87 in the ground attack role (but never the dive-bomber role – they had no dive brakes and couldn’t fairly be considered dive bombers – except that the Ju 87 was re-armed with a pair of 37 mm anti-tank flak cannons that were too large for the sleek, diminutive Focke Wulf fighter.<br /><br />The dive bomber itself is a largely American Naval invention, refined and tested by the US Marines during “gunboat” wars against Central American “banana republics” such as Nicaragua. The type was quickly adopted by the equally naval-minded Japanese and became a “hit” at an early-30s depression-era air shows, where Germany’s top-scoring surviving WW-I Ace Ernst Udet saw it demonstrated at the Cleveland National Air Races airshow. Using his political muscle, he arranged for the German government two buy two Helldivers from Curtiss – these were shipped to Germany and Udet demonstrated them himself. One he crashed (not uncommon for the headstrong but hardly meticulous 62-kill ace); the other he kept as his personal plane until the war broke out, when it was donated to a museum – but the impression he made ensured that Germany added “Stuka” to it’s growing list of must-have aircraft types for it’s still-clandestine air force.<br /><br />The Ju 87 Stuka (the name “Stuka” is a slang abbreviation for a long run-on German word meaning diving bombing aircraft – and generic to all dive bombers, but always associated with the Junkers Ju 87) was born in the mid-30s, in a Germany starved of good aircraft engines. It was therefore initially developed a clumsy-looking single-engined dive-bomber with enormous “trouser” landing-gear fairings and a 600-class horsepower engine that made a lightly loaded Ju 87 barely capable of taking off – at full weight, the air gunner had to be left on the ground if the Stuka was to take off at all.<br /><br />Three copies of this very much “interim” type – the A (Anton) model – was tested in Spain during the Spanish Civil War – and despite the aircraft’s limited bomb capacity (about 500 lbs) and biplane-level cruise speed, the Stuka proved its worth as a pinpoint bomber of discrete targets. In combat tests, these early Stukas routinely put their bombs within a half-dozen yards of their target – acceptable accuracy for today’s laser-guided bombs, and unheard-of in the 1930s.<br /><br />Like all visionary designs, the Ju 87 had inherent growth potential – it was quickly upgraded in the B (Bertha) model to feature a 1,000-plus horsepower Junkers inline engine – later further upgraded to 1500 horsepower in late D (Dora) and G (Gustav) models of the dive bomber. Unlike the Messerschmitt Bf 109, which experienced similar power upgrades, the Ju 87 did not become faster – it never cruised at much over 200 miles per hour when loaded, even in it’s most advanced version – but instead the bomb load rose from 500 pounds to upward of 2,000 pounds – and in a few rare cases (seldom used) to 4,000 pounds.<br /><br />Alternatively, the three puny rifle-caliber machine guns soon grew to a pair of them covering the rear quadrant (the Mg 81Z twin-barrel machine gun) and heavier 20mm or 37mm guns facing forward to rain cannon shells on tanks and other ground vehicles. In addition, as the Ju 87 evolved, it doubled its combat radius and enhanced protective armor features to enable it to survive in the ground attack role.<br /><br />A quick look-see comparison suggests that the Ju 87 was in the same performance class as the RAF’s Fairey Battle – a rightly-despised death-trap and one of the more ill-conceived combat aircraft of all times – but in fact, the Ju 87 was a better combat aircraft. Although it had archaic-looking fixed landing gear (the Battle had retractable gear) the Ju 87 could carry a single large bomb – the Battle was cursed with carrying a gaggle of ineffectual small bombs. The Stuka was remarkably maneuverable – by any standards, a fact that often surprised and sometimes endangered attacking fighter aircraft – and it was remarkably sturdy as well, capable of absorbing significant battle damage. The RAF’s Battle could be shot down by the proverbial “dirty look” and it flew like an out-of-tune furniture-moving truck (“mobelwagen” in German).<br /><br />The misnamed Battle fulfilled its best destiny by providing harmless anti-aircraft target practice for front-line German Flak units – but the Ju 87 actually continued to viably destroy enemy targets through 1944. Just as The Battle of France proved that the Fairey Battle could not survive without escort fighters (though it remained extremely vulnerable to Flak), The Battle of Britain proved that the Ju 87 couldn’t stand against fully modern fighters such as the Spitfire without heavy fighter escort. However, Germany could provide that fighter escort – and that made the Stuka viable over Soviet Russia at least through the end of 1943, when growing Soviet Air Force strength forced the Luftwaffe to shift most ground-attack duties to Fw 190s and to operate the Stuka either as a night-attack aircraft of as a high-risk ground-hugging tank-buster.<br /><br />In fact, operations in Russia proved that the Stuka was really more contemporary with the Ilyushin IL-2 Sturmovik, another dedicated two-seat ground attack aircraft. On the Allied side, the closest we came was the ungainly Fleet Air Arm Skua and the world-famous ship-killer, the US Navy’s Douglas-built SBD (Slow-But-Deadly) Dauntless. However, while the SBD continued to soldier on until 1945 (though the replacement Curtiss-built SB2C Helldiver was available beginning in 1943), it never took on ground targets in fighter-contested skies, and after Midway, it seldom if ever flew anti-shipping strikes without heavy USN fighter escort.<br /><br />The SBD – considered obsolescent and due for replacement in 1941 when the war broke out for America – was at least one generation ahead of the Ju 87 in terms of design features. It was faster, more heavily armed (until the Ju 87s started carrying tank-buster 37mm Flak cannons) and could always carry a 1,000 pound war-load as standard (and could, in a pinch, on very close-range missions, carry a one-ton bomb). Like the Stuka, the Dauntless was surprisingly maneuverable, and with twin rear-facing machine guns (and two forward-firing heavy .50 caliber Browning machine guns) more heavily armed. During Coral Gables and Midway – until the USN woke up and started carrying more fighters onboard their carriers – SBDs were routinely used as low-altitude anti-torpedo-plane fighters, and in the right hands, these dive-bombers had some success (even a few surprising successes against the rightly-feared Japanese Zero). But of the dive bomber and ground attack planes of its mid-30s generation, the Ju 87 stood out alone as the best-of-breed.<br /><br />Early European combat in the Ju 87 proved it to be a fearsomely-accurate weapon – a fact the Germans enhanced and capitalized on by adding a pair of permanently-mounted sirens (Jericho Trumpets) as well as noisemakers affixed to the fins of the Ju 87’s main bombs. The noise was petrifying and demoralizing – until you got used to it (at which time the Germans removed the sirens as added drag without added benefit) – and over Poland, France and the Low Countries (and again over the Soviet Union) the Stuka was both deadly and unstoppable.<br /><br />Only when faced with RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes over Southeastern England did the Stuka “meet its match” – and author John Ward contends persuasively that the Germans might have won that pivotal battle if Goering had been willing to either provide more protection from escorting Messerschmitts or suck it up and take the losses – the Stukas were about two days away from knocking out the Chain Home radar picket line and the RAF’s most critical front-line fighter airfields. However, the Germans withdrew the Stuka – and changed their tactics from knocking out the RAF to “punishing” London – and found too late that London could take more punishment than Ventnor Island’s radar station or Biggen Hill airfield.<br /><br />Over Russia in the early days, the Stuka reasserted it’s primacy as a dive bomber – and bombing aces such as Hans-Ulrich Rudel (ultimately the most decorated single individual in Hitler’s Germany). Rudel was an “iron man” who flew more than 2,500 missions and destroyed more than 500 tanks, along with sinking a Russian battleship and creating havoc beyond measure in the ranks of the Red Army. He finished the war flying ground-attack Fw 190s with one foot amputated (and not yet healed) and the other in a cast. A defiant and unrepentant Nazi to the end, Rudel was nonetheless the epitome of combat pilot, and long after everyone else had given up on the Stuka, he still found it a viable and effective tank-killer. His book, “Stuka Pilot,” cannot be too strongly recommended for those who want to see what combat flying for Hitler against Russia was really like.<br /><br />Which brings us to the two new books on Stukas which I’m reviewing here. <br /><br />The Classic Colours book (Ian Allen/Specialty Press) is an excellent example of what this series delivers best – lots of photos which illustrate (with the help of extremely useful captions) the color schemes and color variations to be found in the aircraft in question – in this case, the Stuka. The text is useful but hardly world-beating – except for the sidebars on individual Stuka pilots, which I found very informative – for me, worth the price of the book, as they gave an operational insight most other 100-page one-aircraft books tend to lack.<br /><br />The Classic Colours Stuka (Vol.1) book has 96 pages with probably 200 photos and a useful narrative text that makes it more than a picture book. If you’re going to model an early version of the Stuka (Anton, Bertha, the carrier-capable Caesar or the extended-range Richard), you’ll want this book at your side to help you identify features missed by the kit manufacturers and to accurately mark your finished model.<br /><br />The last Stuka I modeled (not counting a 1/144 scale Stuka used as a “gate guardian” on an N-Gauge model railroad “empire”) was the old Revell 1/32nd Bertha – converted to a carrier-capable Caesar (C-0, used in Poland in combat) with catapult spools and an arrestor hook, then back-dated with older exhaust ports and other refinements to make it the carrier-version of the pre-production B-0 and early-production B-1 Stukas. If I’d had this book in hand, I’d have done a better job on both the modifications and the color scheme, though both were more than adequate for a 1970s-era kit build.<br /><br />Today’s modelers demand more research and more accuracy, and the Classic Colours book on the Stuka (Vol. 1) will give modelers just what they need.<br /><br />The Motorbooks (MBI) book by John Ward, Hitler’s Stuka Squadrons – The Ju 87 at War 1936-1945, is a far more ambitious book – and it more than amply fulfills the author’s most sanguine ambitions. It is a 224-page developmental and operational history of the type – filled to overflowing with photos, featuring side-profile drawings of the various versions (complete with operational specs that are mostly on-target based on my standard references, Green’s “Warplanes of the Third Reich”).<br /><br />Some of the photos here overlap those in the Classic Colours book – a few are the hoary old chestnuts we’ve been seeing since Hitler invaded Poland, but some photos found in both are new to me, suggesting that they’d come from recently declassified ex-Soviet photo archives. True or not, it is great to see new photos, and Ward’s book has hundreds of clear, detailed new-to-me Stuka photos.<br /><br />The photos are worth the price of admission – whether you’re a modeler or a historian/aviation buff – but the text on the aircraft’s development and operational deployment will really, really (and I mean really) strike a positive note with the armchair historian and aircraft buff. I literally couldn’t put it down – and considering how many aviation books I devour (and how many I put aside unfinished), this is high praise indeed, and well-earned.<br /><br />I particularly appreciated Ward’s analysis – I never before heard how close the Stukas came to delivering a death-blow to the RAF (and I’ve read a lot of Battle of Britain books), nor did I realize how effectively the Stuka was reborn over Russia (or how effective even a handful could be when air superiority was first achieved. I think I liked most the fact-based analysis and explanation of how relatively low numbers of Stukas could do so much war-winning damage in 1939-1942. This put the plane in a new and welcome perspective, and made the book every bit as good a read as it is a resource for modelers and researchers.<br /><br />Bottom line – both books come highly recommended, though for somewhat different reasons. They cover the core material differently enough – and in sufficient depth – for me to be able to recommend both of them as a kind of “tag-team” – historian, buff or modeler, the pair of these books will serve you better than either one standing along.Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-23768332611172494852007-01-31T01:56:00.000-08:002007-02-03T12:59:04.694-08:00Sweet Nutcracker - Hs-129 Tank Killer (or, Everything That Was Wrong About the Luftwaffe in One Single Aircraft)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiixxGxsEYeTDTva99EPa8AXXxTzArRdeSRo3JY4w8yiydBTdIIps38cT_1pm_i95H7EhBx31sVlVSk0jRNcc6mOXyWIs_Xkw7sSQ6NqSBYQYm96fkEmpfBSvxb856zt5FOzY1JjA/s1600-h/hs129-6.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiixxGxsEYeTDTva99EPa8AXXxTzArRdeSRo3JY4w8yiydBTdIIps38cT_1pm_i95H7EhBx31sVlVSk0jRNcc6mOXyWIs_Xkw7sSQ6NqSBYQYm96fkEmpfBSvxb856zt5FOzY1JjA/s320/hs129-6.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026135474371230994" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNbq6SXwofLoqewGbjkvVqf0eBPihjRtLnOYWrpIzNkf9LfnRkVZWwP07ZVfH7pqdFHYDQe9_0_G1lw7DsulSSf-aWYaaskHTwedo-RghpJVUdwz4fn08zvzEMTR3B52KomO_WxQ/s1600-h/Henschel+Hs+129+cover.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNbq6SXwofLoqewGbjkvVqf0eBPihjRtLnOYWrpIzNkf9LfnRkVZWwP07ZVfH7pqdFHYDQe9_0_G1lw7DsulSSf-aWYaaskHTwedo-RghpJVUdwz4fn08zvzEMTR3B52KomO_WxQ/s320/Henschel+Hs+129+cover.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026135362702081282" border="0" /></a><br />Henschel Hs-129 In Detail<br />By Denes Bernad<br />Specialty Press/Midlands Books<br />Review by Ned Barnett<br />(review copy provided by Specialty Press)<br /><br /><br />The Henschel Hs-129 tank-killing ground attack aircraft is one of those remarkable wonders/blunders that have always – to me – defined the Luftwaffe. Innovative in concept, this plane is a classic example of a great design that was botched in execution. Pummeled by bureaucracy and political in-fighting; the Hs-129 was nonetheless effective in combat. And most important, it was a classic Axis example of too-little, too-late.<br /><br />As an aircraft, the Hs-129 has always fascinated me. From the early Profile publications and the contemporary Airfix kit to the later and larger-scale kit by ESCI, this plane has always intrigued me. It had the weapons, but not the power to really make use of those weapons. Limited horsepower forced bizarre (to me) design choices that are part of the aircraft’s charm, and part of the reason it so utterly failed to make a difference in aerial combat. Now, thanks to Denes Bernad and Specialty Press/Midlands Books, I have been able to be reacquainted with this bizarre precursor to the A-10, Su-25 and MiL-24 dedicated anti-tank ground attack aircraft. For the historian, this book focuses on technological development without focusing over-much on operational use; for the modeler, it is pictures and drawings and text that make it possible to create wonderful models of a variety of special-purpose versions of the Hs-129.<br /><br />I’ll go so far as to say this: If you want to understand German design philosophy (and the equipment shortfalls that influenced that design); if you want to understand how the Luftwaffe’s command did so much (through indecision and constant change-orders) to assist the Allies’ eventual victory – or if you want to build a superbly-accurate model of this aircraft, you need this book!<br /><br />But before I go farther into the book, let’s look at the plane and its protracted and frustrating development – and a bit, too, on its remarkably small production run.<br /><br />The Luftwaffe – along with the Soviet VVS and the Italian Regia Aeronautica – had the opportunity to stage a combat dress-rehearsal for World War II in the blood-soaked skies over Spain. Many lessons were learned – some legitimate, some not.<br /><br />On the “mistaken” side of the ledger, the Soviets “learned” that the biplane was still viable, and put the I-153 fighter into production in 1939 – a lesson the Italians also “learned” before introducing the CR-42. This “lesson” represented a huge step backwards for the Soviets, who had introduced the world’s first successful retractable-gear cantilever-wing monoplane fighter (and the first 300 mph fighter) six years earlier. In 1935, the Soviets had in operational squadrons the I-16, the most advanced fighter in the world. Equally mistaken, the Germans “learned” that the fast medium “strategic” bomber would always get through, without the need for long-range escort fighters or heavy on-board defensive weapons. So they canceled General Wever’s planned “Urals Bomber,” ensured that the Bf-109 was more a long-range intruder than a viable escort fighter, and “protected” their bombers with a few puny rifle-caliber machine guns. Four years later in the skies over Southeastern England, the Luftwaffe learned their mistake – too late to win the Battle of Britain, but still in plenty of time to lose the war.<br /><br />However, the Germans did learn a few lessons worth knowing – improved versions of the Bf-109 and the Ju-87 were the result of those lessons, as was the value of “terror-bombing” of unprotected cities. Warsaw in 1939, and Rotterdam and Coventry in 1940 were just tactical extensions of Guernica. But an often-overlooked lesson the Luftwaffe learned was the value of a dedicated ground-attack aircraft in the critical army-support role. The elegant Hs-123 biplane proved adequate in this role in Spain, but Germany knew that a bigger, better and more heavily-armed plane was needed (and so did the Soviets, who learned the same lesson and began developing the war-winning Sturmovik). In 1937, the Germans began the development of one of the world’s first dedicated ground-attack machines – a logical extension of the world’s first ground-attack aircraft, the armored and heavily-armed German Junkers J-1 of WW-I. This was the visionary concept. How it was executed becomes the “botched” part of the equation.<br /><br />Several manufacturers competed for the production prize – but only Henschel started with a clean sheet of paper, and their design won because it most closely met the Luftwaffe’s requirements. The armored ground-attack version of the Fw-189 was a remarkably similar design to the Henschel, but it was bigger – and because it had the same puny Argus 440-horsepower engines – it performed less well. However, even the from-the-ground-up attack Henschel – created with those two one-lunged Argus engines in mind – was underpowered to a remarkable degree.<br /><br />I’d like to make a brief aside here and talk about the importance of aero-motors in the creation of war-winning aircraft. Too often, the importance of having the “right” engine is overlooked – or just assumed. In the U.S. especially, we had enough engine manufacturers, each striving to build engines to meet specific needs (some big and powerful, some small and efficient), to ensure that we had engines for all military aircraft purposes. Hell, we even powered many of our WW-II tanks with aero-engines – Wright Whirlwinds, for instance – while still building 100,000 planes a year for ourselves and our allies.<br /><br />Consider radial engines (a comparison I use because the Hs-129 was radial-powered). We started the war with engines in the 1,000-horsepower class which quickly grew to 1,200 horsepower and ultimately almost up to 1,600 – the R-1820 started at about 700 hp in the early B-17s, and wound up at 1,475 hp powering the “Wilder Wildcat” – the Grumman/Eastern FM-2. The R-1830 grew in much the same fashion. A step up, our R-2600 radials went from 1,600 hp in the early B-25s and TBFs up to 1,900 hp in late-war aircraft; and a further step up was the R-2800, which grew during the war from 1,900 to about 2,500 hp – and powered the B-26, A-26, P-47, F4U, F6F and other war-winners. At lower power levels we had engines to power our trainers and utility aircraft, but no American war-built plane had to enter combat with engines rated at below 1,000 hp, even at the start of the war.<br /><br />The Soviets had a similar range of engines – they never had to face the problem of fielding modern combat aircraft with under-powered engines. The Brits did not have that choice – at least not early in the war – and they had to send into combat planes like the Blenheim, with engines under 1,000 hp, when the Blenheim needed at least two 1,200 hp engines to have a prayer of performing its mission. Compare that sad-sack aircraft to the American A-20 – the Havoc had a smaller crew, a heavier defensive and offensive armament, a larger bomb-load and a longer range. This added performance was thanks to its powerful R-2600 engines, which at 1,600 hp, gave the A-20 a 300-mph-plus top-end speed, even combat-loaded. The British engine problem was due to misguided government policies and a too-small civilian flying industry base to justify creating better radial engines – it didn’t help the Brits that pre-war, American engines were so readily available, as well as so reliable.<br /><br />The Germans, unlike the Brits, could at least blame the Versailles Treaty for their woes. The cause was different, but the results were the same – a limited selection of mostly old-design (hence heavy for the horsepower produced) and low-powered radial engines. To be sure, the BMW (Bavarian Motor Works) company produced an excellent high-horsepower radial – it powered the Fw-190, for instance – but between the top-end BMW and the very low-powered engines designed for primary and basic training aircraft, the Germans had nothing in the middle. So instead of designing a ground attack aircraft with a couple of 850 hp engines, in 1937 Henschel created their Hs-129 around a couple of 440-hp Argus engines. Even when horsepower was upgraded in the early ‘40s, they didn’t go to 1,000-to-1,200 hp radials – what I consider to be about the functional minimum for this aircraft, considering it’s mission – but did the best they could with a couple of hand-me-down French Gnome-Rhone radials of about 800 hp each.<br /><br />The US Navy’s new TBF single-engined attack aircraft – which entered combat at about the same time as the Hs-129 – had a 1,600 hp R-2600 engine. The roughly mission-comparable (to the Hs-129) US A-20 two engined ground-attack aircraft, which was designed at the same time as the Hs-129, but which saw combat far earlier, had a couple of 1,600 hp R-2600 engines – twice the power of the revised and upgraded Hs-129 B, which had two hand-me-down French-built Gnome-Rhone 800 hp radials. Is it any wonder that the Hs-129 was defined by its compromises and performed like a dray wagon instead of a hot-rod?<br /><br />A comparison between the A-20 series and the Hs-129 series is useful. Both twin-engined ground-attack aircraft began as 1937 design studies, both completed production in September of 1944, and both were heavily influenced by lessons from the Spanish Civil War. Douglas first considered a pair of 450 horsepower radial engines for its 7A design, before rejecting that design as being grossly underpowered for the mission. Later in 1937, Douglas upgraded the design to model 7B, which featured a pair of 1,100 hp R-1830 Twin Wasp engines, while Henschel stayed with the 440-hp engines through at least 1940.<br /><br />The US Army Air Corps was budget-strangled in the late ‘30s, but the French ordered 270 of this potential world-beater as the DB-7, specifying 1,000 hp versions of the R-1830 engine, those these were soon switched back to the more powerful 1,100 hp versions of the Twin Wasp radial. Before the first production Hs-129 flew – with puny 440-hp engines – the first 64 production DB-7s were entering combat with the French Air Force in the anti-tank role. Some of these remarkable first-version of the A-20 survived to the end of WW-II, seeing combat against isolated, cut-off pockets of German forces stranded in France in late ’44 and early ’45.<br /><br />After these first combat models proved the design’s value, the A-20 series was upgraded again, being mated to the superb 1,600-hp R-2600 engine, ensuring that by the time the upgraded Hs-129 entered combat, its nearest American rival would have exactly twice the base horsepower. Germany knew this was a problem – they wanted to give the Hs-129 an engine in the 1,200 class – but it had none to give. Eventually they settled on an Italian engine design – only to have Italy drop out of the Axis. However, this was in late ’43, at a time when the A-20’s replacement – the A-26 (with more than 4,000 available horsepower in two combat-proven R-2800 radial engines) was already in production.<br /><br />I haven’t focused on in-line engines – Germany had several good ones, including engines in the right horsepower class for the Hs-129’s mission – but those were all completely committed to more viable combat aircraft and were never considered for the Hs-129. The Daimler-Benz DB-600-series engines were excellent, but they were committed to powering the Bf-110 Zerstorer and the Bf-109 fighter. The similarly high-powered Junkers Jumos were another excellent series of engines used primarily in bombers. The British had an abundance of good inline designs – as well as a few major disasters. While it’s true that engine design flops killed off the Manchester and the Whirlwind, the latter the world’s first four-cannon, 400 mph fighter, the Brits also developed the Merlin and the Griffon – two exceptional engines used in high-altitude interceptors and low-level ground-attack aircraft.<br /><br />However, the Soviets had production capacity to spare (as did the Americans) – even while relocating their factories to the frozen steppes of trans-Urals Siberia – and had good-quality inline engines that were major improvements over the foreign designs on which they were based. The Soviets were able to power the single-engined ground-attack Sturmovik with a powerful, 1,770 hp Mikulin Am-38F liquid-cooled inline piston engine. America also had an abundance of inline engines – Packard-built Merlins and home-grown Allison V-1710, an often-underrated engine that performed well below 20,000 feet – and, when turbo-supercharged, continued to perform well on up to 40,000 feet. At the time the Hs-129 was being redesigned for the 800-hp Gnome-Rhone, the Allison was reliably producing 1,200 hp.<br /><br />Another factor often overlooked is production itself. Many historians marvel at Germany’s ability to produce huge numbers of combat fighters, even late in the war – more than 30,000 models of the Bf-109, for instance, were manufactured. However, a closer look shows that this productivity was achieved at a sacrifice – other aircraft were shelved altogether or produced in quantities that would have the Allies laughing in smug self-satisfaction. The Hs-129 – for all it’s flaws – was still a competent ground-attack aircraft. It was capable of destroying tanks at a time when the Panzer forces were being overwhelmed by huge numbers of qualitatively competitive Soviet tanks – but it was never available in quantities sufficient to need.<br /><br />From 1942 to September 1944 – when production ceased for political reasons – Henschel produced only 1,168 Hs-129s (and of those, more than 100 never left the factory). To put this in comparison, during a single three-month period in 1941 – long before US aircraft production hit it’s stride – Curtiss produced nearly that many copies of the Tomahawk – the British name for early-model P-40s. Britain received so many of these excellent machines so fast that it was able to give 100 to China – mounts for the soon-to-be-legendary American Volunteer Group (the Flying Tigers) and several hundred more to the hard-pressed Soviets, even as they waged a pitched battle with Rommel in North Africa. Focusing merely on ground attack aircraft, Douglas produced 7,098 A-20 series aircraft before production ended in September, 1944 – the same month that production ended for the Hs-129. These A-20-series aircraft were used against the Germans by the French, the British, the US Army Air Corps and by the Soviet Union. They were roughly 100 mph faster than the Hs-129, and could carry roughly twice the bomb load, and could carry that load twice as far (though the British considered it “short-ranged.”). This was not the only Western Allied ground-attack plane – the P-47, the Hurricane and the Typhoon both performed yeoman’s work in ground attack, and the P-51 and Spitfire (though more vulnerable) were also big successes in the ground-attack role. The P-47 could easily carry twice the Hs-129’s ordnance load, well more than twice as far, and at three times the speed – but it wasn’t even a dedicated ground attack machine. For a dedicated tank killer, other than the A-20, we need to look at the Soviet Sturmovik.<br /><br />Though it had a single engine, the Sturmovik is the most comparable of aircraft to the Hs-129. Both were designed as ground-attack aircraft, and both were initially designed as single-seat aircraft. Both could carry machine guns or auto-cannons capable of defeating tank armor. They had similar top speeds (just above 250 mph) and range (400 miles). Both were heavily armored against ground fire.<br /><br />However, there the comparison breaks down. The Sturmovik – more formally, the Ilyushin IL-2 – had a single engine with more power than both of the Hs-129’s engines – twice the power, but half the drag. However, the real important factor here was in the production of the two aircraft. As noted, around 1,050 Hs-129s were produced and delivered – roughly 1,000 were eventually distributed to combat units. The story was somewhat different for the IL-2: a total of 36,163 IL-2s were built, making it the single most produced military aircraft design in all of aviation history. If Germany was to have a chance – given that the Soviets were producing more T-34 tanks in a year than all the German tank production of the entire war – then the Luftwaffe needed to procure and issue to combat units the Hs-129 in Sturmovik-like numbers. In the US, a plane built in numbers as low as the Hs-129 would never have been issued to combat units – in those quantities, the logistics of keeping such a small fleet was not considered worthwhile. But the Germans tried to make use of every Hs-129, trying to make dozens perform like hundreds, and hundreds to perform like thousands.<br /><br />The plane could have been produced in greater numbers – though even 2,000 seems a stretch – but the RLM – the Luftwaffe ministry assigned to order and monitor aircraft production – kept changing it’s collective minds. The stop-and-start-and-stop-and-start priority fluctuation is nothing short of amazing. The Henschel plant was first ordered to switch to Ju-188s, then to switch back to keeping the Hs-129 production line flowing. Later, with 100 machines nearly ready for delivery, the RLM said, “scrap them all – we need Ju-388 strategic bombers.” So Henschel did, though they never got enough machine tools and pattern dies to make even a single Junkers. At best, the Henschel factory worked at 65 percent capacity, though even 100 percent wouldn’t have been enough to turn the tide. Production crawled for nearly three years on what was basically a simple, low-tech, easy-to-manufacture aircraft. Ilyushin produced as many Sturmoviks in the average month as Henschel’s Hs-129s were manufactured and delivered during all of World War II.<br /><br />In combat, the Hs-129 primarily saw service against the Soviets – however, a few were assigned to North Africa, a few trainers based in France might have flown combat missions against the Western Allies (note – this is pure speculation – the training squadrons were based on France in early ’44, so it may have been that they saw limited combat operations after Overlord, but that’s not been confirmed, at least not yet). And Rumania, which also flew the Hs-129, had a couple of dozen planes still in operation at the time when Rumania left the Axis and joined the Allies – these then flew to the end of the war in service against the Germans.<br /><br />However, the vast majority of these Hs-129s flew against the Soviets in the 1942-1945 timeframe. In spite of negative comments by test pilots, those who flew the Hs-129 in combat praised it to high heavens. Perhaps it was the heavy armor plate, which helped them survive attacks that would have defeated any other plane in the sky – except, perhaps, for the extraordinarily well-armored Hs-129 – though surviving reports praise the plane’s low-level maneuverability and performance. Apparently, they didn’t mind having the engine instruments mounted on the engines – not inside the incredibly-cramped and superbly-armored cockpit – or perhaps they so enjoyed smashing Soviet armored fighting vehicles (which the Hs-129 could do with ease) that they overlooked all the other planes’ obstacles.<br /><br />All of which is prologue to my review of the book, Henschel Hs-129 in Detail. This is a great book – useful for those fascinated by mil-tech, and absolutely essential for anyone contemplating the building of a model kit of the Hs-129. I build the old ESCI kit years ago, and now that I have this exceptional book in-hand, I plan to build the modern Hasegawa kit. It should make an interesting complement to my new Eduard IL-2 Sturmovik kit – both are in 1/48th scale, large enough to do justice to these heavily-armed and –armored ground attack aircraft.<br /><br />I first became fascinated with the Hs-129 when I read the old (late 60s) Profile Publication on this mixed-bag aircraft. When I first opened this book, I thought it would be a “super-Profile” – but I was wrong in one or two important areas. These don’t distract form the book – they define it. Profiles covered design and combat utilization – this new book covers only the design, construction and modification of the Hs-129. There is virtually no mention of combat operations – nor was there any such intent. This book is a technical reference, ideal for the historian or modeler – my lord, between the intense quality of the photos and the many reproduction from factory manuals and Luftwaffe manuals, a modeler who couldn’t super-detail an Hs-129 kit based on this book Just Isn’t Trying Very Hard. In addition, while photos are not there for all sub-variants, the recoilless mortar fired by photo-sensitive sensors would be as spectacular to model as it would be to see it fire. The mention of a flame-thrower-equipped version already has me thinking about ‘conversions.’ There are more, but I trust this is enough to whet the appetite of any normal plastic-basher.<br /><br />Specifics – 96 magazine-sized pages, probably 3-5 photos per page (most in B&W) – a smattering of color profiles, lots of break-out chart with weights-and-measures, performance specs and related information. The text is useful and informative, the captions on the photos are even more useful – but damned hard for these 55-year-old eyes to read without squinting. Diagrams galore – most from official Luftwaffe publications – show everything worth modeling. Frankly, I can’t wait to get the Hasegawa kit, then re-read this book, making careful notes of everything I want to see in my finished model.Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-89982225105678361322007-01-31T01:34:00.000-08:002007-02-03T12:59:32.959-08:00Hey Little Kobra Don’t Ya Know You’re Gonna Shoot ‘Em Down?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmyYBGe0bxACF_JG_KquyxCLi-rPELnBWxRtI7DQqDcdhGNl2uGxcgvpgvVJZpLILGpDJkAqkiE2lCf8AGO0cME1XCu2PRemJ-_gAfVxmjFGrclbOlHtpdECJJnqI3R9aAMTQrjg/s1600-h/Attack+of+the+Airacobras.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmyYBGe0bxACF_JG_KquyxCLi-rPELnBWxRtI7DQqDcdhGNl2uGxcgvpgvVJZpLILGpDJkAqkiE2lCf8AGO0cME1XCu2PRemJ-_gAfVxmjFGrclbOlHtpdECJJnqI3R9aAMTQrjg/s320/Attack+of+the+Airacobras.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026127580221340866" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Attack of the Airacobras<br />Soviet Aces – American P-39s – The Air War Against Germany </span><br />By Dmitriy Loza – Translated By James F. Gebhardt<br />University Press of Kansas<br />Review by Ned Barnett<br />(Review Copy provided by review author)<br /><br />Why would a World War II Soviet tank crewman write a book about Soviet fighter pilots who used a much-disparaged (at least in the West) and apparently obsolete “transition-era” fighter aircraft? Perhaps because that tank commander served, during the Great Patriotic War, in an American-built Sherman tank. Though he doesn’t make an issue of it (though he does mention it in the introduction), Loza knows at first hand how nearly 50 years of post-war Soviet policy downgraded both the contribution of Lend-Lease equipment … and of the brave Soviet soldiers, sailors and airmen who manned those “officially-despised” but apparently nonetheless essential American and British contributions to Soviet success in the Great Patriotic War.<br /><br />If that’s not the reason he wrote this book (I think it is), it’s still a good one – and whatever the reason that inspired this old tanker to write about aerial combat, this is a remarkable book about a plane that – by virtue of what the Soviets were able to do with it – has to be one of the most misunderstood and under-rated combat aircraft of World War II, and maybe of all times.<br /><br />Starting in late 1941 but really ramping up in early 1943, the Soviet Union received nearly 5,000 Bell P-39 Airacobra fighter planes, primarily through America's Lend-Lease program, though the earliest arrivals were hand-me-downs from the UK. The Soviets quickly adapted the planes that nobody else wanted into a remarkably lethal weapon system. This became an odd coupling of capitalist planes and Marxist pilots – a coupling that became uncomfortable to the post-war Soviet Union, leading to many “myth-understandings” about the P-39 in Soviet hands.<br /><br />This was a classic “transition-era” fighter, built for the last war, not for the next one. Bell developed their P-39 as a short range pursuit (interceptor) aircraft intended to fly coastal defense missions at relatively low altitudes. However, by Soviet standards, the P-39 was equipped with a powerful engine and deadly hard-hitting weapons. In the hands of gifted Soviet fighter pilots – who’d learned to survive in the crucible of war and who “didn’t know any better” than to think that they had a great plane on their hand, the P-39 was able to out-fly, out-fight and eventually dominate the Luftwaffe from the Kuban Peninsula and the Caucusus foothills to Eastern Europe and Berlin.<br /><br />Primarily, in order to tell this remarkable story in microcosm, this book is a narrative of the operational history of the incredibly-successful 9th Guards Fighter Division of the Soviet Air Force (the VVS) from the time in early 1943 when elements of the 9th Guards first took the P-39 into combat (at a time when the Americans were phasing it out of front-line combat units as fast as possible) to the very end of the war. The 9th Guards had some of the best pilots in the Soviet VVS, including two of the Soviet Union’s four top aces – Aleksandr Pokryshkin and Gregoriy Rechkalov – which suggests something about the men, and about the aircraft they flew so loyally and so well.<br /><br />In spite of the apparent obsolescent nature of the P-39, the 9th Guards took 354 “Kobras*” into combat in the final battle for Berlin – and scored it’s last two victories, over Prague, on May 10th, two days after the war officially ended.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">*</span><span style="font-style: italic;">“Kobra” is not a term found in this book – however, the term is widely and authentically used in Osprey’s recent book “Soviet Lend-Lease Aces” – where it has the ring of authenticity. This otherwise excellent book is all but bereft of “insider” military slang so beloved of military aviation buffs.</span><br /><br />Everybody who’s ever studied the American and British use of American-designed combat fighters in World War II knows that the Brits – at a time when they were desperate for anything that could fly – rejected the Bell Airacobra out-of-hand, sending most of them to the Soviets in late 1941 and giving the rest back, as the Bell P-400, to the Americans, who were even more desperate for modern fighters. The unloved and unwanted P-400 fought in the early days of 1942 over New Guinea – along with some early-model made-for-the-USAAF P-39s – while others performed remarkable service in Guadalcanal, primarily in the ground support role. Other Americans used the P-39 over North Africa and Sicily, but traded them to the French and turn-coat Italians as soon as they could, preferring to fly almost anything else with wings.<br /><br />However, the Soviet fighter pilots loved the P-39 – but not, as latter-day myth-makers would have it, for it’s supposed ground-attack and tank-busting abilities (hint – the Soviets didn’t have armor-piercing ammunition for the P-39’s 37mm cannon, but they did have AP for the twin 37s mounted in their world-class IL-2 Sturmovik). Instead, the Soviet pilots loved the P-39 as an air-to-air weapon, and fearlessly took it against often superior numbers of Bf-109F and G-model Messerschmitts – or even the against the much-vaunted Focke-Wulf Fw-190s. Those Soviet fighter pilots loved the heavy nose armament – sufficient, even without wing guns (often removed in combat) for shattering the best-protected Luftwaffe fighters and bombers with a single on-target burst of fire. They loved the P-39 for it’s (comparative) long range, and it’s unexcelled cockpit radios – no less a figure than Aleksandr Pokryshkin, the undisputed “Father of Soviet Fighter Aviation” and the number-two Ace in the Soviet VVS in World War II, said that the Kobra’s radio was its best feature. They even loved it for it’s remarkably clear cockpit glazing – something far superior to that produced by existing Soviet technology. They loved the Kobra’s armored protection, they loved its turning ability – and didn’t seem to think it was sluggish or had poor altitude performance. The Airacobra’s abundant liabilities – at least those found by other Allied fighter pilots – either didn’t exist for the Soviet pilots, or they found these “liabilities” to actually be real strengths.<br /><br />Pokryshkin, who was promoted to Marshal of Aviation in December of 1972 at the end of a remarkable career, clearly thought the Kobra was something special. He scored most of his 59 official victories (more like 72 actual victories) in the Kobra. At the very end of the war – as a highly-respected major-unit combat leader – he literally went to the mats against his political masters (a dangerous thing to do, even for a multiple-winner of the coveted “Hero of the Soviet Union” honor). The Commissars wanted all the Soviet aircraft in the skies over Berlin to be Soviet-built (they wanted all the tanks to be Soviet-built, too, though some of their best units served in “obsolete” Shermans). Pokryshkin put his life on the line – literally – in order to keep his unit flying “obsolete” P-39s in the skies over Berlin. Knowing he’d be going up against the latest fighters in the German armory, flown by the best surviving pilots in the world, Pokryshkin wanted to stay in his beloved P-39 rather than convert to the supposedly superior Yaks and LaGGs. Perhaps he knew something about the diminutive, hard-hitting P-39 that escaped American air-combat “experts.”<br /><br />Like the Brewster Buffalo and the Curtiss Hawk 75 in the hands of the Finns, P-39 Airacobras – when in the hands of the 9th Guards Fighter Division’s pilots – was a plane without equal. These fighter jocks were among the highest-scoring pilots in the Soviet Union – they fought a long and bloody no-holds-barred struggle against some of the best pilots the Luftwaffe could field (including top-scoring ace Erich Hartmann) – and right up till VE Day, they swore by their Kobras. It’s almost enough to make you wonder if surfer-singers Jan & Dean had read the history of the 9th Guards Fighter Division before they recorded “Hey Little Cobra (don’t ya know you’re gonna shoot ‘em down?).”<br /><br />This remarkable book doesn’t tell you why the Kobra was so effective in the hands of these Soviet aces – instead, it shows you how this remarkably small fighter made such a big mark in such a huge war. While the book follows a rough chronological combat history – from early 1943 to the end of the war – it doesn’t flow as a single narrative. It reads more like a series of interesting and somewhat interconnected articles – but that’s not a bad thing, as this flexibility gives Loza the opportunity to bring in details of how the VVS operated in wartime – fascinating minutia I’ve seen nowhere else. Do you want to know how many spare/replacement Allison engines the 9th had on hand for the final battle over Berlin – or how they came up with the formula that told the Commissars just how many spares to have on hand? This book spells it out. Want to know about how food supplies were handled – or how gasoline was sent to the front – or how the VVS had its own medical service to ensure that recovering pilots were returned to their own units? This book spells it out.<br /><br />In fact, in addition to covering aerial combat, this book covers it all. Did you know that the “communist” Soviet Union paid cash bounties (“bribes”) to successful pilots and aircrews – even ground-crews? While – except for the frankly mercenary American Volunteer Group (the Flying Tigers) – the capitalistic Western Allies would never think of (let alone condone) cash awards for combat success, the communistic anti-materialistic Soviets paid out 5,000 rubles for 120 successful combat missions and 1,500 rubles to the man who shot down a bomber. Sink a sub and you get 10,000 rubles. Even the mechanics got “bribed” – 100 missions without an abort was worth 1,000 rubles to a crew chief or engine mechanic – and if 75 percent of a unit’s ground crewmen qualified for cash bonuses, their supervisors were in for a 1,500 ruble bonus themselves. What’s that? The sound of Lenin spinning like a lathe?<br /><br />While highlighting lots of fascinating facts about the air war over the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the last two years of the war, mostly, however, this book follows dozens – maybe hundreds – of individual aerial combat engagements. This is a book about aerial combat, and it delivers on this promise – in spades!<br /><br />The Leitmotif is clear – outnumbered formations of 9th Guards Fighter Division Airacobras are attacked by (or attack) larger and more powerful Luftwaffe units; and, through superior tactics, the Soviets usually score a 3.5 to 1 victory margin, even when facing 3-to-1 or even 5-to-1 odds. It also shows what happens (in tragic detail) when even the most experienced combat leaders forget hard-won lessons, and pay a staggering blood-price for their lapse in judgment. It’s not all one way; however, after two years of horrendous losses, a particularly brutal kind of Darwinian selection occurred – those Soviet pilots who’d survived the Luftwaffe onslaught flying I-15 and I-16 fighters in 1941 and 1942 were now ready, in 1943, to decimate their hated foe with planes that others felt were – at best – marginal. And, while the Soviet military system had many flaws, the author is at great pains to describe how the success of aces and leaders was passed on to not only green replacement pilots but also to other units across the length and breadth of the 2000-mile front line. When a pilot or a unit found something that worked, the Soviets were – by 1943 – quick to integrate that lesson into combat units from the Kuban to Murmansk.<br /><br />This book dissects aerial combat in remarkable detail – it’s depth and breadth are little short of stunning – and it is that very depth and breadth that make the notion of the P-39 Airacobra as a competent and competitive war-fighting machine right up until the final battles over Berlin “almost” believable. The Americans and the Brits weren’t wrong. For their kind of warfare, the P-39 was – at best – an also-ran. But in a war where fighter strips were built just five or ten miles behind the front lines – on both sides, the P-39 could thrive. In a war where combat in the weeds was more common than combat in the stratosphere, the P-39 could excel. And in a war where quick slashing hits at bombers or fighters took the place of endless swirling dogfights, the P-39 was a combat-master.<br /><br />Along with more than 300 pages of fascinating, detailed text, the book has several useful maps, dozens of “I’ve never seen ‘em before” photos, and some tables that will be remarkable to the true WW-II aerial combat buff, including a list of every Soviet ace who scored even one shared kill on a Kobra. That list is remarkably long – and when you read elsewhere the stringent rules followed for confirming kills, you’ll realize that this isn’t propaganda-mill victories, but flesh-and-blood triumphs over the truly hated Germans (and if you don’t really believe that the Soviet-in-the-street hated the Germans no matter how bad Stalin was, read this rampantly non-political book that nonetheless shows the Soviets’ profound and reverent love of the “Motherland” – and makes it clear that to invade the “Motherland” is no different than raping your mother).<br /><br />The publisher says this is based on interviews with Soviet veterans and extensive access to squadron histories and logbooks – and I believe it. This book is part of the University Press of Kansas’ Modern War Studies series.<br /><br />A great book – well worth the price: Retail $34.95 – new at Amazon for $26.56.<br />University Press of Kansas – http://www.kansaspress.ku.eduNed Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-1168502423131633982007-01-10T23:59:00.000-08:002007-02-03T13:00:01.170-08:00Polikarpov’s I-16 Fighter – It’s Forerunners and Progeny<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/796618/07-1-2%20Review%20Cover%20-%20I-16.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/870978/07-1-2%20Review%20Cover%20-%20I-16.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/674227/07-1-10%20Polikarpov%20I-16%20Photo%20Image%201.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/401070/07-1-10%20Polikarpov%20I-16%20Photo%20Image%201.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Polikarpov’s I-16 Fighter – It’s Forerunners and Progeny<br />Red Star Volume 3<br />By Yefim Gordon and Keith Dexter<br />© 2001 Midlands Press and Specialty Press<br />Reviewed by Ned Barnett<br />(review copy provided by Specialty Press)<br /></span><br />This book initially came out in 2001 – and it was a great addition to the literature at that time. However, since 2001, restored I-16s are once again flying, stirring a new level of interest in these remarkable transitional-era fighter aircraft. Beyond that, Eduard, Trumpeter and a half-dozen other kit manufacturers have issued great new kits of the I-16 and its immediate predecessors, the I-15 and I-153 biplane fighters. That influx of new Soviet fighter kits makes this book well worth another look – if you don’t have it, and if you’re planning to build one of these great kits (I plan to build five of them), this book is an absolute godsend.<br /><br />It’s 126 pages long – 20 of those pages are side-view line drawings and side-view color plates – lots and lots of color plates, illustrating just how many color schemes are available to modelers.<br /><br />Mostly, however, this book is chock-full of detailed photos – lots and lots of photos – along with enough text to help you make sense of both the photos and the almost-bewildering number of models of I-16s that were manufactured.<br /><br />Why does this matter? At the time of it’s entry into service, the I-16 was perhaps the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world – it did in the early 1930s what the MiG-15 did in the early 1950s – it catapulted Soviet fighter aircraft into the forefront of world development. Initially built with an enclosed cockpit, the I-16 was among the first operational cantilever monoplane fighters with retractable landing gear. The I-16 also carried more than the then-standard two rifle-caliber machine guns. With streamlining, strength and raw power, the I-16 set the standard for all the fighters that followed, right on through to the beginning of the jet age.<br /><br />The I-16 was a dominant fighter for most of the Spanish Civil War – while early Messerschmitt Bf-109s came in late in the war and offered some performance advantages over the I-16, pilot skill was often the margin between success and failure. Later, in the far-eastern border clash between Imperial Japanese forces based in the puppet state of Manchukuo (occupied Manchuria) and Soviet armed forces based in Mongolia – the Khalkhin Gol “incident” – the I-16 proved more than a match for the supremely maneuverable Nakajima Ki-27 fighter.<br /><br />However, by 1941, the I-16 was long past its prime – but for a variety of reasons, the Soviets didn’t have enough of the next- replacement aircraft in squadron service, and the now-obsolete I-16 had to soldier on. Many brave Soviet pilots died in 1941 and 1942 – and in some cases, into the early months of 1943 – for the “crime” of being assigned to front-line fighter planes that should have been relegated to ground attack or advanced-training duties. In spite of the I-16’s antique-status, more than a few exceptional pilots actually racked-up impressive success rates while flying these museum-piece fighters. These include Red Banner Baltic Fleet Lieutenant Senior Grade G. Tsokolayev, Lieutenant Senior Grade G. G. Guryakov, five-victory ace Lt. Krichevskiy, another well-known ace – Boris F. Safonov – and Hero of the Soviet Union Vasiliy Golubev.<br /><br />The long and the short of the I-16 is this: In it’s prime, this aircraft was the best in the world at what it did; and even though it was used long after it should have been retired, in the hands of a skilled pilot, the plane could still hold it’s own in combat with the vaunted German Luftwaffe.<br /><br />This book – Polikarpov’s I-16 Fighter – captures the essence of this remarkable aircraft. The narrative text tells the story if it’s creation, development and combat career. The illustrations will appeal to aircraft history/technology buffs and modelers alike. Strongly recommended!Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-1168502288349795472007-01-10T23:55:00.000-08:002007-02-03T13:00:50.324-08:00Convair B-36 Peacemaker - Warbird Tech Series Volume 24<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/795882/07-1-2%20B-36%20Cover%20Illustration.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/158765/07-1-2%20B-36%20Cover%20Illustration.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/880018/07-1-2%20B-36%20Illustration%20-%206.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/235214/07-1-2%20B-36%20Illustration%20-%206.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/492873/07-1-2%20B-36%20Illustration%20-%204.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/328630/07-1-2%20B-36%20Illustration%20-%204.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/313337/07-1-2%20B-36%20Illustration%20-%203.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/287445/07-1-2%20B-36%20Illustration%20-%203.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/689827/07-1-2%20B-36%20Cutaway%20Illustration%20-%205.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/339760/07-1-2%20B-36%20Cutaway%20Illustration%20-%205.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/188113/07-1-2%20B-36%20Comparison%20Illustration%20-%201.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/565902/07-1-2%20B-36%20Comparison%20Illustration%20-%201.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Convair B-36 “Peacemaker”<br />Warbird Tech Series Volume 24<br />By Dennis R. Jenkins<br />Reviewed by Ned Barnett<br />(Review Copy provided by Specialty Press)<br /></span><br />This is an update of a review first published in early 2000; but book hasn’t changed, but new information on the B-36 has made this fine volume even more useful and relevant – and the release of 1/144th scale Peacemaker kits add a further incentive for revisiting this remarkable little 100-page book.<br /><br />The B-36 served operationally for just 10 years, from 1948 to 1958 – it was slow for it’s time, cruising at just 250 mph, but the Peacemaker flew so high that it was largely invulnerable for most of it’s career. With an unrefueled combat range of 10,000 miles, missions of 40 hours were not uncommon – though they must have been butt-busters of monumental proportions. This book – from Specialty Press’s excellent Warbird Tech series – does an excellent job of capturing the sheer enormity of this remarkable huge aircraft, known with irony and a bit of affection as “Magnesium Overcast.” The war-winning atomic bomber, the B-29 Superfortress, looked like a Piper Cub when parked in the B-36’s shadow (which Convair and the Air Force did a lot, for PR purposes).<br /><br />It also captures the details, with sketches of the turrets and engine installations, close-up photos of cockpits and bomb bays and low-slug auxiliary jet engines. It should come as no surprise that the B-36 was frequently modified to fulfill special missions – perhaps most amazingly as an aircraft carrying an operational nuclear reactor (which did not power the plane, but only tested airborne radiation shielding). At least one B-36 was modified as an all-jet YB-60, intended as a competitor to the Boeing B-52 but – at a top speed roughly 100 mph less than the B-52 – too little, too late.<br /><br />The book has a relative few color photos – most B-36s weren’t all that colorful – but the author found a color shot of a gaudy B-36 used to drop test atom bombs over Nevada and the Pacific – this one looks like a cross between a circus wagon and an 8th Air Force “formation ship.” Modelers who see this photo will absolutely want to figure out a way to build it. However, what it lacks in color it makes up for with line drawings – many from documents created by Convair and the Air Force for Peacemaker crews and ground crews – that really make this aircraft come to life.<br /><br />Whether you like military technology and aviation history or whether you’re a modeler looking for reference material and interesting ideas, the Warbird Tech Convair B-36 “Peacemaker” is a book you’ll want to add to your personal library.Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-1168502089902803532007-01-10T23:52:00.000-08:002007-02-03T13:01:14.642-08:00Bell P-39/P-63 Airacobra & Kingcobra - Warbird Tech Volume 17<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/638513/07-1-10%20P63%20photo%20image%201.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/19646/07-1-10%20P63%20photo%20image%201.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/143165/07-1-10%20airacobra%20photo%20image%201.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/916555/07-1-10%20airacobra%20photo%20image%201.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/412078/07-1-2%20Review%20Cover%20-%20Bell%20P-39.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/745625/07-1-2%20Review%20Cover%20-%20Bell%20P-39.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bell P-39/P-63 Airacobra & Kingcobra<br />Warbird Tech Volume 17<br />© 1998 Specialty Press<br />By Frederick A. Johnsen<br />Reviewed by Ned Barnett<br />(review copy provided by review author)<br /></span><br /><br />Hasegawa just came out with a 1/48th scale P-400 – the export version of the P-39D Airacobra – that is by all accounts (including my own) the best-of-breed. There are other good-to-great kits of the P-39 series by Eduard, Accurate Miniatures (re-released as a post-war air racer) and even the venerable Revell/Monogram kit, which isn’t too bad. And that’s just in 1/48th scale.<br /><br />That is reason enough to revisit the 1998-issued Warbird Tech book on the P-39 and P-63. This series of 100-page photo-and-text books are of uniformly high quality – interesting to historians and aircraft buffs and extremely welcome for modelers who appreciate seeing the details, as well as the overview. This one is a classic example of the breed.<br /><br />This book begins with the development of the P-39, a radical and revolutionary aircraft that was largely robbed of its place in American military history by an “official” decision to build the plane without a turbo-supercharger. This lack of supercharging hamstrung the aircraft at any altitude above 15,000 feet – making it useful for ground attack and for aerial combat on the Eastern Front, where high-altitude combat was few and far between. However, for North African and Western European combat – and in air-to-air fighting against the Japanese – the plane was a pale shadow of what it could have been. American combat pilots – except for a relatively few ground-attack fighter units in the Southwest Pacific – were eager to transition out of the ‘Cobras and into something a bit more suited to all-altitude combat.<br /><br />Fortunately, many P-39s and almost all P-63s – the upgraded redesign of the Airacobra – were Lend-Leased to the Soviets, who knew how to use it in both ground-attack and air-to-air combat. They appreciated the hard-hitting 37mm Oldsmobile-built aircraft cannon and the two .50 caliber Browning heavy machine guns – to enhance performance, the Soviets often stripped off the wing guns as unnecessary. Although this fact was almost a state secret until the fall of the Soviet Union, a significant number of the Soviet’s most successful aces ran up their scores in Bell-built aircraft.<br /><br />An interesting side-issue covered by this book is the US Navy’s Airabonita – a tail-dragging fighter very similar to (but hardly identical to) the early-model P-39s. The book includes three rare photos and several pages of insightful narrative about the XFL-1 Airabonita, a fascinating “might have been” that never got beyond the prototype stage.<br /><br />Except for the butt-ugly TP-39Q two-seat trainer, and a single one-off XP-39E (which was really a prototype for the later P-63) the P-39 seemed to stay the same from P-39D to P-39Q. However, the P-63 became the basis of a variety of interesting conversions. One P-63 was used by the Navy – post-war – to test both tricycle landing gear and swept wings on carriers. This paved the way for the FJ-2 Fury and other swept-wing carrier combat aircraft. Another was used to test a “butterfly” tail, such as later appeared on the Beechcraft Bonanza, and discovered that it offered no meaningful performance increase. I’ve built the Navy version – it was an interesting kit-bashed conversion – and have thought about the Butterfly Kingcobra as well.<br /><br />However, for my money, perhaps the most fascinating conversion – and the only one that saw active service in the USAAF – was the “Pinball.” This was a heavily-armored, sensor-laden but unarmed aircraft that was used to train bomber gunners. These gunner-trainees would use a light .30-caliber machine gun firing frangible bullets – and shoot at the brightly-painted (high-visibility) Pinballs, which flew pursuit-curve attacks for the gunners’ benefit. Every time the target plane was hit, a light bulb in the nose flashed – hence the name. These aircraft saw extensive service in the Southwest US during 1944 and 1945 – and this book not only traces their operational career, but provides detailed drawings highlighting the areas of the Pinballs that were up-armored. If you want to build a Pinball, this book will be extremely helpful. It’s not the only source on the Pinball, but it’s got a lot of useful information – text, photos and line drawings.<br /><br />Bottom line – you can’t go wrong with Warbird Tech titles. If you’ve got an interest in the P-39 Airacobra or the P-63 Kingcobra – or the prototype US Navy Airabonita – this book is for you. The last time I was at my local Hobbytown USA, I saw one on the shelf, so I presume this book is still in print.Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-1168501925135662332007-01-10T23:42:00.000-08:002007-02-03T13:01:51.685-08:00The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway - and - The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/218539/07-1-10%20First%20Team%20Cover%20Image%201.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/129443/07-1-10%20First%20Team%20Cover%20Image%201.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/537442/07-1-10%20F4F%20Wildcat%20Image%208.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/411662/07-1-10%20F4F%20Wildcat%20Image%208.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/43599/07-1-10%20F4F%20Wildcat%20Image%207.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/318002/07-1-10%20F4F%20Wildcat%20Image%207.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/43768/07-1-10%20F4F%20Wildcat%20Image%206.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/514369/07-1-10%20F4F%20Wildcat%20Image%206.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/890730/07-1-10%20F4F%20Wildcat%20Image%205.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/658450/07-1-10%20F4F%20Wildcat%20Image%205.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/472171/07-1-10%20F4F%20Wildcat%20Image%203.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/812513/07-1-10%20F4F%20Wildcat%20Image%203.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/681489/07-1-10%20F4F%20Wildcat%20Image%202.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/896948/07-1-10%20F4F%20Wildcat%20Image%202.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/441844/07-1-10%20F4F%20Wildcat%20Image%201.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/353733/07-1-10%20F4F%20Wildcat%20Image%201.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The First Team – Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway<br />and<br />The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign<br />John B. Lundstrom<br />U.S. Naval Institute Press<br />(Review Copy provided by review author)<br /></span><br /><br />I have been studying naval aviation combat since the early 1960s, and I have never come across a book half so comprehensive, from a historical basis – nor half so useful, from a modeling perspective – as this two-volume set recently reprinted by the Naval Institute Press. The title – “The First Team” – refers to US Naval Aviator fighter pilots who were in service at the start of World War II; a convenient way of focusing on naval fighter combat from December 7, 1941 to the end of the Guadalcanal campaign in early February, 1943. This was a time when the F4F Wildcat bore the brunt of the aerial warfare – a few F2A Buffalo fighters served in the Navy during this time-frame, but the only Buffalos that saw combat were serving with the Marines (who are outside the scope of this two-volume study).<br /><br />This book covers literally every incident of aerial combat that included US Navy fighter aircraft from December 7 through the end of Guadalcanal. I mean EVERY incident, every American shoot-down (and every American shot down) and every American carrier attack on a Japanese island target fought during the first 14 months of the war in the Pacific: the Wake relief force, the Gilbert, Marshall and Marcus Island raids, the assault on Rabaul, and the attacks on Tulagi, Lae and Salamaua – and of course, Guadalcanal. The books also cover every carrier vs. carrier battle that was fought in the Pacific before 1944: Coral Sea, Midway, Eastern Solomons and Santa Cruz. In short, The First Team two-volume book is incredibly comprehensive. Maps and charts illustrate each battle, each significant combat incident, each movement of carriers and air groups – the detail is remarkable. Author John Lundstrom makes these battles come alive in ways that no other history I’ve read have been able to accomplish. But for all their value as pure history, these books go way beyond that.<br /><br />For instance, The First Team covers combat tactics – the prime reason why the vastly-inferior F4F-4 Wildcat was able to best the incredible Japanese Zero in almost every encounter (including decisive victories at Midway and Guadalcanal). Pre-war, the US Naval air service – alone among the world’s air forces – trained its pilots to successfully use deflection shooting, permitting pilots to attack from beam positions, instead of just from directly astern. To perform a deflection-shooting attack successfully, the pilot couldn’t aim at the target; instead, he had to aim for where the plane would be when the bullets arrived.<br /><br />Deflection shooting is a kind of lead-the-target targeting performed by duck hunters and skeet shooters; a process vastly complicated in aerial combat because both the attacker and the target are moving at several hundred miles per hour, generally in different planes. However, when successfully executed, deflection attacks are almost unbeatable. This kind of deflection shooting permitted American Naval fighter pilots to attack the enemy with limited risk of counter-battery fighter from defending aircraft. Deflection attacks were decisive in attacks on bomber aircraft, but this approach also gave U.S. Naval aviators a significant advantage over the more maneuverable and – at most altitudes – faster Japanese fighters.<br /><br />Other tactical elements explored in great detail were the comparative tactical formations – American transition from four-aircraft divisions to two-aircraft divisions while the Japanese held onto the far more awkward and inflexible three-plane formations – as well as the evolution of the “Thatch Weave,” a mutually-supportive defensive formation the Japanese were never able to effectively counter.<br /><br />The First Team also looks – in depth – at the training of Japanese and US Naval aviators. In 1941, Japanese naval aviators were, man-for-may, the best-trained pilots in the world, yet thanks to different tactical approaches, they were consistently outfought, first by well-trained US Naval Aviators and later even by grass-green Ensigns not long out of advanced training programs. Training and organization were critical – Japanese were taught to move in units of three aircraft, and to take advantage of their aircraft’s incredible maneuverability.<br /><br />American Naval Aviators were trained in deflection gunnery, in pilot-wingman cooperation and in emphasizing mutually-supporting defensive tactics culminating in the unbeatable Thatch Weave – which remarkably was under development before the outbreak of the war, though “conventional wisdom” has held that Commander John “Jimmy” Thatch developed the mutual-support tactics in response to initial combat with the Japanese.<br /><br />Another factor that The First Team explored which worked against the Japanese was the very different organizational structure of the two countries’ carrier air groups. In the US Navy, carrier air groups were fungible organizations – new squadrons and new pilots could be shuffled through the air groups, and these groups could be shuffled from carrier to carrier as needed. By contrast, Japanese carrier air groups trained as a unit, and were permanently assigned to a specific aircraft carrier.<br /><br />When a Japanese group suffered significant combat casualties, not only were the individual squadrons no longer combat-capable, but the carrier itself was out of the battle. As a result, after the bloody draw at Coral Sea, surviving Naval aviators from the sunken Lexington were able to go back into combat onboard the Yorktown at Midway – less than a month later – effectively replacing losses the Yorktowners suffered at Coral Sea with combat-tested pilots. Even though the Yorktown had been badly damaged, it was patched together and able to field a combat-ready air group that proved decisive at Midway less than a month later.<br /><br />However, as explained in The First Team’s assessment of Japan’s carrier air group organization, the Zuikaku – which, unlike the surviving Yorktown, was undamaged but which also suffered heavy pilot losses – was unable to serve at Midway because the Zuikaku’s carrier air group had been decimated, and a carrier without an air group is little more than a target. Although sufficient combat-experienced pilots from the heavily-damaged Shokaku had survived and were at least technically available, because of a long-standing organizational policy, the Japanese were unable to restore the Zuikaku’s group.<br /><br />Instead, both air groups had to be restored to full combat capability only after receiving infusions of trainees, which required a long work-up period. The Yorktown’s presence at Midway was decisive; the absence of Zuikaku was at least potentially just as decisive. Had two Japanese carriers – Zuikaku and Hiryu – survived the first devastating US Naval attack, their return strike may have done more than just knock out the Yorktown.<br /><br />The books even get into fascinating controversies, such as the odd decision to put six .50 caliber machine guns into the Navy’s new folding-wing F4Fs, even though they’d add a further weight penalty that would – along with the weight of the wing-fold mechanism –cripple the Wildcat’s climb, range and overall combat capabilities. The early-war fixed-wing F4F-3 carried four .50 caliber machine guns – which US Navy fighter leaders felt was sufficient to knock down unarmored Japanese bombers and fighters. However, the fixed wing took up deck and hanger space and sharply limited the number of fighters a carrier could handle. With fighter squadrons growing from 18 to 27 to 36 aircraft, the need for folding wings was essential, even though the weight penalty imposed by the folding mechanism would inevitably degrade performance.<br /><br />The initial decision to go with six .50 caliber guns in a folding-wing Wildcat was made by the British Fleet Air Arm, which did not routinely face fighter-to-fighter combat – minimizing the need for high-end performance – yet rightly felt it needed the heavier firepower inherent in six .50 calibers to swiftly knock down armored and well-armed German and Italian bombers. Oddly, instead of listening to their own fighter leaders, the US Navy’s “Brass Hats” listened to the Brits, and decided – in the name of production efficiency – to standardize on the British design.<br /><br />The result was the F4F-4 – a sluggish, slow-climbing short-range fighter which had six .50 caliber machine guns but fewer total rounds of ammo (and, therefore, a much shorter firing time) than the older F4F-3. This plane had a harder time climbing to a decisive altitude. It had difficulty conducting CAPs of more than a couple of hours or escorting bombers farther than 175 miles; and when it did find targets, this new Wildcat all-too-quickly ran out of ammunition. When front-line Naval Aviators complained about being asked to fight what was arguably the best carrier planes in the world with an increasingly second-string fighter plane, the Navy Brass in Washington told these front-line troops to fly their Wildcats with a 2/3rds fuel load and two unloaded guns – absurd advice to pilots who knew they needed every bullet and every gallon of gas every time they went head-to-head in combat with the best-trained naval aviators in the world, the Japanese.<br /><br />These limiting factors for the new F4F clearly had an impact in the loss of the Yorktown at Midway, as well as the loss of so many torpedo planes at that same battle – and these F4F deficiencies may have also contributed to the loss of the Hornet at the Battle of Santa Cruz four months later. Nobody from the greenest Naval Aviation Ensign all the way up to Admiral Chester Nimitz had a good thing to say about the F4F-4 – but it was only after the end of the Guadalcanal campaign that the General Motors-built FM-1 reverted to a four-gun armament – too late to face down the Japanese.<br /><br />Yet remarkably, the US Navy seldom fought the Japanese head-to-head without coming out on the winning end. Ultimately, the Wildcat scored a three-to-one winning margin over the Japanese – not because the Wildcat was a better fighter aircraft, though it did have some advantages, but because American Naval Aviators had better tactics, from the two-plane division to the Thatch Weave.<br /><br />As noted, while it had dramatically shorter range, at least a marginally lower speed at most altitudes – and it was far less maneuverable than the Zero – the Wildcat that fought the Japanese from December 7, 1941 to February, 1943 did have some significant advantages over its adversary. The Grumman was solidly built – earning for its manufacturer the affectionate nickname “Grumman Iron Works.” The Grumman fighter was also well-armored (at least where it counted), and – early in the war – it began to receive functional self-sealing fuel tanks that would absorb a 7.7 millimeter (.30 caliber) Japanese machine-gun bullet.<br /><br />While it was slow to climb, the Wildcat could dive like a bat out of hell – given enough altitude, American Naval Aviators could always break off combat with Japanese Zeros – and given an initial altitude advantage (hard to come by, but not impossible to achieve), the Wildcat could initiate combat – attack Zeros and other Japanese aircraft – with no recourse by the Japanese. They couldn’t escape a diving Wildcat; they could turn and fight, but couldn’t run away.<br /><br />Further, in a head-to-head attack, the Wildcat’s rugged structure and .50 caliber armament (either four-gun or six-gun) easily outmatched their Japanese adversaries. The Japanese Zero’s 20 mm cannons were low-velocity weapons useful only at short range; the longer-ranged Japanese 7.7 mm (.30 caliber) machine guns had too little hitting power to ensure a quick victory over the Wildcat. On the other hand, the standard American .50 caliber Browning heavy machine guns were fast-firing, long-ranged and hard-hitting enough to knock down any Japanese fighter – or bomber – they could hit.<br /><br />All of these factors were covered in fascinating detail in The First Team, making them a feast of information, insight and factual data for the historian – and the history buff.<br /><br />Beyond that, the two “First Team” volumes also offer a great deal to modelers. Each book is heavily illustrated with contemporary photos which show evolving markings on US Navy fighters. Not a few of these photos will also offer modelers display and deck-handling diorama ideas.<br /><br />In addition, Appendix 3 of The First Team and Appendix 4 of The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign each features side-view profiles of F4F fighters in use during the time periods covered by the books. Together, these let modelers authoritatively paint-and-mark virtually any F4F that fought off one of the USN fleet carriers during the first year of the war – including carrier-based planes that temporarily served on Guadalcanal. With the recent spate of new F4F Wildcat releases in 1/32nd scale (including the soon-to-be-here Trumpeter Wildcat), this kind of reference will prove invaluable to modelers.<br /><br />Bottom line: These two books are remarkable. For those interested in carrier-based fighter combat during the dark early days of World War II in the Pacific, these are “must-reads.” The books have been released in Trade Paperback format by the US Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland – it’s also availNed Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-1168501289051629542007-01-10T23:38:00.000-08:002007-02-03T13:02:24.379-08:00Hawker Hurricane - The Mushroom Models Publications Book<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/781328/07-1-10%20Hawker%20Hurricane%20Image%203.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/703754/07-1-10%20Hawker%20Hurricane%20Image%203.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/945042/07-1-10%20Hawker%20Hurricane%20Image%202.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/5988/07-1-10%20Hawker%20Hurricane%20Image%202.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/959503/07-1-10%20Hawker%20Hurricane%20Image%201.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/151235/07-1-10%20Hawker%20Hurricane%20Image%201.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/972887/07-1-2%20Review%20Cover%20-%20Hurricane.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/437608/07-1-2%20Review%20Cover%20-%20Hurricane.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hawker Hurricane<br />Mushroom Models Yellow Series<br />© 2006<br />By Marek Rys – Color Illustrations by Jacek Jackiewicz<br />Reviewed by Ned Barnett<br />(Review Copy provided by Mushroom Models Publications)<br /></span><br /><br />“Another Hawker Hurricane book? Amazon lists 397 Hawker Hurricane books. Man, I need another Hurricane book like I need …”<br /><br />That was my first thought when I received Mushroom Model’s latest release; seldom have I been more wrong. If I had to be limited to just one book on this critical transition-era fighter aircraft, I’d take this new volume hands-down. At least for modelers – though it’s useful for historians as well – this is far and away the best one-volume book on the Hawker Hurricane I’ve got in my collection.<br /><br />The Hurricane was the first monoplane fighter in the RAF – as well as the first with a retractable landing gear (the Gladiator was the first with an enclosed cockpit) – as such, it is what I consider a “transition-era” fighter. Developmentally, this puts the Hurricane on a par with the Seversky P-35 and Curtiss P-36, the Polikarpov I-16 and the fixed-gear fighters by Mitsubishi and Nakajima – yet the Hurricane outperformed and outlasted all of them. Born in 1935, the Hurricane was the most numerous and effective RAF fighter in the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 – and this remarkably long-lived fighter remained operational throughout the war and, in one rocket-equipped squadron flying in the Eastern Med, until 1947.<br /><br />During the dozen years the Hurricane saw operational service, this remarkable aircraft went through three major designs – Mk. I, Mk. II and Mk. IV – along with literally dozens of minor variations. This book covers most, if not all of these variations, including foreign modifications that include a Yugoslav-built Daimler-Benz powered Hurricane and a handful of Soviet modifications – from re-weaponed combat machines to two-seat UTI Hurricanes – that were news to me. Reading through the book and studying the detailed 1/72nd scale line drawings of these variations, I was inspired to start off modeling a whole series of Hurricane conversions. For a modeler, it doesn’t get much better than that.<br /><br />In addition to roughly 100 pages of text that include detailed drawings and contemporary black-and-white operational photos, this new Mushroom Models Hawker Hurricane book has 30 pages of side-view color profiles – the Luftwaffe- and Japanese-marked Hurricanes were especially interesting. The book also has 74 pages of color photos – primarily “walk-around” and detailed construction, cockpit, engine compartment and landing gear photos – of surviving flight-capable and museum Hurricanes. Photos of Sea Hurricanes show useful details of catapult spools, arresting gear and other navalized features, sure to be useful to FAA modelers.<br /><br />The 70 pages of narrative text, which focuses on construction and development, rather than operational service, doesn’t chart a lot of new territory – for a plane as well-covered as the Hurricane that would be difficult – but what is covered is well-presented and interesting. The story of the Hurricane’s development holds together well, and in addition to recapping well-known information about this remarkable fighter, there are some intriguing new bits of information, such as plans to re-engine the Hurricane with Rolls-Royce Griffon and Bristol Hercules engines – sure to appeal to the “what-if” modelers.<br /><br />For modelers and for those who are interested in the development of one of the most successful of the transition-era fighter aircraft, Mushroom Models’ new Hawker Hurricane title is a useful bargain and strongly recommendeNed Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-1168500892189859902007-01-10T23:30:00.000-08:002007-02-03T13:02:53.409-08:00American Volunteer Group Colours and Markings<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/352858/01-7-10%20AVG%20Book%20Cover%20Illustration.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/640458/01-7-10%20AVG%20Book%20Cover%20Illustration.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/18458/01-7-10%20fly-by-P-40%20photo%20image%201.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/162468/01-7-10%20fly-by-P-40%20photo%20image%201.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">American Volunteer Group Colours and Markings<br />Osprey Aircraft of the Aces #41 © 2001<br />By Terrill Clements<br />Review by Ned Barnett<br />(Review copy provided by review author)<br /></span><br /><br />This may become a continuing refrain at this review site – “just what we need, another book on ...”<br /><br />It’s my hope that, in each case where that question comes to mind, I’ll also be able to provide they answer, “Hell YES we need this book!” I’m pleased to say that this book on the often-covered American Volunteer Group – the AVG – is needed, welcome and very well done. And I say this as one who’s got at least a dozen good books on the AVG, from biographies by Scott and Boyington to the recent and superb “Sharks over China.”<br /><br />I’m glad to be able to report that, once again, I’m finding that a new book – new to me, anyway, though it was first published in 2001 – that explores new aspects of even an often-explored subject is well worth having. In this case, author Terrill Clements interviewed several surviving Flying Tigers, and in the process, brought new insights into this well-reviewed topic. For me, this was a page-turner, with new insights into a well-traveled story, and lots of useful-to-modelers photos, drawings and pilot commentary.<br /><br />Most students of things military will recognize the AVG – a group of three squadrons of mercenary pilots in the employ of the Nationalist Chinese government. Always under-strength and under-manned, these brave soldiers of fortune – themselves often cast-offs from the pre-war US Army Air Corps and the US Naval Air Service – blazed a trail of glory across the skies of Southeast Asia for barely six months. From their first combat on December 10, 1941 until July 4, 1942 when the AVG was disbanded and reconstituted as the 23rd Fighter Group of the U.S. Army Air Force’s China Air Task Force, the AVG destroyed nearly 300 Japanese combat planes in the air and on the ground, losing just 20 pilots and perhaps 35 or 40 aircraft in the process.<br /><br />Not surprisingly, the AVG – the Flying Tigers – have been covered widely, in everything from a piss-poor John Wayne wartime propaganda movie to a series of books, articles, seminars and websites. Did we need another book? Surprisingly – especially if you’re a modeler or you want to know more about the people who made up the AVG – the answer is a resounding YES!<br /><br />The book is a godsend to modelers like me who have a “thing” for the American Volunteer Group – for instance, it has a dozen-page chapter that probes almost excessively (if “excessive probing” into AVG markings is possible) into the color schemes and markings of the group’s 99 remarkably historical Tomahawk fighters. Not only are very specific details of even the smallest markings spelled out, but in many cases the author is able to say who painted on those markings – when – and where he bought the paint! In focusing on the people who painted and serviced and flew these Tomahawk fighters, the author swings back to further coverage on the markings: asking – then answering – specific questions such as “who created the various versions of the shark-mouth,” for instance, and “how the squadron and personal markings evolved over time.” For “marking nuts” (and who, among those who model the Flying Tigers, isn’t something of a “marking nut” at heart?) this book is a “must” for your hobby bookshelf.<br /><br />A personal aside about my fascination for the AVG’s Hawk Model 81 Tomahawk – the primary mount of the AVG, which also flew a few USAAF hand-me-down P-40Es late in the Group’s abbreviated lifespan – this AVG Tomahawk is a beaut! Not exactly a P-40, the AVG Tomahawk was built to a British Lend Lease contract as an offshoot of their Tomahawk Mk. II. These aircraft were then passed on, again through Lend Lease, to Nationalist China to help in their ongoing war against Imperial Japan. Other Tomahawks from the same production run were Lend-Leased to the Soviet Union, and amazingly – since the fall of the Soviet Union – a few of these Tomahawks have recently been discovered and are currently being restored to flight status or for museum displays.<br /><br />The aircraft from this particular production batch is really an amalgam of the P-40B and P-40C, with features from both aircraft. However, when taken into the USAAF at the time the AVG disbanded, the plane was referred to “officially” as a P-40C. No matter what it’s designation, to my eye the AVG Tomahawk is not only the most elegant and attractive P-40, but also the most deadly-looking.<br /><br />Sure, later models of this Curtiss fighter had more powerful armament – six wing-mounted .50 caliber Browning heavy machine guns as opposed to the Tomahawk’s two nose-mounted .50s and four wing-mounted .30 caliber Brownings – and these later models also had the ability to carry and drop bombs. They also had heavier armor and better gunsights – and very likely improved self-sealing fuel tanks, too. No question that the D and E models (the Kittyhawks) and the later F-model through N-model Warhawks were, in most cases, technically more capable warplanes. But the Tomahawk looks deadlier (at least to me), and because it wasn’t weighted down with heavier armament and extra armor, it may well have been a bit more maneuverable – that judgment is really up to the pilots who flew both in combat, and this book didn’t address that issue.<br /><br />Speaking of judgment, one AVG pilot – a former US Navy F4F-3 Wildcat pilot – felt that the Tomahawk’s firepower was superior to the Wildcat’s. No question that four .50s had a more potent punch than two .50s and four .30s – but against lightly-built, unarmored Japanese aircraft, the higher volume of bullets from those six guns (and the .30s’ inherently higher rate of fire) proved decisive in those brief on-target instances in combat.<br /><br />Confirming this, one of the Japanese Imperial Army Air Force’s leading surviving aces – quoted in the book from a recent TV documentary – referred to gunfire from the Tomahawks as a “rain of bullets” that never seemed to stop. He should know – hit by two .30 rounds from an AVG Tomahawk, he barely survived. Hospitalized for months, he didn’t return to combat until long after the AVG had become the 23rd Group of the U.S. Army Air Force’s China Air Task Force – and long after the fast-shooting “transition-era” Tomahawk had been replaced by later-model P-40 Kittyhawks with their harder-hitting but slower-shooting six .50 caliber machine gun battery.<br /><br />Part of my preference for the Tomahawk – and therefore part of my interest in the AVG – is my fascination with what I call “transitional-era” aircraft. The P-35 and P-36 were the US Army Air Corps’ first all-metal monoplane fighters with retractable landing gear, enclosed cockpits and heavier armament than the two rifle-caliber machine guns that had been common in all air forces from 1916 to roughly 1936. The early P-40s – the Tomahawks – were little more than re-engined P-36s, and were still what I consider “transitional” fighters. They didn’t carry or drop bombs, they still had a mixed armament that included light rifle-caliber machine guns, and their radios sucked on toast.<br /><br />However, the more robust P-40E had completed the transition. With heavy armor, decent radios, six .50 caliber heavy machine guns and the ability to drop bombs, the P-40E was fully the conceptual equal of the second-generation monoplane fighters such as the P-39 Airacobra (which some might consider a “transitional-era fighter, too” – that’s open to debate, at the very least) and the early Allison-engined P-51 Mustangs. They were also the equal to other “evolved” planes that started out as transitional-era fighters, including the cannon-armed Hurricanes and the Daimler-Benz DB-601-powered Bf-109 E fighters. While these later P-40s might be better fighter aircraft – hell, they WERE better fighter aircraft – they had lost some of the distinction I think all those first-generation “modern” monoplane fighters shared.<br /><br />When it comes to modeling, I prefer the transitional era fighters (this also applies to the jet era – I really like those first-generation jets, as well as those awkward hybrids like the Ryan Fireball) – and because I find the Tomahawk the most elegant of the breed, I’m particularly pleased with this book. For the Tomahawk modeler who likes the AVG, this book is sensational!<br /><br />Along with this superb narrative are fifteen pages of color plates – including 1941-1942 color photos – and dozens of contemporary B&W photos. The photos are interspersed throughout the book, and accompany a narrative that focuses on the personalities – the pilots and ground crewmen – who made up the Flying Tigers, as well as their oft-reported combat operations.<br /><br />While the book focuses more on markings than on aerial combat, it does note that in exchange for the loss from all causes of 20 combat pilots, the AVG racked up a confirmed kill rate of 296 Japanese aircraft, including many victories over Ki-43 Oscars (the equal, in speed and maneuverability, to the better-known Zero) flown by some of the premier fighter jocks of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force. To all causes, the AVG lost about 70 of their 99 original Tomahawks – though more were lost to training accidents than to combat, and most combat losses were either planes bombed on the ground or shot-up Tomahawks that brought their pilots home before being turned into spare-parts bins.<br /><br />At a time when the Japanese were clearing the sky of Allied planes over Hawaii, the Philippines, Java, Singapore and Western Australia, the relative handful of AVG Tomahawks – and an even smaller contingent of RAF Buffalos and Hurricanes – stood up to the largest aerial armadas to be seen in the Pacific before the start of the great Carrier battles of 1944, and gave better than they got. Much better!<br /><br />In many cases during the defense of Rangoon, a dozen or so AVG Tomahawks and another dozen RAF fighters – including the often-maligned Buffalos – would rise to fight air fleets of 150, 200 or more Japanese fighters and bombers. While the Allies were too few in number to inflict losses sufficient to deter the Japanese – who seemed to have a near-endless supply of replacements – these AVG and RAF forces inflicted damage all out of proportion to their numbers, and lived to fight another day. And another day. And yet another day – in the case of the AVG, for six long months.<br /><br />Even if you cut their victory numbers in half – an unjustified move, in my opinion, since so many AVG kills were confirmed by wreckage that fell in Allied territory or into occupied China were loyal partisans eagerly confirmed the victories – the AVG scored in combat at a trade-off rate that wasn’t matched by the Allies until Hellcats and Corsairs took to the skies in overwhelming numbers more than two years later. With vastly superior numbers – and vastly superior combat planes – it’s relatively easy to rack up impressive victory totals. When outnumbered 10-to-1 – or even 20-to-1 – while flying against combat-tested veterans … when flying planes the world considers obsolescent, if not down-right obsolete – survival alone is remarkable. But to score a 5-to-1 victory margin over a confident and skilled enemy at the peak of his strength and power is all but unbelievable.<br /><br />But, in the case of the AVG, the unbelievable was all in a day’s work.<br /><br />This detailed, superbly-illustrated 96-page book is pure Osprey, which in this case is a good thing – Osprey has a strong track-record of producing books that add real value to both the amateur historian and the avid modeler. Since I have a particular affinity for modeling early-model P-40s, this book has proven especially interesting and useful – but anybody with an interest in the Flying Tigers or in modeling the Tomahawk will find real value in this book.Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-1168500584852175812007-01-10T23:28:00.000-08:002007-02-03T13:03:36.794-08:00X-Planes Photo Scrapbook<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/636969/07-1-10%20Bell%20X1%20Flight%20photo%20image%202.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/209605/07-1-10%20Bell%20X1%20Flight%20photo%20image%202.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/181010/07-1-2%20X-Planes%20Cover%20Illustration.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/420924/07-1-2%20X-Planes%20Cover%20Illustration.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">X-Planes Photo Scrapbook</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">By Dennis R. Jenkins</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Specialty Press, © 2004</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Reviewed by Ned Barnett</span><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">(Review Copy provided by Specialty Press)</span><br /><br />There’s not a lot to say. If you are fascinated by experimental US aircraft, buy this book. If you like to model X-planes, really – really – buy this book. If your interest, however, is focused on operational aircraft, you can probably skip this one and go on to one of the other Specialty Press “scrapbook” series publications – the B-36 Photo Scrapbook, for instance.<br /><br />Going back to the X-1, and moving forward to the contemporary X-32/X-35 and RPV X-45, this book covers the X-planes program, primarily at Edwards AFB, with sharp and usually fascinating photos, along with insightful and informative text. This book is literally a photo scrapbook – there’s not a lot of text, and no compelling narrative thread. Instead, you get photos, photos and more photos.<br /><br />I like to model oddball aircraft – I modeled my first “Stealth” aircraft nearly a decade before the USAF pulled the wraps off the F-117 – and I found this book inspirational both on subject matter and on providing ideas for vignettes and dioramas.<br /><br />I find that experimental aircraft are an acquired taste – if you’re not sure, this book is a great place to start. At 144 pages, there’s a lot here, but it’s a quick read – just as important, you can jump around and cherry-pick the topics that offer the most to you without getting lost. There’s no story to get lost in.<br /><br />Strongly recommended for X-Plane fans, and at least worth checking out for those who have a casual interest (or who enjoyed “The Right Stuff”).Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38569771.post-1168500412501452582007-01-10T23:16:00.000-08:002007-02-03T13:07:09.805-08:00Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15 Fagot - Warbird Tech Series, Volume 40<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/766537/07-1-10%20Mig%2015%20photo%20image%205.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/987195/07-1-10%20Mig%2015%20photo%20image%205.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/145533/07-1-10%20mig-15%20photo%20image%204.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/643162/07-1-10%20mig-15%20photo%20image%204.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/592876/07-1-10%20mig-15-UTI%20photo%20image%203.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/409955/07-1-10%20mig-15-UTI%20photo%20image%203.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/742792/07-1-10%20MiG-15%20UTI.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/202563/07-1-10%20MiG-15%20UTI.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/746751/07-1-10%20mig-15%20photo%20image%202.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/480661/07-1-10%20mig-15%20photo%20image%202.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/1600/103946/07-1-2%20Review%20Cover%20-%20MiG%2015.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/8040/451/400/107587/07-1-2%20Review%20Cover%20-%20MiG%2015.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15 Fagot</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Warbird Tech Series, Volume 40</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">By Yefim Gordon and Peter Davison</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Reviewed by Ned Barnett</span><br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">(Review Copy provided by Specialty Press)</span><br /><br /><br />The MiG-15 was, by any measure, a revolutionary aircraft. In a single standing-start leap, the MiG-15 took Soviet technology out of the piston-era dark ages and into the forefront of transonic technology. Faster, higher flying and more maneuverable than it’s chief Korean War protagonist, the F-86, the MiG-15 was handicapped in Korea primarily by the relative skill of it’s pilots, when compared to USAF fighter jocks, many of whom had fought in combat in the Second World War. In the proper hands, the MiG-15 was a world-beater – heavily-armed, sleek and remarkably reliable.<br /><br />There are many books on the MiG-15 on the market – I’ve read many of them – but if you want a solid one-volume assessment of this ground-breaking fighter aircraft, Specialty Press’s new book is the one you want to buy and read. In 104 pages – 8 in color – this book takes you from concept to combat, and beyond. Every variant of the MiG-15 is covered here in full and satisfactory detail. Modelers will enjoy the brief review of available MiG-15 kits (those on the market in 2004 when the book was written), as well as pages of detail photos, line-drawings, scale profiles and crisp, clear and insightful technical explanations.<br /><br />As a “conversion nut,” I especially appreciated the chapter on MiG-15 variations, including the little-known SP-1 all-weather interceptor, the MiG Design Bureau’s answer to the F-86D Sabre Dog radar interceptor. The SP-1’s nose radar bullet looks an awful lot like the spinner from a World War II Hawker Typhoon – or perhaps a Lancaster or Mosquito – suggesting that a convincing conversion would be a relative piece of cake. Other modifications include use of British-style wing-hugging “slipper” drop tanks – another easy and distinctive conversion.<br /><br />This book also has just enough color to convince modelers that not all MiG-15s are silver-doped or all-metal aircraft. The People’s Republic of China and the Polish Air Force both used extensive multi-colored camouflage, and these are illustrated in this book as well. However, the real strength can be found in the detailed photos and sketches, which make the MiG-15 come to life – for the historian and for the modeler.<br /><br />While the MiG-15 is best known for its role in Korea, the plane flew with dozens of foreign countries, giving most of them their first taste of modern transonic jet fighter aircraft. It gave birth to the similar-looking MiG-17, which proved itself to still be combat-capable in the skies over North Vietnam – even when fighting double-sonic F4 Phantom IIs – nearly two decades after the MiG-15’s debut over Korea.<br /><br />With text, photos and drawings, this book tells the MiG-15’s story in concise and illuminating detail. If you even think you might want to know more about the MiG-15, get this book. You won’t be sorry.Ned Barnetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03061911547748210995noreply@blogger.com0