My stash just grew again. (2022)

[Rick Lowe]

I think it's Caracal that has Texas ANG with the William Tell competition markings for the F-101B. I'll buy them when I get closer to building it.

You are tempting fate by saying that. You have probably exponentially increased the chances that the decals you are thinking opf will be both out of production and out of stock at the same time as you decide to buy them. Buy them now and put them in the kit's box if there is room, if not enough room, put notes both inside the kit's box ond the decals saying what they are for.

Gondor

Sage advice - Murphy is ever on the listen for such words as you just used...

[Old Wombat]

Just ordered from BNA Model World:

1 x Eduard 1/48 WWII Japanese Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero Type 21 [ProfiPACK] (ED 82212) - OoB for my Single Engine Fighters Collection

Be interested in your opinion once you get it. It's had rave reviews in the modelling mags.

I'll give you the usual On Request In-Box Review; as always, "When will it be built?" is a question with a very open ended answer.

OK, Chris (NARSES2) asked my for my opinion of the new Eduard Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero Type 21 [ProfiPACK] - as per the above conversation.

Here is my quick, almost real-time In-Box Review;

1.) The plastic is gorgeous; thin, slightly flexible, beautifully moulded with crisp detail & shallow panel lines (this may cause an issue for some brush painters, as I think the lines are shallow enough to be lost if the paint is too thick/deep), the inside of the plastic is almost polished, tiny locating pins & holes which I think will make positive locating of the main parts more difficult than it needs to be but I could be wrong (there are quite lot of them);

2.) Parts count is not onerous; there are enough to give what looks to be incredible detail without flowing over into excess & there are quite a number of parts not used, including amongst the several canopy options (amusingly there is a bomb where ²/₃ of it is marked as not used with one half of the bomb casing not shaded), there are, however, quite a number of small parts amongst the total & there seem to be some parts which are exclusively PE;

3.) Speaking of PE; there is only one, quite small sheet of PE but there are quite a lot of tiny parts on it, however of the pre-painted panel parts you'll only be using half of them as they are merely different colours for different marking options, bonus for those that don't like PE is that they almost all come with decal options;

4.) Decal sheet is quite comprehensive, including markings for five aircraft & extensive stencil options for the 2 x Mitsubishi-built & 3 x Nakajima-built airframes in the markings options;

5.) There is a jig for building the cowling before you fit it to the aircraft; this looks like a very cool & useful tool;

6.) The usual Eduard painting masks for the canopies is in the box;

7.) No resin! None at all!

8.) Surprisingly, & somewhat disappointingly, there is no "wing-tips folded" option, despite there being provision on the styrene of the wings for the tips to be cut off for this purpose, however there are no parts to fill in the cuts or hold the wingtips in position;

Over all impression?

Those tiny locating pins probably make this a kit I wouldn't give to a child as a first build but beyond that:
This is a fantastic kit! No two ways about it. If you're not a fan of PE, buy the Weekend Edition - you won't be disappointed!


Cheers, lads!



Guy

[Wardukw]

Guy your bang on the money with the Eduard Profipack  models..in that rather large pile of model plane mags i scored from my LHS theres alot of mention on the Eduard profipack kits and not one bad word was said about them..the quality is top notch and ever since reading one review on the Mig21 profipack with a heap of resin and PE ive wanted it ..of course finding it is another matter but i will have one somehow 
Its the amount of goodies you get with these kits which attracted me to them and even with my Spad Profipack model get PE and its a gorgeous little kit and ill build it once i stop being distracted with other ideas for models 
My advive to you plane builders..do ya self a favour and get one..its very unlikely you'll be disappointed 

[Dizzyfugu]

A Marivox 1:72 J22 for EUR 12,-. Not cheap, but reasonable - will receive a wide landing gear and end up as "something else". 

[zenrat]

I went to Adelaide for Easter.  Drove over, sat around drinking tea with rellies (those who were covid free), walked the dog along Brighton Beach and then drove back.  I did get to drop into Hobby Habit in Melrose Park.
After picking myself up off the floor ("Steep" is an understatement when describing their prices.  Precipitous would be more accurate) I left with this for the upcoming GB.  Lazy Fred will just give it an RAAF scheme, Evil Fred will do nasty things to it with saws and knives.
Hunter by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr
I would have left with more (Macros YF-21 took my eye, as did a Cyber Formula car) but not at those prices - they were averaging about 25% more than in Metro Hobbies in Melbourne.

[Gondor]

Just arrived from eBay

2 x 1/72 Airfix Handley Page Jetstream, no boxes, one decal sheet and one M&E Astazou engine so I need someone to drop it into some resin for me. I have ideas for one of them and can easily build one as RAF with the Astazou engine and a clone.

Gondor

[Old Wombat]

I did get to drop into Hobby Habit in Melrose Park.
"Steep" is an understatement when describing their prices.  Precipitous would be more accurate
I would have left with more (Macros YF-21 took my eye, as did a Cyber Formula car) but not at those prices - they were averaging about 25% more than in Metro Hobbies in Melbourne.

I was working all of the long weekend & that's not far from work (just up South Road about 10 minutes drive on a good day, about 30 minutes on a bad day) & about 100m from my physiotherapist.
This is why I tend to buy most of my kits from BNA but only consumables (paint, blades, tools, tape, etc.), plus the occasional kit that really grabs my interest, from Hobby Habit.

[NARSES2]

Thanks for the in-box review of the Zero Guy, appreciated 

[Nick]

I went to Adelaide for Easter.  Drove over, sat around drinking tea with rellies (those who were covid free), walked the dog along Brighton Beach and then drove back.  I did get to drop into Hobby Habit in Melrose Park.
After picking myself up off the floor ("Steep" is an understatement when describing their prices.  Precipitous would be more accurate) I left with this for the upcoming GB.  Lazy Fred will just give it an RAAF scheme, Evil Fred will do nasty things to it with saws and knives.
Hunter by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

'Ow much?!?!?! 

That's £37 for a 1/72 kit! They were no more than £25 over here!

[Old Wombat]

Australia has what we call the "Australia Tax" which is a largely unexplained increase in the cost of products shipped to Australia, exclusive of transport, duties, excises, tariffs & taxes.

South Australia has a similar "South Australia Tax" which is a largely unexplained increase in the cost of products shipped from the Australian East Coast, exclusive of transport, duties, excises, tariffs & taxes, over & above the Australia Tax.

[Pellson]

Well, we have at least four different customs tariffs on car parts from outside EU (in this case, UK) depending on exactly what kind of spare it is. For instance, shocks have one tariff, bumpers another, driving lights a third and service items such as filters a fourth. Now - buying a big box of stuff for the Defenders will result in a specification long as a bad dream, resulting in the Customs never even looking at it, just slapping the highest tariff on it all. Against the rules, but conveniently well below the appeal limit.

And to really add insult to injury, they smack 25% VAT on the total, including tariffs, and foreign VAT.

Loveable bunch, customs.. 

[Wardukw]

Got the same sort of deal here too when it comes to customs and taxes.
We have a saying here ..well i do and its 'We dont live in the a hole of the planet but we can see it from here ' and it would seem everybody who can tax something does.
Prices here for everything are just plain stupid..we've got the highest house prices on the planet..over $4 for a bottle of milk..$29 for a pack of 20s cigarettes and it just goes nuts from there .
Specking of the total opposite 
In the mail today two great deals.
1x 1/48th Hasegawa P47M Thunderbolt for $32NZ
1x 1/48th Tamiya Mosquito FB Mk.VI /NF Mk.ll for $65NZ ...cheapest ive ever seen it ..normal shop retail price in Auckland is like $85NZ and up.

[NARSES2]

Loveable bunch, customs.. 

My dad always told me that you should never argue with HM Customs. They have more power than the police and they have rubber gloves 

[zenrat]

I used to be in the same motorcycle club as a couple of Portsmouth customs officers.  They did very well from confiscations

Yes the Hunter was f**king expensive but having driven all the way to SA and invested that much in petrol I wasn't going back empty handed.

As one of those irritating ex-smokers who don't know when to stop their nagging $NZ 29 for a pack of smokes seems low to me.  I'd double that.

[Wardukw]

  Fred ...yep i have every intention to give it up but that intention is way down my to do list 

Chris its the same here ..yrs ago i built the security grating for the first air soft gun shop here in NZ  called ASGC..or Air soft gun centre..yep i used to play..worked at the shop as the owners are friends..anyways we had to go to customs quite often to check over the weapons..to show these stormtroopers that they werent real.
After the frist time we went we used to say got go visit the Empire .
Im bloody surprised we didnt have to get down on one knee and bow to our overlords.