Archives for January 2025

01/27/25 A look at 1/32 Scale Aircraft Engines

Posted on January 28, 2025 //

In this post, I wanted to share a few images from my different 1/32 WWII aircraft. All of these are German late war airplanes. A Ta-152, Do-335, Fw-190 A8. The first two are Zoukie Mura kits and the last is the Revell kit of the Fw-190 A8/R2. In the gallery below click on any image to open them in a Lightbox.

Working with 1/32 Aircraft models is rewarding in that you get a much better feel for what was going on inside the aircraft. The cockpit details tend to be more involved and most modern 1/32 aircraft kits will have an engine. While it’s interesting to build up the engines, most of that work is hidden once you complete the kit. While many kits will offer individual engine cowling panels, I feel that leaving them open give the aircraft an incomplete look. Unless you are working on a diorama. An example of this is the Zoukie Mura 1/32 Fw-190 A4. Zoukie Mura has created a kit with amazing details throughout especially the engine. (the only thing missing are the ignition wires). However there are 7 individual panels that are used to cover the engine, and I had a lot of trouble getting all of these to line up correctly. I would much prefer the option to have the engine displayed outside the kit on a stand. With the Zoukie Mura 1/32 kits, you cannot do this as the engine is required to install the propeller.

Great Wall Hobby’ P-40 is the only kit I have found in 1/32 that allows you to have the engine displayed along side the aircraft. For the cost of all of these kits, it would not be that much to add the parts to allow this for all models in this scale with this amount of details.

Filed Under: HK Modeling, Model Airplane Assembly, Revell Modeling, Zoukie Mura Modeling // Tagged: 1-32 scale Zoukie Mura, 1/32 scale aircraft engines, Do-335 Engine, Fw-190 A8 Engine, HK models Do-335, Zoukie Mura Ta-152, Zoukie Mura Ta-152 1/32, Zoukie Mura Ta-152 Engine

Great Wall Hobby P-40 1/32 Underwing Flap details

Posted on January 26, 2025 //

I have moved on with the GWH P-40 by finishing out the flaps on the wings. The kit has only Photo etch for the details and this is by far the trickiest part of working with the model. Click on any of the images below to start a Lightbox gallery for better viewing.

The Photo Etch from Great Wall Hobby is very thin to start with. The sheet that all of the photo etch comes on is slightly curved so all the pieces depending on size will need to be flattened. The individual parts for the main wing flap support required by far the most complicated bending. NOTE, due to the very thin nature of this photo etch, you can get by with one re-bend but after that the part will separate. Each of the upper wing supports for the main flaps are lined up over the flap actuating rods. You can see these in the pictures in the gallery.

I first tried to use Ultra Glue to hold each part down since I knew that if I used CA I would only get one try to locate these parts. However the ultra glue did not hold well since it has a longer drying time and the flap actuating rods pushed up on the photo etched parts. I also started locating the individual supports in the wrong orientation. This become critical when you attempt to place the single large photo etch covers over them. NOTE, I believe that Great Wall Hobby made a mistake with these covers in that they made them exactly the same and they should be mirror images of each other. When you attempt to mount the part on the right side, you will find that it will not fit unless you turn it upside down, but then you lose all of the extra details in the photo etch. In the image below you can see where I had to drill a hole into the part to get it to fit. This part and the part on the left are identical, not mirrors of each other.

Close up of upper right wing support showing error in design

The individual part themselves are very tricky to work with as you are bending the top, bottom and side. Also once you have bent all of the top, there is nowhere to hold the part as you are placing it. I ended having to straighten the back top where it bends down to hold the parts.

The actual flaps also have photo etched pieces that need very careful bending, however they are much easier to place on the plastic since they are less complex in nature.

One last photo to show the individual supports. Here you can see a bit more of the complex amount of bending that is required. Also note, I feel that the instructions are not very clear on how these parts are to be bent. The drawings are a bit vague so when you get to this stage of your build slow down and really look at the image of the final part on the instructions.

Filed Under: Model Airplane Assembly, Modeling News // Tagged: 1/32 P-40, Flap details on Great Wall Hobby P-40, Flaps on Great Wall Hobby P-40, Great Wall Hobby, Great Wall Hobby P-40, Interior of P-40, Modeling the P-40 in 1/32 scale, P-40, P-40 modeling, Wing details on Great Wall Hobby P-40

Great Wall Hobby 1/32 P-40 Wing Details

Posted on January 15, 2025 //

I am slowing working forward on this kit. I wanted to show some of the finer details of the wings. The actual rivet details are about the best I have seen on any 1/32 kit. They are recessed but very fine and I would assume very close to scale in size. In reality, these rivets would be raised ever so slightly but when working on a model it’s very easy to sand down raised rivets while assembling the parts. You really can’t replace a raised rivet, it is possible with tools to re-draw recessed rivets if you happen to fill them by accident. In the galley below you can see various views of this kit’s wings. Click on any image to enlarge and start the Lightbox to view all of them.

Image of underwing show photo etch ammo bay covers

On issue I had was with the ammo bay covers. You have the option to show these open or closed. I choose to leave them closed, however you still have to place both covers over the opening. The photo etch is very thin and slightly curved when it comes off the main photo etch sheet, so placing them in the exact location was not easy.

Used Ultra glue by “Ammo by Mig” to place these pieces. I knew that if I tried to use CA glue I would have problems since that type of glue would bond the photo etch to the plastic immediately. So if I happened to position the pieces incorrectly removing them would have been a problem. I placed the inner doors first, let them dry overnight, then placed the top door. Getting the inner door placed was the biggest problem as you don’t have much of an inner lip to put the part.

Ammo bay door for Great Wall Hobby P-40 — Close up of ammo bay cover

Not the best picture, you can see the very fine recessed rivet detail on this wing and the ammo bay door in place. The opening above the ammo bay door is for the 50 caliber machine gun.

Filed Under: Featured Build // Tagged: 1/32 P-40, Great Wall Hobby, Great Wall Hobby P-40, Modeling the P-40 in 1/32 scale, P-40, P-40 modeling, Wing details on Great Wall Hobby P-40

Views of Various Zoukie Mura 1/32 models

Posted on January 14, 2025 //

(click on any image in the gallery above to view the images in a Lightbox format)

One of the best companies in the model airplane modeling arena is Zoukie Mura. They create very detailed models in 1/32 and 1/48 scale mainly of WWII aircraft, however they also have ventured into more modern aircraft in 1/48 scale.

Their kits excel in fit and finish. Their instructions should be used as an example for any and all other companies. They give you very detailed steps for assembly, and but also share unique details in regards to the airplane being built.

I have picked four image from two of their 1/32 kits, the DO-335A and the FW-190 A4. The first image is of the details of the tail assembly of the FW-190. The next two are of the engine detail of the DO-335A and the last image shows the rear engine and fuel tank on the DO-335.

Zoukie Mura choose to use what they called “clear” plastic on the DO-335. However it’s not clear and is frosted. So you really can’t leave parts non-painted to show the inside. They claim you can sand down the inside of the clear parts to make them totally clear and translucent which was more work than I wanted to do. The clear plastic is also very brittle and hard to glue. Thankfully, Zoukie Mura stopped using this in later kits.

If you are interested in both details and scale but also history of a specific aircraft, consider a Zoukie Mura kit.

Filed Under: Modeling News, Zoukie Mura Modeling // Tagged: Details of Zoukie Mura kits, DO-335A, Quality of Zoukie Mura kits, Zoukie Mura 1/32, Zoukie Mura FW-190A4, Zoukie Mura instructions

Great Wall Hobby P-40 Fuselage

Posted on January 9, 2025 //

I am gradually getting the interior finished on my P-40 by Great Wall Hobby. There is a lot of very fine detail inside this model, sadly none of which will be visible once the fuselage is completed. You can leave the outside hatch open to allow someone to get a very slight restricted view however most of the hoses and tanks will not be seen.

Great Wall Hobby P-40 1/32 — Great Wall Hobby P-40 showing part of the Fuselage Interior

Now I have added the large tank which is directly behind the cockpit. If you look closely on the bottom of the fuselage, you can see all of the fine coolant and oil lines that are along the bottom of the aircraft. That these were able to be moulded so well in 1/32 scale is an impressive feat for Great Wall Hobby.

Filed Under: Model Airplane Assembly, Modeling News // Tagged: 1/32 P-40, Fuselage Interior of Great Wall Hobby P-40, Great Wall Hobby, Great Wall Hobby P-40, Interior of Great Wall Hobby P-40, Interior of P-40, Modeling the P-40 in 1/32 scale, P-40, P-40 modeling

Great Wall Hobby P-40

Posted on January 4, 2025 //

The image shown above will open a gallery displaying more images, just click on the image.

After working on this kit for a few days, I have been very surprised at just how well the fit of the various parts is. As you can see in the gallery above all the parts of the engine cowling are dry fitted together. There are no visible gaps or areas that need filling. Only a bit of glue.

The other aspect of this kit is the fact that you can display the plane with either the engine exposed or just the nose of the plane attached. This is done with magnets. You build up the engine and on the firewall there is a place to attach a magnet, which then allows the fully exposed engine to be shown on the airplane. Or, you build up the nose of the plane with the exhausts and air intake with the firewall attached to the back. Again a magnet allows you to attach this full assembly to the rest of the airframe.

This is a huge improvement over other 1/32 kits that have engine assemblies. All of the other kits (besides the Tamiya P-51) will have all the separate pieces of the engine cowling available so that you can have them open to show the engine. However so far in all the 1/32 kits I have built up with this style of build the various cowling pieces never line up well, leaving gaps that have to be filled if you want the engine covered.

Leaving the various cowling parts open leaves a lot of problems. Painting the airplane becomes problematic especially more complex paint schemes like the ones on German WWII fighters. Also over time the exposed individual parts will break off as they are quite exposed and fragile. Once broken, it’s never easy to get them back on. Unless you are building a diorama showing the airplane under maintenance, I never really want to leave cowlings open.

The other big issue is of course the time you spend building the engine is pretty much wasted as it will be totally hidden by the cowlings. Most of the modern 1/32 kits have very nicely detailed engines, both in-line and radial.

Paul Caldwell