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03/09/25 HK-DO-335 B6 in 1/32 scale. Finished

Posted on March 10, 2025 // Leave a Comment

This kit was quite the workout. The overall fit was excellent. The way the wings attach to the fuselage is such that you really do not need to glue them in. However the cowlings were a different issue as I had trouble with the front cowlings especially the left side which I left closed. Both engines have excellent details and it’s a shame to close them up. The decals were a good fit mostly. In the gallery below, click on any of the images to start up a Lightbox display.

For the paint I used only the AK Real colors line of Acrylic lacquers. The colors used were RLM81, 82 on top and RLM 76 underneath. I choose RLM 76 instead of RLM 65. The paint was easy to airbrush on when thinned about 50/50 with AK real colors thinner.

This is the B6 version of the aircraft and it was actually manufactured in very limited amounts. The armament was (2) 20mm cannons in the nose firing though the propeller, (1) 30mm MK 101 firing through the center of the engine and out of the center of the propeller spinner and (2) 30mm MK 103 cannons in the wings. This aircraft was meant to be a bomber destroyer.

The kit was a long time to build up, mainly due to the complexity of the engines. HK plastic works very well with Tamiya liquid cement so I did not have any issues there. For the interior of the cockpit, I used an Eduard set, which was older but still added enough details. Some of the finer switches did not stay in place and were lost. HK give you the necessary weights to keep this big model on it’s nose and not be a tail sitter. I only left the front cowling open so show a bit of the engine. It’s actually loose and can be totally removed. The rear engine can seen at bit as I left the access panel open.

Written by Paul Caldwell for Arkansas Fine Scale Modeling.

Filed Under: HK Modeling, Modeling News // Tagged: , , , , , ,

03/04/25 Trumpeter Ju-87 in 1/32 Scale

Posted on March 4, 2025 //

These are some pictures of my build of the Trumpeter Ju-87 E, in 1/32 Scale

Ju-87 in Hanger
Ju-87 in Hanger
Ju-87 in Hanger
Ju-87 in Hanger
Underwing view Ju-87
Underwing View Ju-87
Top Down View Ju-87

This was not the easiest build I have worked one. The kit is the Trumpeter 1/32 scale Stuka E model, with the long range external fuel tanks. It’s an older kit from Trumpeter and there are many issues with the kit in both shape and fit.

Shape, the main issues is nose chin for the oil cooler which is not deep enough. Also the wheel spats are not the correct shape. I attempted to use a 3rd party correction set in resin for the nose. This set comes with a new propeller, the entire nose and wheel spats. As hard as I worked on this I was never able to get a good fit around the nose where the entire nose fits to the fuselage. Also the resin part did not have the same degree of detailing, no rivets and the panel lines were not as pronounced. One of the hardest things to re-create on a model are panel lines. Yes you can re-scribe them the it’s not the easiest process. After many attempts, I went back to the kit nose and just lived with the issues. If you go with the kit nose, you also can’t use the propeller as the hub is too large.

The fit issues were mainly with the wings. The Ju-87 had a classic gull shaped wing and the way that Trumpeter put the wings together was less than stellar. They mate in the inverted area and no matter what I did, I either had a gap on top or underneath. I chose to keep the gap underneath and just fill it.

Painting was also a total mess. I wanted to use the classic desert snake decal set from Eagle Cals. The paint pattern for this was very hard to work with as you had to paint the Ju-87 in the classic RLM 70/71 scheme and then over paint it with the desert color. I used AK real colors for the RLM 70/71 and the RLM 65 on the under wings. For the patterns I used tape as I felt that there should be a hard line demarkation on the colors. Even though I washed the kit before painting, I had many issue with paint pulling off the plastic. I had primed the kit with Mr Surfacer 1000, and was surprised at how many problems I had with paint pull off.

For desert yellow over color, I use a paint by tru-color pain, TCP-1419, FS-30266. This is an acrylic lacquer paint similar to the AK real colors. It sprayed very well through my Grex airbrush.

Decals were all by Eagle Cals, and they were easy to apply besides the actual snake, which was a mess as it has to fit over a lot of the smaller raised areas around the nose. Using both Micro Sol and Micro Set, I was able to get a pretty good fit. The Eagle Cals versions of the snake does not have red blotches instead it uses the color of the aircraft to fill these. There is a big question as to if the snake was red and white or just white with the aircraft color.

The canopy should have some of the structure internally represented, however as the Trumpeter canopy has hard lines for the framing, all on the outside, I left it like that. The actual Stuka canopy had both internal and external framing and its actually very complex.

Overall a fun build. I have left the kit with the glossy finish on as prefer this for cleaning later on. Much easier to remove dust from a glossy finish.

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03/01/25 New Models coming from Zoukei Mura in 1/32 Scale

Posted on March 2, 2025 //

With the latest blog post on Zoukei Mura’s main website, it appears that sometime in the future (4) new kits are to be released in 1/32 scale.

Horton Night Fighter
Fw-190 A8
Ki-100
Zoukei Mura 1/32 aircraft models
4 new 1/32 aircraft models coming from Zoukei Mura
  1. The Horton Night fighter version. Over 2 years ago Zoukei Mura released their original Horton in the single seater version. Now they are going to follow it up with a 2 seater night fighter version. The Horton as an actual fighter never flew in combat, and I am doubtful that it ever flew at all. The war ending before Germany had a chance to finish the construction and testing. However as an aircraft it was one of the first flying wing designs. The night fighter was a 2 seater thus this kit will have the cockpit arrangement different than the first kit. Odds are this will be out in the 1/2 half of 2025 as there was not that much Zoukei Mura had to do to the kit besides changing the cockpit and adding the night fighter equipment. However I am hoping that it will not be released in the same clear plastic as the single seater. That plastic is very hard to work with.
  2. The Fw-190 A8 which was the main stream version of the Fw-190 A series during the war and had by far the most number of builds as there were so many variants. Zoukei Mura as stated that they will be releasing a A3 version this year to go along with their already released A4. Both of these aircraft had a shorter engine mount (egg) so it would be easier to release an A3. The A8 will need a larger engine cowling as all the Fw-190’s past the A4 had a slightly larger engine, thus a larger longer cowling. There would also be several differences in the fuselage and wings. Looking forward to this kit, however I don’t expect it to be out until mid 2026. Way out.
  3. The Ki-100, by far of the best Japanese fighters of WWII. The Zero always takes the front when Japanese Fighters are mentioned, however the Ki-100 was a much better aircraft. By the middle of WWII, the Zero was outclassed and under powered. The Ki-100 was equal in combat with both the P-51 (as shown in the air work) along with the Corsair and Hellcat. Hopefully this kit will be out in the later half of 2025. Zoukei Mura has been talking about it for over a year now.
  4. The Bf-109 G4, which was not so natural follow on to their Bf-109 G14 released last year. I had hoped that we would see a G6 next as it was by far the most numerous version of the Bf-109. Note that in the artwork, the G4 is shown with the 20mm underwing gondolas, which did not make it to the G14, even though they were shown during the development of the kit. Zoukei Mura is showing the G4 in a tropical paint scheme, but there are plenty of after market decals available since Revell released a Bf-109 G4 last year. Since it’s possible to build a G6 from the G14 kit, I am hoping to get a couple of the G4 kits and swap the wings so I can build up a G6 with the 20mm underwing cannons.

This is the most I have seen from Zoukei Mura in over a year and all of these kits will be well received in the marketplace. Now that the Kotare Bf-109 K4 is coming in the first half of 2025 the G4 from Zoukei Mura will be well received.

I only wish that Zoukei Mura would release the version of the HS-129, RIII B2 with the MK 103 cannon. So far there has not been any more mention of this version and it’s going on 2 years now. I really wish that Zoukei Mura or someone would just release an upgrade kit to their current HS-129 with the MK-103 cannon. The cannon with the current kit is the Mk-101 30mm and it was a totally different gun. Barrel and magazines were totally different.

Written by Paul Caldwell for Arkansas Fine Scale Modeling.

Filed Under: Modeling News, Zoukie Mura Modeling // Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

02/15/25 Great Wall Hobby P-40 Fuselage Interior Prior to painting

Posted on February 17, 2025 //

Posting a quick Look at the interior of my Great Wall Hobby P-40, prior to the painting of the interior. All of the light green color is where I masked the parts to keep paint off. It’s much easier to do this rather than try and remove the paint afterwards.

You will find that you also cannot just glue the parts together with paint on them as the glue will not bond correctly to the plastic and pull off later on. This is true especially with cyanoacrylate, also known as super glue. Once dry, the super glue actually just bonds to the paint, and will pull right off the part. Normal model liquid cement which actually melts plastic for the bonding will have a problem with curing since the paint will cause the glue not to bond correctly

Great Wall Hobby P-40 1/32 interior

My plan is to use Mission Models paint on the interior, their version of zinc Chromate Green. I feel that this color is a bit too green but at this time I am not going to attempt to tone it down. As you can see in the pictures, all of the interior bulkhead locations have to be pre-painting masked along with the edges of the fuselage. It is a bit sad that all of the details will not be very visible once the fuselage is completed.

Written by Paul Caldwell, for Arkansas Fine Scale Modeling.

Filed Under: Great Wall Hobby Modeling, Modeling News // Tagged: , , , , ,

02/15/25 A look at the Underwing Flap details on Great Wall Hobby 1/32 P40

Posted on February 16, 2025 //
Great Wall Hobby P40 1/32 scale wing details

When I first received this kit when I started to read through the instructions, I was immediately drawn to to the main wing flaps. I noticed that all of the structure of the flaps was photo etch and each piece seemed that it involved some very hard bending. The Photo etch on that comes with the Great Wall Hobby P-40 (GWH) is very thin and thus you get maybe two attempts at a bend and after than the piece will separate. Their instructions show little arrows along each piece which is how you are supposed to bend the parts but I found that the arrows and directions were less than stellar. You also have one long piece of plastic that is to help support the lower flap when opened. I assume it’s an actuator arm. For each side of the wing, you have 8 different parts that have to be added. There are a few issues, the main one being that it’s very hard to hold the parts once they have been bent since due to the folds you cannot get your tweezers around them without resending the folds back over. You can take a look at a few of these parts in the image below.

Flap parts individual
Individual main wing flap supports

Once you have all the various piece folded you can line them up along the wing to attach them. Here I ran into yet an another issue in the alignment. Make sure you allow for the large single piece of photo etch that sits on top of 3 of the supports. If you don’t have the correct alignment, this piece will not look correctly placed. In the gallery below you can see many different viewing angles of the parts in place on the wing. Click on any image to start a Lightbox gallery for better viewing. Also if you are viewing this article on an iPad or iPhone you can pinch to zoom into the images for more details.

Top view looking at structure on wings
View showing large single part on top
Right side view
Close up on right side
Left side to edge of flap
Underwing flap views on Great Wall Hobby P-40
Left side looking straight down

I had planned to use Ultra glue to attach these parts to the plastic. Ultra glue is made by “Ammo by Mig” and is an excellent glue for photo etch. However the pieces need to be able to fit flush with no resistance as the glue does not have an instant bond. Instead I had to use Cyanoacrylate (super glue) to get the parts to stick in place. This was a bit tricky since you have to make sure you have the correct alignment before you stick the part. If your alignment is off, it’s best to use the cyanoacrylate debonding agent, pull the part off and start again. My finished effort is not perfect, but I am overall pleased with the final look.

Filed Under: Great Wall Hobby Modeling, Modeling News // Tagged: , , , , ,

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.

View from left showing supports
View from the top
Close up showing supports
View to the right
View from above showing left side
View from left
Great Wall Hobby P-40 main flap details
Great Wall Hobby P-40 main flap details

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.

Individual main wing flap supports

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.

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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: , , , , ,

Great Wall Hobby P-40 Fuselage

Posted on January 9, 2025 //
Great Wall Hobby P-40 Fuselage
Partial finished interior of Great Wall Hobby P-40

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: , , , , , , , ,

Great Wall Hobby P-40

Posted on January 4, 2025 //
Both wings to show details

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

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