Zvezda 1:144 Hawker Hurrican Mark 1

A closer look at the 1:144 Hawker Hurrican Mk. 1 game expansion made by the Russian company Zvezda. This kit belongs to Zvezdas range of small scaled modelplanes for their "Art Of Tactic" wargame. I built some planes from this range and they are easy to build, and can not only be used for Zvezdas wargame.

But without any words left, let us take a look at the kit which is included in this game expansion:

The Hurricane modelkit comes in a single sprue of sandcolored plastic, the same stuff Zvezda always uses for their Allied "Art Of Tactic" models. You can read my thoughts about this material in earlier Zvezda (p)reviews.

The sprue contains all parts needed to build this plane and I did not find any flaws on the sprue, no ejectormarkings or sinkholes were on the parts, and there is not much mouldlining to remove.

As you can see, there is the option to build the landing gear opened or closed, a nice feature that this kit has in common with all other 1:144 and 1:200 Zvezda wargaming planes.

The next "sprue" from this box contains the clear part:

The clear part for the canopy is casted as solid block, as they are in most Zvezda wargame planes, next Saturday we will see an exception. Due to its thickness, you could not add a pilot figure without a new piece for the canopy.

The third and final sprue in this box contains 2 parts to build a stand for the plane. It is included in every "Art Of Tactic" plane expansion. It seems solid and not too bad and would be a decent modelstand if all flash and ejectormarks would be removed.

As usual for "Art Of Tactic" plane kits, the Hurricane also includes a well made decalsheet for the model. In general, Zvezda produces decals of good quality, but these did not take the decalsofter without taking some minor damage.

A good layer of matte varnish may hide this, but I when I saw what happened after the application of "Mr Mark Softer", I thought that I messed up the kit.

Luckily that was not the case, my finished 1:144 Hawker Hurricane Mk.1 looks like this:

For a gamepiece this kit is ok, it is easy and fast to build due to the well made building instructions, and after you may have painted it you could add some of the decals that are included.

Do not expect a real modelkit, this one aims at wargamers, the plane could be used for early war scenarios like the Blitzkrieg or the battle for Africa, even the Sovietunion got them via the lend/lease contract.

In the end it depends on you, but if you need a Hurricane, you should take a look at this one, even when there are other alternatives in this scale like the (out of prodution) Revell Microwings Hurricane or the Sweet Aviation Models Hawker Hurricane,  both are way more detailed, but compared to the price of the Zvezda kit (below 4 Euros), their cost would be higher.

Tomorrow it is Sunday what means we will take a look at an expansion either for "TANKS" or "TANKS The Modern Age", this time we will take a look at the T-34.

3Dprinted 1:144 P-40 and P-47

Finally I finished the last 1:144 plane model for my planned plane expansion for ww2 "TANKS". While I already had the P-40 done, I thought the USA also should have the choice between two planes. Then I looked at Thingiverse for  matching stl .files to print a second US plane.

These may not be historically accurate for the European scenario, but there is a life beyond modelbuilding (at least I heard so), and I already exceeded this months modelling budget, (and I like both planes design), that is why I decided to print the second plane, and at least both planes were used by the US Airforce in the second world war.

First there is the P-47 Thunderbolt:

I took this .stl file from Thingiverse to print this plane. I had to rescale it, and I think it is scaled right.

You may have seen this in the post which contains the timelapse video of its print. I did not much after I printed it, the machineguns were added, using some thin wire (one is already lost), I added some rotorblades from the bitsbox, and I had to use filler to close some of the bigger holes and gaps. I did not care much about the bottom, what clearly can be seen on the picture.

The plane was primed in black, then it got a layer of Citadel Mithryl Silver. The old Citadel colorpots do a great job in conserving paints, the silver I used is at least 15 years old, just as the white and the red I used on the plane, all are the good old Citadel paints.

After that I added the white and black stripes without any masking, and they could be way better, but for me it is ok. The decals were taken from the sparebook, I think they belonged to a Revell 1:144 Microwings kit which I threw away after I messed it up.

Next is the P-40 Warhawk:

This was also taken from Thingiverse, if I remember correctly, it was this file. The P-40 also was rescaled to 1:144, and also on this thing I had to use some filler and sanding paper. I still have to add some rotorblades from the bitsbox, I think I should have some more.

This plane got a simple paintjob in grey and dark green, then I used some decals from the Revell Microwings 1:144 P-40 warhawk, this kit somehow got lost while moving, and I think when I will add the rotorblades I will repaint some parts of this thing to make it match up with the Revell P-40 boxart.

For sure, I will not win a prize for these crude models, but they should fulfil their purposes. Now that all models for my project are done, it is time to start with the paperwork, but I will not rush and take my time to do it.

This is just a filler post, but as usual, I wrote more than I had planned. Tonight I will take a closer look at another 1:100 Zvezda "Art Of Tactic" kit, since I already have two reviews finished, I still have not decided which of them I will upload tonight.

If my internet provider can keep a stable internet connection, what was not always the case in the last few weeks. Especially in the nighttimes the connection was gone and I had to rely on my mobile.

Zvezda 1:100 Ju-87 B2 Stuka

A closer look at the 1:144 JU-87 B2 Stuka modelkit made by the Russian producer Zvezda. This kit belongs to Zvezdas range of 1:144 plane expansions for their "Art Of Tactic" wargame. I think Zvezda gave up this game since its official homepage is dead. Or at least was when I looked the last time. Since half of the internet fails today, I could not check it.

By now I own 3 kits from this range, and when my mate Olli got this kit, I used the opportunity to look at it. So let us take a look at the content of this box:

The kit comes in a single grey plastic sprue. The material is softer than the green plastic what is used for other Zvezda kits. In future reviews we will see, that the grey stuff generally is softer than its green counterpart.

Only 8 parts will be needed to build this plane, and the quality of the kit is ok, but the grade of detail is very basic and could be way better. There are no sinkholes and only minimal flash can be found. The body has to be cleaned because it has a major mouldline all arround, but the other parts are ok.

The clear part for the cockpit comes as a solid piece, what was already known before from other Zvezda kits. There is no room for pilot and gunner figures or torsos and the rear AA machine gun is missing completely. Slightly disappointing but what was I expecting to see?
Maybe I really should try to vacform some canopies.

The second sprue in this box contains 2 parts to build a stand for the plane. It is included in every "Art Of Tactic" plane expansion. It seems solid and not too bad and would be a decent model stand.

The decalsheet seems like it is printed in the same good quality than the other Zvezda decal sheets I know. This one contains some generic numbers and Balkenkreuze. I had no time to test them at the moment, but there should be no issues with them.
If you want to use decal setting and/or decal softing solution there is the chance that it may damage them, I had this issue with the decals from Zvezdas Hawker Hurricane.

This is a pretty basic kit, with some grade of detail, but most details are missing. The missing supports of the rearwings could easiely be scratchbuilt, adding the AA gun would take some more efford since you would have to drill into the clearpart.
Adding these tho things already would improve its look.

For a simple gamepiece this thing is ok, but if you want something more, you should get something better. Eduard offers various versions of the Stuka in 1:144 scale. Or you may find the Revell "Micro Wings" Stuka which I built some time ago.

According to my mate Olli, this was built without any issues, and after he built this plane, we compared it to the Revell Ju-87:

Just take a look for yourself, you will see a lot of differences between these two. The Revell model was shown in a previous post, and while its overall detail is mediocre, it beats the Zvezda JU-87.

Both planes were made for the planes expansion, and by now I finally have all special abilies created and wanted to show them up to you, even when it takes some more weeks to finish this.

I copy/pasted this part of the rought draft of the rules, I think I should not have to explain them, just read for yourself:

The new Special Abilitiy for all tanks:

AA Gun

This model gets 3 attack dice against air units.

New Special Abilities for planes:

Plane

This model can only shoot targets entirely in front of it.

Constant Movement

This model has to move in every phase of the round.

Dogfighter (x)

This model gets (x) additional attack dice when attacking other planes.

New Special Abilities for air defense vehicles:

AA fire (x)

This Model has (x) Attack dice when shooting at planes.

Penetrator Rounds (x)

This Model gets (x) attack dice when attacking Models with with 0 Basearmour.

(the name of this may be changed)

Does not look bad or does it? Another thing I made some thoughts about were the AA guns for the British and the American forces and I decided, that both vehicles I made up could be choosen from either the USA or the UK.

Then one of these two doctrines, both costing 0 points, must be chosen to mark the country for which the model stands:

In British Service

The player may choose to keep one of their die results and re-roll the rest when Shooting while Stationary with this model.

In US Service

Treat this Model as making one less Move than shown on its Speed token when calculating its target's Defence dice.

Sounds pretty simple, and it is. This way each nation has at least 2 different AA guns to choose from. Since I may add the Ostwind, I also may add the Canadian Skink tank to choose, playable like the Italians in "TANKS", what can be seen, when I take a closer look at the Italian expansions for "TANKS".
Actually, I could do this in the next post, but first it is time again to show some some built models in the next post.

Update:
I uploaded the video of this post to my youtube channel.

1:144 Messerschmitt BF-109 F2& Hawker Tempest Mk. 5

Some pictures of two recently finished 1:144 model planes. 

First there is the Messerschmitt BF-109 F2 made by Russian producer Zvezda for their "Art Of Tactic" Range. I got it together with the Ilyushin IL-2 and other things some time ago, while I built and painted the IL-2, see pictures in this post, the BF-109, you can see the sprue on this picture, was built but got lost somewhere.

When I found this thing in one of my bitsboxes, it had suffered some serious damage. The antenna went missing, what I still have to fix, two rotorblades were broken off, and both tailwings were seperated from the plane, one of it was broken in two halfes.

Fixing the rotor was no big issue, as also the reglueing of one of the tailwings, but the part broken from the other wing did not stick well to its counterpart.

It broke off at least 4 more times, the last time after the plane was painted, what you clearly can see on the picture below. But I thought fuck it, and left it as it is now.

The upper half was painted in Revell Aquacolor Khakibraun, while the lower half was painted in Revell Aquacolor Light Green, brightened with some drops of white. As usual, the decals were taken from the scrapbook.

The second finished 1:144 plane is the Hawker Tempest Mark 5 made by Revell from its old "Micro Wings" range. I wrote this in a previous post, and I write it again, it is too bad, that these small things are out of prodution, even when they are pretty simple and their moulds are almost worn out.

The belly of this plane was painted in a Vallejo Grey, which label is not readable anymore. The upper part was painted in a selfmixed blue grey, which got too blue, and Revell Aquacolor Dark Green. I used so liquid masking solution for the camouflage pattern.

The decals were taken from the kit and as usual produced in the same good Revell quality as usual.

At the moment the printer is running, I am printing a final plane for the planes expansion. If everything will work out as supposed I will add another post tonight.

Zvezda 1:100 LA-5FN

A closer look at the 1:144 Lavochkin LA-5FN modelkit made by the Russian producer Zvezda. This kit belongs to Zvezdas range of 1:144 modelplanes for their "Art Of Tactic" wargame. I got the Messerschmitt BF-109 and Ilyushin IL-2 kits some years ago, that I had a rough forsight what would be to expect.

But as usual, with no further words left, let us take a look at the content of this game expansion:

The kit comes as single sprue of green plastic, which is pretty hard and takes modelglue very well. The parts are casted without flaws, there are no ejectormarks which could be seen when the plane is built. If there is any flash, I did not see it when I built the kit. Here and there are some mild mouldlines which need some sanding.

This kit can be build either with opened or closed landing gear, whatever you prefer. I built this thing with extended landing gear. Building did not take much time and made no issues, all parts fit well and this kit could be built even without the use of glue.

The second sprue in this box contains 2 parts to build a decent stand for the plane. It is included in every "Art Of Tactic" plane expansion. It seems solid and not too bad, I think I will use it for an other model and I think I already know, which it could be.

Next is the clear part for the canopy. This is casted as solid block but since there is no way to add a pilot figure this does not matter. But a nonsolid canopy and the addition of a pilot figure would have been a nice feature.

The last thing to show is the decalsheet which contains some red stars and generic numbers. These were printed in good quality , as all Zvezda decals I used before, and they took only some seconds to detach from the paper when watered. They are not as thin as Battlefront Miniatures decals but their borders will not be seen with a final layer of varnish applied.

Once again Zvezda offers a nice model kit for a fair price. I do not see any issues with this kit, since this is a gamepiece, it is ok. Some panellines would have been nice a nice addition, but except for the canopy its overall quality and level of detail is ok.
If you want a "real" 1:144 modelkit I would not approve it, but with if you need this for wargames, get it, with some paints and decals this thing looks pretty fine.

The paintjob was inspired by the boxart and pictures from the LA-5 wikipedia page. I used only basic colors on it, no washes or weathering were applied, this thing was almost speedpainted.
Basically the model is finished but it needs a new and final layer of matte varnish, since the stuff I normally use gave a pretty rough surface. It is not as heavy as it seems on the picture, but its surface is really rough. I ordered some new matte varnish (normally I am using the Revell Aquacolor stuff but I had some bad experiences with it), I hope the new paint will work as supposed.

And would it not be nice to get better canopy pieces for this and other 1:144 Zvezda model planes?

15 years ago I was into slotracing and had some successful attempts to vacform the windowpieces of some of my cars to get less weight on them... I could try this for the Zvezda planes, should I do this again and would it work for this small scale?

The stuff needed for that is pretty lowcost, some basic materials for the vacbox and the frames, a heatsource, and a vaccumcleaner, all stuff that can be found in every household. Except for clear polystyrene sheets I should have everything ready, I think I could use Forex either.
I may give this a try in the future, eventually you could expect even a video for this, but this would be at the end of my list of ongoing projects (2020?), there is enough stuff with a higher priority to do first.

One of that are one or two posts about colors, pigments and all that stuff. I got some more or less useful new things which I would like to show to you.

Revell 1:144 WW2 US Army Vehicles

Some pictures of my recently finished 1:144 U.S. tanks and trucks made by Revell. The box contains 2 equal sprues from which you can build 3 different vehicles twice.

Originally these small kits were included in the 1:144 medium U.S. Navy Landing Ship modelkit, but you can get them seperately too. When I saw them at my local hobbyshop I could not resist to get them.

Building the Shermans was pretty simple. Each tank was made of only 6 parts and took only some minutes to build after all parts were cleaned. I painted them (and all other vehicles in this post) with the same color combination as I did for my 15mm Shermans which I used for "TANKS".

I had to improvise with the decals and markings because I used some of this box decals for other projects.

Also included twice is the M8 Greyhound recon vehicle. This kit was almost built as fast as the Sherman, but the wheels took some time to clean them up. Last year I 3d printed some of them in 15mm scale.

Some crewfigures would have been a nice addition to these kits. But I may have found a solution to get some crew members, more about that will come in a future post, but this may take 1 or 2 months

The third vehicle included is the GMC CCKW 353. This kit had twice as many parts as the other kits included in the box. The buildup took some time since many parts had to be cleaned from mouldlines and flash.

I added a floor made from paper to the freightbed and installed the Browning AA machine gun on it. The guns belong to the landing ship but I think the fit pretty nice to the truck. Maybe it was a frontline modification.

Last but not least this is a size comparison shot with the Revell 1:144 Stuka. This may not fit but at the moment it is the only finished plane with landing gear I have.

Revell 1:144 Hawker Tempest Mark 1B

I found some pictures while I made a backup from my old mobilephone. This is a Hawker Tempest I built last year, also these two were built at the same time. The built went pretty fast with no complications even when there was much flash to remove since the moulds for this kit are old and kind of worn out.

The Me 262 was built and painted by my mate Olli, while both bases were made by me.

I heard that the Revell Micro Wings kits will not be published again, what would be a shame. These kits were some of the first modelkits I ever built, more than 30 years ago.

This is just a quick post, I am preparing some lines about the helicopters I use for "TANKS The Modern Age", that post should go online soon. After that I am doing some maintenance on the labels of this blog.

1:144 Zvezda IL-2 Stormovik

Pictures of my recently finished IL-2 Stormovik from Russian producer's Zvezda "Art of Tactics" range. The build went fast and without any problems. It was primed and basecoated by airbrush, pictures of it's unfinished state can be found in the post below. The final details were added with the brush.

Since I could not find the original decal sheet in the chaos of my modelling desk, I had to improvise. The numbers were taken from a Revell tank kit, and the red stars were taken from an 1:72 IL-2 kit, they may be a little oversized.

At the moment I am working on a bitsrecycling project. Maybe I will write about that in the later evening.