New 1/144ths

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Fri Feb 04, 2011 10:40 am

For anyone interested, theres some new 1/144ths coming out by F-toys from Japan. This will be Wing Kit Collection 6.

The A1-H will be exciting. A Skyraider has already been produced in 1/144 before but Im not sure if this is a new mold or not. The most exciting piece is the F4U-4 that will be available for the first time to the 1/144 folk. I was considering converting a Bandai F4U-1 but now I wont have to. And the Sea Fury is nothing to scoff at either. Very excited for that craft too. Check it out! Link here:
http://kampfgruppe144.blogspot.com/2011/01/1144-wing-kit-collection-vol6-f-toys.html

The Inspector · **Posted:** Fri Feb 04, 2011 11:55 am

Those look like they will work Chris! I saw somewhere that a 1/144th J-2 'LOON' was being released, something that small should be sold in bunches like grapes! :lol:

viking73 · **Posted:** Thu Feb 10, 2011 8:27 am

If only someone would do an injection 1/144 Convair 240/340 series...

Thanks for the heads-up on these little jewels.

-Derek

The Inspector · **Posted:** Thu Feb 10, 2011 11:54 am

Agree, MINICRAFT is really missing the bus on those, so many variants could be done for so many airline/military apps including ALLISON 580's

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:30 pm

wow!! when i think back over the years of the shoddy sh1tty workmanship of models in that scale compared to now??? you can only thank the computer technology!! 10 years ago items like that were cereal prize caliber!!

Warbird Kid · **Posted:** Thu Feb 10, 2011 4:41 pm

Yeah its no secret that the technology in modeling (all around) has gotten better ten-fold. Thankfully for me, that includes 1/144th scale. Now a-days your seeing detail in 1/144th models that was reserved originally for 1/72nd or even 1/48th scale! Im always excited.

ALSO: I have a Bandai 1/144th Corsair which needs to be resin cast. The model came pre built and painted, but is unglued and can be disassembled into the basic components like a conventional model and would need to have all of the parts separate so they could be reproduced. If anyone here is proficient at resin casting please drop me a line. Im not sure how much you'd want for the actual work of creating a mold but Id be very interested. My goal is to produce a 1/144th scale diorama of the Chance-Vought factory during peak production in 44 I believe. Needless to say this would be a museum quality diorama, and it would be displayed at the Connecticut Air & Space Center. It would also require a TON of Corsairs and just buying and building a huge pile of models is not in the budget. I mean, considering that one of these Corsairs can fetch up to $50.00 on ebay theres really no other logical option. Yes, you heard me right. A 1/144th Corsair can go for over fifty bucks. And you don't wanna see the Bandai Yak 9 either! That goes for alot more usually!

The Inspector · **Posted:** Thu Feb 10, 2011 7:27 pm

Chris
Do it yourself! Over the last few of years FineScale Modeler has run a number of articles on doing your own resin casting projects. In fact the recent issue showed some guy who carved the plugs and did all the casting on some C-141's, S/B available thru their online forums.

And if anyone is interested and hasn't seen it yet, Hyperscale has two posts today on building and reviewing the 1/32nd B-25.

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2011 3:19 am

Quote:

If only someone would do an injection 1/144 Convair 240/340 series..

I think Minicraft has those on their "coming soon" list. They showed off some hand-made prototypes at a recent show. Of course, they've had a 1/72 PBM on the "coming soon" list for over five years now.

SN

Second Air Force · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2011 10:42 am

Chris,

As the Inspector said, moldmaking and resin casting is not at all hard, just a bit messy. Go down to your hobby store or Hobby Lobby and pick up an Alumilite RTV mold/resin kit and have at it. As I recall, the kit has an excellent instruction sheet that explains the process very thoroughly. It just takes a little experience with the proper way to make your mold and you can crank out bunches of Corsairs. I had an aftermarket resin parts business (stock car detail/upgrade parts) and ordered Alumilite resin by the gallon. If you'd like I can do a tutorial thread on limited-run moldmaking.

Scott

The Inspector · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2011 12:59 pm

Scott,
I'd pay a Dollar for that! As I understand it, the #1 issue is 'de-airing' the mixed resin so you don't wind up casting a big bubble with an aileron attached.

Second Air Force · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2011 1:23 pm

I've cast a lot of parts but never used a vacuum chamber. You can occasionally get a bubble, but as you learn how each mold reacts to the resin pouring process, and the heat created during the cure, you can eliminate most of the problems. On really big or thick parts air entrapment is more of an issue. The "real" resin casters have much more equipment than short-run guys like me. I'll crank up a separate thread on the subject this weekend and link it through here also.

viking73 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 15, 2011 8:10 am

The Inspector wrote:

Agree, MINICRAFT is really missing the bus on those, so many variants could be done for so many airline/military apps including ALLISON 580's

Well this is pretty funny considering the timing - on page 12 of the latest issue of "Scale Aviation Modeller International", there was this little blurb:

"Seen at the iHobby show in Chicago was Minicraft's proposed new 1/144 Convairliner. One or two kits are planned for release, hopefully in 2011, after the completion of the ongoing range of KC-135s".

The small picture included with this shows a Convair liner with what looks like turbo-props (the 580s?), so it's not a 240 or 340 with the R-2800s which is a bit of a let-down at this early stage for me!

But maybe there's some hope yet as long as they do the 240 and 340 first so we can model the T-29/C-131A series and the longer C-131B/D!!

-Derek

Steve Nelson · **Posted:** Tue Feb 15, 2011 3:24 pm

There was some discussion of the Minicraft Convairliners when they were announced. It seems the models displayed at the show were hand-built prototypes, meaning it's unknown how long it'll be before the actual kits are available. I talked with the Minicraft rep at the IPMS USA Nationals a couple of years ago about the 1/72 PBM, which has been on their "coming soon" list for at least five years. He said the engineering was done, but they were trying to find a company to do the tooling for a reasonable price.

SN

The Inspector · **Posted:** Tue Feb 15, 2011 4:57 pm

....and all those Chinese political prisoners just sittin' around waiting for their trip to the wall..........

Mgawa · **Posted:** Thu Feb 24, 2011 5:05 am

I have seen announce for the very new A-4 Skyhawk and this look interesting!!

Warbird Information Exchange

New 1/144ths

Who is online