Friday, September 15, 2017

Diorama vol.3: Normandy rest area: June 1944


Subject:
Normandy rest area: June 1944
Scale:
1/35
Manufacturer:
Miniart + Paiol modelismo fountain
Price
Miniart kit US$20,00 plus shipping; Paiol Modelismo Fountain kit US$25,00 plus shipping.
Description
Minart ki is injection molded. Diorama base is resin cast.
Comments
This is miiniart's kit U.S. soldiers at rest. The figures have fantastic design, with unusual design and lots of extra gears. As usual, the problem with this manufacturer's kits is the excess of flash, After cleaning however, the fit is very good and worth building. The fountain i got at our local ebay site (mercadolivre.com). It is resin cast kit and really well done. Painting was done with Vallejo acrylics for the figures and the base and fountain was finished with tamiya acrylics.



















Friday, September 8, 2017

Aircraft walkaround vol 86: Mig17


Subject: Mig17
Location: Intrepid air, sea and space museum, New York, 2015
Comments: The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-17; NATO reporting name: Fresco) is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the USSR from 1952 and operated by numerous air forces in many variants. It is an advanced development of the very similar appearing MiG-15 of the Korean War. The MiG-17 was license-built in China as the Shenyang J-5 and Poland as the PZL-Mielec Lim-6.  MiG-17s first saw combat in 1958 in the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis and later proved to be an effective threat against more modern supersonic fighters of the United States in the Vietnam War. It was also briefly known as the Type 38 by U.S. Air Force designation prior to the development of NATO codes.MiG-17s were designed to intercept straight-and-level-flying enemy bombers, not for air-to-air combat (dogfighting) with other fighters. This subsonic (.93 Mach) fighter was effective against slower (.6-.8 Mach), heavily loaded U.S. fighter-bombers, as well as the mainstay American strategic bombers during the MiG-17's development cycle (such as the Boeing B-50 Superfortress or Convair B-36 Peacemaker, which were both still powered by piston engines). It was not however able to intercept the new generation of British jet bombers such as the Avro Vulcan and Handley Page Victor, which could both fly higher. Even if the target had sufficient warning and time to shed weight and drag by dropping external ordnance and accelerate to supersonic escape speeds, doing so would have inherently forced the enemy aircraft to abort its bombing mission. However, the USAF's introduction of strategic bombers capable of supersonic dash speeds such as the Convair B-58 Hustler and General Dynamics FB-111 rendered the MiG-17 obsolete in front-line PVO service, and they were supplanted by supersonic interceptors such as the MiG-21 and MiG-23.













Friday, September 1, 2017

Diorama Vol. 1: Normandy 1944: Where is the front?



Subject:
Normandy 1944: Where is the front?
Scale:
1/35
Manufacturer:
Miniart base, Masterbox figures, Italeri jeep
Price
US$120,00 plus shipping including all kits
Description
Injection molded with waterslide decals. Some extras from several sources
Comments
This is a scene built to represent an encounter between the British paratroopers and the french resistance during the Normandy campaign in June 1944. The center piece is the diorama box from Miniart (Boccage street) that was used as a Normandy environment. Figures came from two different sets from Masterbox and the jeep is from Italeri. The bricks aand vegetation were made from scratch using several different materials from a local art store.