GBU-38 or Mk 82 is low-drag general-purpose bomb and belong to the U.S. Mark 80 series. With a nominal weight of 500 lb (227 kg), it is the smallest of those bombs in current service, and one of the most common air-dropped weapons in the world. Although the Mk 82’s nominal weight is 500 lb (227 kg), its actual weight varies considerably depending on its configuration, from 510 lb (232 kg) to 570 lb (259 kg). It is a streamlined steel casing containing 192 lb (87 kg) of Tritonal high explosive. The Mk 82 is offered with a variety of fin kits, fuses, and retarders for different purposes.

The North Star Models kit comes in a simple package box and inside are six mold sections and one small etched piece of metal. Resin parts are of great precision and details are excellent. Kit presents the bomb with retarding fin and there are a few options for the fuse, including the long fuse. This pack is good enough to bring details to any of the kits which use them; best use is to attach them to the triple pylon.

Use is very easy, just cut each part, clean mold point and cement to another part. In general you have the main body, rear part and fuse and etched part going on longer fuse. Simple and fast. Painting provides a few versions, main body can be green or blue, rear can be green of grey and there could be also rings on the front of the main body (part no 5 by the way). Rings as I know can be yellow and blue, one or two. So take a look on some relevant image before you go for final painting.

This is an excellent product as are many others from this manufacturer and I highly recommend it!! You may find your sample here and I grant thanks to North Star Models for the sample product.

Srecko Bradic

The expo took place on Saturday 29^th june  at The Orchards, a merchant gallery not so far from Rochester and where the club takes its activities.

As Domi invited me, it was for me the opportunity to discover England and how British people are living with our hobby.

So, on Friday 28^th, I took the train from my home to Brussels where I take the Eurostar. Travel with the Eurostar was very comfortable and fast: less than two hours after the start, I met Domi at Ebbsflet International…

On the evening, I helped Domi to prepare the expo and, on Saturday, we woke up before the sun did and arranged the kits on the tables. The clubs and merchants uninvited by Domi came also quickly and at the opening of the gallery, all was ready.

That first expo was a little but very sympathic one; I had the opportunity to meet English people of course, but also French guys coming from Calais.

For that first time there were no contest but a best of show was attributed by the public. Public were numerous, many of the visitors of the gallery took the time to visit the expo.

For that first expo, it’s really a success. Domi is thinking to the next one, in 2014. That will probably take two days and there will be a contest. For me, decision is alredy taken: I will be present in 2014!

Eurostar bring me back home in Sunday 30^th. I have enjoyed my trip in England…

Daniel Clamot

This tape comes in a card package and it is available in two width sizes, we present here tape 25 mm width and 25 m roll! So enough for a few years of modeling work! Color of the tape is pink and it is good to differ much from regular surface color we meet in our hobby. What especially attracted me is the declaration that this tape is low tack so it could be suitable for the very sensitive paints we ordinary use.

First test is made on F-16 and the making of shapes for aggressor camouflage pattern. The kit is regularly prepared with primer and it has a first coat of acrylic paint from Japan. I have put strips of Tesa tape on the surface and then traced the contour of color with standard graphite pencil. Paper surface performs good and I have clearly visible pencil lines. Then I have removed tape and cut to the proper shape and removed the rest of the tape. I returned tape back to the surface and the tape worked well with excellent tack performance, no matter it is put on and away from surface (which usually makes weak tape for tack again). I have sprayed a coat of paint thinned with alcohol. The paint dried fast and I have removed tape. Results was excellent, shape was sharp, no leaks under and no tape traces over surface.

The next test is much more brutal and I wanted to know the absolute limit of Tesa tape. We all know for Vallejo paints, they have excellent range of paints, many shades ready to use, easy to use bottles, works in any airbrush nozzles, dry fast but to regret, poor adhesion to surface. The worst thing you can do is to spray Vallejo paint direct on shiny plastic and then to try to mask and paint other paint. You will for sure peel off paint. This is exactly what I did, I painted a coat of grey paint on plastic and after it was completely dry I painted a provisional coat of green color over the masked area. Result- I removed tape and no damage occurred!!! Tesa tape works perfectly even in this disastrous situation!!!

Tesa Precision Sensitive tape is an excellent product and I warmly recommend you to put it on top priority list for your next order! It works perfectly, keeps your shape and surface precise, this is suitable for many paint jobs in modeling.

Great thanks to Dragan Sarcevic from Tesa tape Kft for sample products and thanks to Vallejo for support of review.

Srecko Bradic

On their excellent printed decal sheet fourteen various subjects are covered with decals and all of this coming in plastic bag and with good instructions. What is very interesting with these decals is that each subject is fully covered with national insignia and individual numbers and what is really interesting for me is that national insignia have many variations is basic national colors. From the decal sheet you could be able to make following kits:

MiG-23UB, Mi-8, MiG-29UB, L-39C, MiG-23BN, MiG-23ML, MiG-29, MiG-23MF and Mi-24.

I decide to make a MiG-29 from their set and I did single seat version with number 911. The camouflage pattern provided by Aztec Models is very nice with even four colors at the top and nice sky blue at the bottom. From the available images it could be noted that it featured even two patterns, one as described above and another with plain color at the topside. Most interesting is that in both known cases, MiG-29 with number 911 is very clear and perfectly serviced machine so it is not for anybody who prefer fade out and dirt on their kit.

This decal sheet is another great experience for me and I do warmly recommend it to anybody interesting in this country! You can find this as well the rest of their products here.

Great thanks to Aztec Models for sample product and special thanks to Dule Cirlija for his support to this build review.

Srecko Bradic

Aztec Models is a  Mexican company who does some of outstanding decal sheet projects and one of the last releases is their set Freedom Tigers II. This contains markings for the F-5 in foreign small country services. The following countries are included in set 72-050:

Venezuela, Philippines, Iran, Botswana, Korea and North Vietnam.

This product comes in a plastic self sealing bag with two sheets of painting instructions and decal sheet. This is an expert product in any term! Firstly, the decals are beautifully printed, easy lift off from the backing paper and easy to slide and position in place. They work perfectly with decal setting solutions and the colors are properly printed. What you will note is the fact that the airplanes in most cases are covered with single view and near profile work an image of actual subject is provided. I did some searching during work on this article and realized that it is very hard to find full image data to completely cover all side views of airplanes. This is an old problem in plastic modeling and there are not many airplanes (especially not historic) that are completely covered with data. So you have to do the rest of the kit on your own and this demands some little research as well as communications on forums for support.

Image shows an F-5 flown by Philippine Air Force. Camouflage is very interesting and attractive. There are several images available on Internet and this pattern could be more or less reconstructed.

Thanks to Aztec Models for the sample product and special thanks to Zoran Milenovic for support of this article. This, as well all of the other Aztec products, you can find here!

Srecko Bradic

Last years 1/144 is raising and more and more kits are available on market. So no wonder that Balkan Models decide to release set in this scale and set with stock name BM-14401 present generic national insignia set for Yugoslav post WW2 and modern aircrafts.What you have there is vertical tail flags, stars for flags, various start sizes, two sets of black numbers and one of white. Proof of quality is fact that roundels with start is printed as one decal, no separate roundels with separate star which need to be precisely adjusted later. Yellow border on start are crisp and absolute precisely positioned and in general there is no off set on this set. Range of kits you can make is MiG-21, G-4, G-2, J-21, J-22, F-84, F-86, F-47D, T-33, C-47, Ju52, Il-14, Il-18, Boeing 727, DC-6, Caravelle, CL-215, An-2, S-49, Mi-8, Gazelle… As you see a lot of types. Fact is that many of them are still not available in 1/144 scale but if you are skilled modeler built from scratch would not be problem and you will have decals to use in final works.

Su-25 is machine made for bitter fight and it proven its capabilities in war. It find several foreigner operators and BM-7207 set in 1/72 scale give decals for several of them. Inside is given total of eight options for camouflage and markings and focus is given to (Former Yugoslav Republic of) Macedonia Air Force as well four subjects are related to Su-25 used by this country. Other operators there is Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia and Iraq. This decal set will for sure make you doubt which one sample to do as well all patterns are interesting and maybe this will force you to get more kits of this airplane. Instruction leaflet also provide good info about the colors and short info about the each particular aircraft in set.

I am not particularly interest in helicopters but for all of you who might be, this set BM-7208 could be good match! Subject of this set is helicopter Huey, which was also used in Balkan countries, therefore decal set name is Balkan HUEYS. Decal set inside cover six various machines. Operators cover there is Serbian Police, RZiPO, Slovenia Air Force, Croatian Police, (Former Yugoslav Republic of) Macedonia Police and Air Force. This set include couple of operators badges and they are printed perfect!! Camouflage inside is also interesting and various and manufacturer in this field give maximum to make decal sheet very attractive.

Srecko Bradic

Sample product is provided by Primoz Krasna from Balkan Models

It’s a short run kit, but I’m particularly impressed by the quality of that product.  There are 63 very fine parts ; there is no flash and the first impression is that it would not be any problem for the building of that kit.

The instruction sheet is clear, the different phases of building are well explained and the decal sheet is very nice.

My only remark is that the yellow color of Belgian cockades would have to be a little bit more “orange”, but they can be used anyway without any problem. Italian ones are perfect.

I just hope to have the possibility to build that kit very soon… Because that kind of product is a must for 1/72 scale builders. Direct link to product!

Daniel Clamot

Great thanks to Jan Hora from HR model for sample kit

Company which stand behind the kit of Bloudek XV Lojze is Balkan Models from Slovenia and this is first resin kit they are delivered. This kit is in the 1/72 scale and stock number is BM-R7201. Kit is packed in full color card box and design of the box is excellent done, this could be nice sample how the small manufacturer could deliver their product in top industrial design standards. Inside of box is the instructional leaflet, in color where first page provide historic info about the same airplane. Very important for many who hardly could be informed about this kit. Resin parts are all packed in plastic bags and they are good mold. Also there is excellent decals sheet which offer you option to make one of few variants in which Bloudek XV Lojze was flew. And small package include small metal pipes for exhaust stacks.

Lets be clear- resin kits are for experienced modelers so when I state that this it is easy to build, I mean this. But not for beginners for sure. Number of parts as well simplicity allow it to be assembled in few hours!!!Parts are crisp mold so there is no need for much sanding except for the place where part was connected with mold base. Instructional leaflet is very easy to follow and it include all details we need. Only thing I have change is the interior assembly, I find more easy to put pilot seat inside fuselage from bottom while the instruction suggest to be cement on wing and then together fit into place.

No matter that it have several variations of markings, scheme is in all cases the same- overall red machine with cowling in different color. I said in different colors as well there is doubts is this white or natural metal or even silver. So I decided to use silver there. Red color, regarding to craftsmans testimony, was locally obtained red color so this could be everything, paint for wood, paint for cars… Make your choice in this way. Use of decals going so smooth, over gloss surface you have no need to use any decal setting products. Best part is that for last step I decide to put exhaust stacks and Balkan Models prepare very precise pipes cut in length!!

Finished model look so cute and nice and this is for sure one of those which will capture eye of your visitor who will ask ‘What is this?’. Also I am impressed with the fact that for the first kit Balkan Models did excellent product in any aspect of this meaning! And best at all is that this kit is sell very good!!! You will not regret if you get this kit and direct order it here!

Srecko Bradic

Sample kit is provided by Primoz Krasna from Balkan Models
For work on the kit were used Albion Alloys tools

You can get Plastic-I-Weld as sample product but maybe best is to take it in package. This package (see image above) is called Touch and Flow System and it contain all you need for work with plastic kits. First at all there is bottle of Plastic-I-Weld cement, one Touch and Flow applicator and one refill plastic bottle. Hart of the system is Touch-N-Flow applicator which is glass tin tube with metal needle at the bottom. It is used for absolute pin point accuracy and also save material compared with classic method where is liquid cement apply by brush. Use is simply- soak needle of Touch-N-Flow into the bottle of Plastic-I-Weld and let for few minutes. Due to capillary action glass tube will be filled with some cement. Please note that when you have to get out needle from cement to cover top of Plastic-N-Flow with finger and keep cement inside. When you start to use simply move away finger and this will start flow with easy on area where you need it. If you have any reload problems you can use plastic bottle inside to reload it from top.

Another great product which is greatly used for precise cement application is the c/A Applicator which is used for pin point application of the super glue. This is very simple tool, which present aluminum body with very thin metal fork at the top. Use is simply- just take some super glue inside this fork and touch where you need to put any small part. This is all. Cleaning is simple with acetone.

All above mentioned product are great tools and materials to make our build more quality and to model our kits with great pleasure. This products can be found direct here!

Srecko Bradic

Great thanks to Matthew D. John from Albion Alloys for providing of sample products.

Reference material is always most valuable material you can see in publication so inside Warplanes you can find extracts from manuals, blueprints as well number of archive images. Joined with model build this give top content with almost all in one source for reader. Interesting things that publication is interactive so you can jump from content page on the desired page in publication. Authors are experienced and with reference work published in various publications before. In this moment we have deliver two issues of magazine and you could see them here and here! Magazine info page is here!

Srecko Bradic