Eduard has graciously provided the IPMS Reviewer Corps with their new Limited Edition dual combo kit: Wilde Sau, Episode Three: Until the Fall of the Empire. Featuring the Fw 190A-8 and Fw 190D-9 kits in 1/48th scale.

In the Box

This is a typical Eduard top-open box with beautiful artwork. Inside are parts for a Fw 190A-8 and a Fw 190D-9 WWII German airplane. Also included are photo-etched frets for each plane, along with two sets of resin wheels and masking sets for the wheels and canopies.

The instruction booklet has 32 pages with easy-to-follow steps and well-detailed illustrations.

Decals are on one large sheet for both planes, along with a separate stencil decal sheet for each plane. Decals are the kind where you can lift off the carrier film after letting it dry overnight.

The provided decal markings are as follows:

What is in the Box

• 5 pink injection molded plastic sprues [58 parts total]
• 1 clear sprue
• 1 decal sheet with 1 markings options & damage decals
• 1 full instruction page
• 1 FULL color box top diagram

Construction

The construction begins with the exposed Speeder engine parts. These were all airbrushed with metallic paints-Gunze & Alclad various shades. Fairly simple construction but I suggest some dry fitting before painting. The next phase I pre-painted some assemblies before construction. This is in contradiction of the sequential order of the instructions. This will pay dividends in final construction and save some messy masking.

Jaws is one of the most iconic movies ever and started the summer blockbuster trend. I remember watching it in the theater with my mom 50 years ago. Besides the actors and Bruce the shark, one of the iconic things in the movie is the Orca, Quint’s boat. There were actually two of these. The first was an actual functioning boat bought by production designer Joe Alves and was a lobster boat called the Warlock. It was heavily modified and painted to become the Orca. The second Orca was a sinking version used for the final scene in the movie. Enough history, Agora Models has issued a 1/16^th scale version of the Orca as a 50^th anniversary version. Agora uses a business model where you can buy the entire kit, a Collectors Edition which comes with extras or you can buy them monthly over 1 or 2 years period.

Basic Background

For those of an age, you may well remember the 1979 Disney Studios movie, The Black Hole, its basic premise, in the year 2130, the USS Palomino, while returning to Earth following deep space exploration, comes across a black hole with a considered lost vessel, the Cygnus, hovering on the edge of the black hole. As a part of that movie, the evil robot, Maximillian, serves the antagonist, Dr Reinhardt as his personal bodyguard.