The Silicon Valley Scale Modelers had a contest called "Build Your Name." Unlike Frank Babbitt (who did a Ki-84) or Eugenie Ray (whose pre-marriage initials were E.T., hence her little spaceship), I had no obvious options. I built the plane flown by Robert C. Buchholz of the Fourth Fighter Group (you can read his full story here: https://obscureco.wordpress.com/2026/04/12/metronymic-mustang-building-lt-robert-buchholz-p-51d-10-from-the-eduard-172-kit/ ) who was not a close relation (although his name is spelled like my family's was before they immigrated from Hamburg in the 1880s). The Eduard kit is a step up in detail and accuracy from the Tamiya kit, but a step down in ease of construction. The surface is detail is... well, a bit overdone. Some areas of construction, like the instrument panel/rudder/windscreen, don't fit very well. The 108-gallon tanks in the kit don't fit particularly well; with Eduard's Brassin line, one could be cynical and say there was a reason for that. Different variants need you to scribe or fill lines; pay particular attention if you do a D-5 with a fillet. All that said, the cockpit looks great, they give you tank options we've never had before, and a bit of modeling is rewarded. I used True North paint for the red and white trim and Alclad II for the fuselage. The wings were puttied, sanded and painted with Floquil old silver.

The JASDF operated a special unit for Phantom testing from it’s earliest service days in 1971. The F-4EJ ADTW (Air Development and Test Wing) was the first and last operator of the F-4EJ in Japan until it'sdxm disbanding in 2021. Based at Gifu AB, the ADTW tested new technologies and weapon systems for the JASDF. Throughout the Phantom's service, the ADTW evaluated F-4EJ variants including the improved Kai version.

Korean modelling company, DXM Decals, has released a set of 1/48 decals for three airframes, including two F-4Ejs and one F-4EJ Kai. The single standard-sized decal sheet is packed with images, including all the decals required for the three options that include a farewell scheme, and a full set of stencils.

I like small air forces so whenever a book comes out covering planes flown by them I am interested, especially if it shows schemes used by those smaller air forces.

The Bazzocchi Connection is focused on two designs by Engineer Ermanno Bazzocchi who joined Machi during WW2. The Introduction covers early designs leading up to the MB.326 in 1961 after the firm became Aermacchi. This plane later evolved into the MB.339 and these two aircraft make up the bulk of the narrative and pictures.

The book moves through the development history of the MB.326 before moving into operational use. One interesting aspect is tables listing all operational aircraft by serial numbers under the air forces they flew with and with a notes column listing each planes outcome.

More images of sprue layouts, colours & decals to add to the CADs, info & art of MiniArt's latest "Blitz" – the early 1/35th scale 4x4 cargo truck, 3.6-6700A, in our preview...Read on... »

Here it is finally finished, my build of the Academy M3A1 Stuart Light Tank, in the markings of the USMC 3rd Tank Battalion on Bougainville in late 1943. The kit comes with a fairly comprehensive interior, but I added some missing details in there, as well as some on the external extra fuel tanks and some reinforcement iron bars on the rear fenders that photos showed. I replaced the kit headlight brush guards with some 3D printed ones and an engine exhaust screen that I printed up from files that I bought off of Cults3D. Paints are primarily AK Real Colors, along with AK, Vallejo, and Humbrol acrylics. I used the kit decals, and surprisingly they did not cause any problems as Academy decals often are reputed to do. And just for some size comparisons, this thing is pretty small… Bigger than a jeep Much smaller than an Easy 8 Sherman and pretty close in size to WC-51 3/4 ton truck… Thanks for looking, comments and critiques are welcome…