Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale US Navy Lockheed S-3A Viking Anti-Submarine Aircraft – VS-29 “Dragonfires”, USS Enterprise (CVN-65), 1970s
When a Company heaps on added SKUs for a fourth quarter release, that’s generally viewed as a positive development in the industry since the manufacturer is willing to bet on the consumer for the upcoming holiday season and hopefully get as much mileage out of their product portfolio as possible. Hobby Master has been doing just that in recent months, pumping out added product that seems to supersede their monthly release schedules by leaps and bounds.
Earlier today, they called attention to a new S-3A Viking anti-submarine aircraft (HA4907) that will ride on the coattails of their October releases. What makes this a significant offering is that the aircraft comes from Viking squadron (VS-29) “Dragonfires”, which served aboard the USS Enterprise during the 1970s. Obviously this means that collectors with a keen interest in “Big E” aircraft will get yet another warbird to round out their embarked squadron replicas. Better still, the price seems to have dropped for their newest Viking, down from a scale-tipping $118.99 to a much more manageable $100.
Air Force 1’s 1:72 scale USAAF Consolidated B-24D Liberator Heavy Bomber – “Wongo Wongo,” 512th Bomb Squadron, 376th Bomb Group, 9th Air Force, North Africa, 1943
Air Force 1 isn’t one of those diecast model makers that sticks to any hard-and-fast schedule when it comes to announcing new product. So when they do finally poke their heads out of their research and design room, it usually comes with a bit of fanfare.
With June just a day away, the Company drew back the curtains on “Wongo Wongo”, an odd-sounding Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber that served in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operation during WWII with the US 9th Air Force. Selecting “Wongo Wongo” as their inaugural 1:72 scale Liberator is a bit of a risk for several reasons. First, collectors typically associate the Allied bombing campaign as being waged from England and not North Africa. Second, “Wongo Wongo” never made it to its target, having succumbed to enemy anti-aircraft fire. And third, because it took wing from a North African air base, it is painted in desert sand rather than a European scheme, meaning it tends to stick out a bit in any diecast collection.
While the choice of aircraft may be a wee bit risky, the aircraft type is as they say, “a no-brainer”, coming hot on the heels of a pair of best selling Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses. Its certainly priced right — carrying a MAP of $115.99 – making it an ideal companion piece to either of their Fortresses. Best of all, because its expected in August, collectors won’t have to wait long to wrap their mitts around this war winner.
On the first day of production on Top Gun 2, Tom Cruise tweeted out this image showing him in the foreground in front of a naval aircraft. Fast forward 30 years, and its likely the F-14 will be swapped out for a more stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter or, as some suggest, this two-seat F/A-18F Super Hornet Strike Aircraft.
By now, you’ve likely heard that Tom Cruise signed on to do a sequel to Top Gun, entitled, what else, Top Gun 2. Yesterday he tweeted out an image with the three-word tag line “Feel the Need”, which aptly paraphrases the “Need for Speed” musical montage that helped to launch the original movie into cinematic history over 30 years ago. In the sequel, Cruise, who reprises his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, plays a flight instructor at the world-famous Top Gun Naval School who likely becomes embroiled in a conflict over the contested waters known as the China Seas. Drones and F-35C Joint Strike Fighters will likely take center stage this time around replacing the retired F-14 Tomcats that became the hallmark of the original film.
And, while we’re on the subject of Top Gun, we still have an ample supply of F-14s in both 1:72 and 1:200 scales, along with a bunch of ancillary products that combine to make the displays rich and filled with seat-of-the-pants excitement. Check ’em out now before they fly off into the danger zone.
Eaglemoss” Star Trek Federation Intrepid Class Starship – Kyrian Warship USS Voyager NCC-74656
Back during the holiday season, Eaglemoss announced that they were expanding their Star Trek standard-sized ship series to 160 ships, an increase of 30 ships from their present level. That said, four new ships were unveiled today, bringing the known fleet up to 134 models. The quartet of ships include:
#131 – Star Trek Earth Arctic One Transport
#132 – Star Trek Federation Intrepid Class Starship – Kyrian Warship USS Voyager NCC-74656
#133 – Star Trek Terrellian Racer – Irina’s Racing Ship
They’ve guided you down the path of life, taught you how to ride your first bike and even played catch with you after a hard day at work. Why not show them you care by giving them a special gift from The Motor Pool? From now until Sunday, June 17th, you can enjoy a 15% discount off the price of any item on our web site! Please enter discount code “TMP181” in the coupon box just prior to final checkout. Note: The following lines are excluded from this promotional offer: Air Force 1, Calibre Wings, Extreme Metal, Hobby Master, Luft-X and Wings of the Great War. Sale ends midnight, Sunday, June 17th, 2018. May not be combined with any other sales discount.
Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale US M60A1 Patton Medium Tank with Reliability Improved Selected Equipment (RISE) IR/White Light Spotlight – Snow, Temperate Open Terrain MERDC Camouflage, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Armored Division, Gelnhausen, Germany, 1977 (1:72 Scale)
In 1972, the US Army started trials at the Mobility Equipment Research and Development Center to improve the camouflage of vehicles, soldiers and equipment. Until these trials, most vehicles deployed by the army were painted in monotone olive drab.
The goal of the trials was to produce a fairly simple vehicle camouflage that could be applied easily down to sub-unit level, would make battlefield detection of the vehicle more difficult for an enemy using the ‘Mk.1 eyeball’, and would also hopefully reduce the effectiveness of more technologically advanced methods of detection.
At the conclusion of the trials it was found that two of the three goals were met, but the paint available at the time wasn’t particularly more effective against methods like IR than the existing colour scheme. With the naked eye, though, the scheme was found to be very difficult to detect at distances beyond 800 meters.
By 1975, the trials were complete, and the familiar four-colur scheme had been selected. Technical manual 5-200 “Camouflage Pattern Painting” was released. This document contained the templates for color placement on all of the vehicles then in service as well as codifying regulations for how the pattern was supposed to be applied.
Boiled down, the templates should be followed as closely as practically possible with a difference of no more than two inches.
The templates set the colours to cover specific proportions of each vehicle so that the first two colors would each cover 45% of a surface with the remaining colors covering 5% each.
There were 8 colour combinations set to cover a wide range of climatic conditions:
Winter Verdant: Forest Green, Field Drab, Sand and Black
Summer Verdant: Forest Green, Light Green, Sand and Black.
Tropical: Forest Green, Dark Green, Light Green and Black
Snow, Temperate Open Terrain: White, Field Drab, Sand and Black
Snow, Temperate with Trees: Forest Green, White, Sand and Black
Arctic: White
Grey Desert: Sand, Field Drab, Earth Yellow and Black
Red Desert: Earth Red, Earth Yellow, Sand and Black
Eight different camouflage patterns were chosen as the basis for masking armor during the height of the Cold War
Hobby Master plans to offer two M60A1 Patton tanks that make use of this camouflage scheme (HG5604 and HG5605), one set in the late 70s with the US Army and the other set in the 80s with the US Marine Corps. (Text courtesy of TeamYankee.com)
Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale USMC M60A1 Patton Medium Tank with Reliability Improved Selected Equipment (RISE) IR/White Light Spotlight – Snow with Trees MERDC Camouflage, 1980s (1:72 Scale)
Click on the pictorial link to be whisked away to our Gift-Giving section.
Father’s Day is just a few weeks away so we’ve compiled a section containing loads of gift-giving ideas for dear old dad. There’s something for everyone, from first-time father’s to grand dads fondly looking back on their military service. Remember, we’re here to answer your questions and can quickly ship you anything listed as being in stock in time for his big day.
I guess some former Hollywood A-listers are past their prime and will do anything for a buck. Such is the case with Bruce Willis, who stars in a Chinese-made WWII flick entitled Unbreakable Spirit (formerly The Bombing). According to Cinema Escapist, “Unbreakable Spirit aims to dramatize Chinese resistance during the Bombing of Chongqing, which lasted from 1938-1943. Located deep inland, Chongqing served as China’s temporary capital from 1937-1946, as Japan captured many coastal cities including the formal capital Nanjing. Aiming to crush China’s government, Japan flew 268 raids over Chongqing. The raids killed over 10,000 civilians and destroyed much of the city center.”
While the CGI generated combat scenes look decent enough, we’ll leave it up to you decide when this film will go straight to video in the english-speaking market and whether or not its worthy of serious discussion as a war tribute.
Every Wednesday, Eaglemoss draws back the curtains on a handful of upcoming Star Trek starships. While nothing was in the hopper this week, the Company did announce plans to produce yet another subscription-based series — this time around offering busts of several major Star Trek characters. The first is, of course, Captain Kirk, as he was portrayed in the Original TV Series (TOS) by William Shatner. Each bust stands between 4.5″ to 6″ tall, comes with a full-color magazine, and carries a MSRP of $29.99. Kirk is holding both a communicator and a hand-held phaser and is wearing a gold-tone uniform befitting a command officer. The first bust is tentatively scheduled for a fourth quarter release, so get your gold-pressed Latinum laid out in neat piles ready for processing.
Beginning today, we are launching a new section in our blog entitled Tales of Transparency. The ultimate goal is to establish a clear line of communication between the customer and the vendor and reduce the so-called “friction” that can occur as each attempts to understand the other and make any transaction as seamless as possible.
To kick things off, we amended our Diecast Military Helicopter section to reflect the growing use of tilt-wing rotorcraft in many of today’s air forces. With new aircraft coming online soon, such as the Bell V-280 Valor title rotor aircraft, and the increasing usage of drones to spy on and engage the enemy in real-time, we felt it was high time that our web site remained in lock-step with today’s headlines and advances in military hardware. So, we’ve updated the name of the main category, moved around some sub sections, and generally performed some housecleaning exercises aimed at better segregating each type of diecast replica. We hope you enjoy these changes.
