In know there is no way I can relate this incident without sounding like the dirty ingrate that I am, but it just goes to show that good luck often comes with a footnote attached.
I got one of those pink notices that I had a package at the post office, and since I wasn’t expecting anything from anyone yet, I didn’t think much of it. When I got there, I had a sizeable package with a Czech Republic return address. Lo and behold, it was from Eduard! Then I remembered I had requested some items for some builds I owe to a magazine not related to this one. The parts weren’t critical to my article, so I just tossed off an e-mail to the fine folks at Eduard and forgot about it. Well, this is what I got: A Profipak Mirage IIIc I didn’t not even ask for, but man am I glad they were kind enough to send it. I don’t know how it fits, yet, but I have rarely seen a kit that is such a beauty just sitting in the box, with its PE parts, two BIG, multi-colored decal sheets, two instruction booklets, one of which is in full color, masks for everything on the kit that needs to be masked, a nose weight that’s shaped to fill the radome perfectly…
Anyway, on to what I asked for, all in 1/48: A large double fret for a B-25G/H and a separate bombay set for the B-25; a color double fret for an A6M3 Type 22 Zero; a double color fret for an F-86F and, finally, another double color fret for a Hurricane II.
That’s the good news.
Now the bad: B-25G kit is Accurate Miniatures – I didn’t even know Monogram made a G model in their series of B-25s; the Zero frets were for the newer Hasegawa kit; I have the old Tamiya warhorse, a Type 32 with the clipped wings; the F-86F, well, I don’t have one at all, and this is for the Hasegawa set.
The one thing that salvages all t his is, I have a Hasegawa Hurricane Mk. IId, the only fret I have the model for.
Now, for the question, does anyone know if I can get any use out of the B-25G fret on the AcMin Mitchell? Or will any of the Zero set transfer to that old Tamiya kit? I hate to take a few parts out of each fret and leave the rest as having little value to anyone. The Zero set, like the Sabre’s and the Hurricane’s, has a smaller colorized fret (I feel as though I’m cheating using these, but lord, such things as the striped ejection seat handles are simply stunning to behold.) and each has a larger fret for such things as lowered flaps. I’m really looking forward to building the whole Sabre ejection seat from metal. But I feat the Mitchell bomb bay may leave me with nothing usable but the nifty fret of folding bomb fins that comes separately.
As I said, this stuff is specifically earmarked for magazine assignments, which an editor in London is waiting for as I write, and I need to make him some good looking models. I’m sure our Webmaster doesn’t like this particular line of discussion, but there you have it. I can’t afford to buy these kits, and Eduard does not make similar frets for AcMin B-25s. And, if anyone has ever worked for a monthly magazine knows, it takes ages to get paid, and in fact, unless you publish your modeling articles just to see your name and model in print, with the cheap rates these magazines pay, it is unreasonable to expect the writer to pay for the kits and AM parts that go into the build. I don’t do this work for my own vanity. It’s my business (journalism that is, not working for model magazines specifically because I’d starve at their pay rates), though working for model mags, is just about something I would do for free.
Any advice?
Tom