Eastern Express?

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

Has any one ever built any eastern express kits? Whats the kits like in detail any good?

2

I have their Hansa Brandenburg kit in my stash, which I haven’t built yet. At a glance, the kit has some really fine detail, with very little flash on the parts. The decals look ok. I know that some of their kits are from the Ex-Toko molds–which Toko got from Roden. I’ve never built any Roden kits before, but from what I hear, some Roden kits are real jewels, and others are complete junk.

3

I’ve rescribed their 1/72 PV-1 Ventura, am saving the build for a theme/series of builds I intend to do later. The fuselage shape matches my references pretty well, but the wings are a different story (I’m not sure if they’re off or my references are). Interior detail is basically nil, engines are primitave but mostly hidden anyway.

4

Stuka-for their price they are very good kits-and feature unusual subjects such as the Hansa Brandenburg mentioned earlier.

5

Eastern Express makes good kits. The details are good, fit is good and the price is great also. Like trowlfazz said, they do make a lot of interesting and unusual subjects.
Recommended

Edit: Typo Corrected.

6

Thanks guys for the feedback, I only noticed them as I was looking through the list of there kits and saw that they have a 1/72 B-26 which I’ve been wanting to build for ages so now I think I’ll look into it a bit more.
CHEERS!

7

Do bear in mind that some EE kits are ex-Frog/Novo moulds (e.g. Canberra B(I)8; Attacker; Hunter, etc, etc). This is why the quality of some of the kits (compared to the reboxes of Toko kits) is a little low.

I’ve seen reference to a Frog B-26 on Modelling Madness, and the review said that it built into a ‘respectable’ kit with a little care (as did the Airfix and Revell efforts at the aircraft). I would assume that the EE kit is a reissue of the Frog kit, so it might be worth tracking down a review to see whether this is the best one.

8

i bought 3 of them b26 they are nice except the decals i checked out the airframe # on the tail verses the nose art no match so the decals are a bogus plane

9

also if you want other decals the only people that make any for that plane is pyn decals
i looked around and[banghead] went crazy
the other interesting feature is that many of them had a different nose picture on each side[banghead]

10

Hey DURR whats the detail like o the kit? rasied or reccessed panel lines? good cockpit detail?

11

the cock pit is not good you will need aftermarket detail
the rest is ok though
they seem to be the only one out there ( except revell they have a snap together one)
for ONE of the most important planes of the war few people show that much interest
in it

12

Thats good as long as it isn’t a complete piece of junk I’m happy,now to start with some research to find some detail shots of that interior…
One other thing DURR can you have the bomb bay open?

13

not on the model but bombay in india is open [bow] lol[(-D]

14

O.K!

15

Prior to the release of the Eastern Express kit, there have been 5 different manufacturers who have released 1/72 kits of the B-26. Having built (or tried to build) four of the five I would rate them as follows:

  1. Airfix - Very nice kit, raised lines (which I don’t consider a problem as 99% of the panel lines on WW II aircraft are caused by overlapping sheets of aluminum), can be built into an excellent replica of the B-26

  2. Revell - Again a nice kit, but not quite up to the level of the Airfix offering - Masses of rivets that need removing - with work (lots of elbow grease removing rivets) makes a pretty good model

  3. Monogram - A Snap-Tite kit, but the only one of a very early model B-26. Decals(???) unusable as they are of the peel and paste variety. Again with work can be turned into a gem (I know one modeler who built and entered this kit in a local contest - won best in class with it).

  4. Frog - I’ve had three of these beasties and never managed to get one completed (I bought the first one, was given the second and the third was in a box of models I bought at an auction). Landing gears needed to be replaced with scratch built units (origional too weak to support the kit), clear parts were either too thick or too thin and not very clear, props unusable, and lots of fit problems. If you gave me one of these kits, I wouldn’t even open it - just throw it in the trash bin.

  5. Matchbox - I’ve never built this kit as I was satisfied with both the Airfix and Revell versions - perhaps someone here who has built it would give us their impression.

If the Eastern Express kit is indeed the old Frog kit, I would recommend looking around and see if you can find an Airfix kit instead. (I don’t know if they are currently producing it, but if they aren’t, wait a little while and it will probably be re-released)

Note: In the States, the Airfix kit was realeased under the MPC and later General Foods label while the Frog version was released under the AMT label. Revell of Germany has (or had) a B-26 kit but I don’t know if it is the origional Revell kit or the Matchbox kit.

16

Thanks for the heads up qmeister, I ahve seen the Revell germany offering in my LHS and as you have stated it looks to me like it is the revell kit!
I have’nt heard of the airfix kit before though? anybody built it?