Revell 1/72 PB4Y-2

It appears to be a re-issue of the Matchbox kit.

That's too bad. The kit needs some updating. I have a vac-form conversion around somewhere.

Phil_H wrote:

It appears to be a re-issue of the Matchbox kit.

Which I'm building and I think looks good. There's a bunch of AM stuff- so far I've bought the  Quickboost gun barrels. High Planes makes nice nacelles. But Cobra makes a very complete set of just about everything you could dream of, all for $ 50. All of the stuff listed above, plus interiors, propellers, guns, wheels and on and on.

EDIT: Gulp, I just bought it. I'll use the barrels on my Mariner, which is a MUCH worse kit.

And hey, the Matchbox kit comes already molded in white, light and dark blue so NO PAINT NECESSARY

Even straight out of the box it wasn't too bad (for its time that is). The guns were overly long and featureless, the fuselage windows were a pain to cut out and square up (Matchbox plastic of the time being extremely hard), but it had fairly restrained raised panel lines, unlike Matchbox kits of old which had huge canals for panel lines.

bondoman wrote:

And hey, the Matchbox kit comes already molded in white, light and dark blue so NO PAINT NECESSARY

Wait till you see the light blue - better have some sunglasses ready (or put some window tint film on your opti-visor)

More to the point, what's the competition like for 1/72 Privateers, exactly? The new RoG kit is the Matchbox kit reboxed, albeit in only one colour, and with rather better decals. Sure it has issues, but it's only £16 here in the UK - think what a  Hasegawa one would cost!

Cheers,

Chris.

Well I noticed both blues are from the Pontiac Tempest line circa 67. I really like Matchbox. No they are not state of the art, but they are square and complete. like Frog. I've got the Stranraer almost finished, which I've posted on the Matchbox GB, the Heyford is next and the Privateer is a very nice subject.

I've got high hopes for this Cobra set. It's turning the build into a bit of a commitment, but it's a top GB too.

Watch for my build in War of the Pacific GB.

The Heyford's a fun build, especially if you replace detail parts such as interior fittings and machine guns with aftermarket stuff:

Don't install all the bombs, though, unless you intend only to bomb the pub at the far end of the runway!

Cheers,

Chris.

Hey Chris -- nice photos. I'm starting my build of the Heyford but am struggling to locate any aftermarket. What did you use if you remember?