Tired of the same old Corsairs?

An early preview image of the forthcoming F4U Corsair sheet, featuring five new, never before seen F4U Corsairs.

Hi Guys.

Sorry, I know I promised a new blog post a day last week, but I have been working feverishly to get some orders filled as well as attending to the myriad details involved in getting new products to market. Even working very long days, this is the first chance I've had to sit down and post.

I am very pleased to bring you this new sheet. It's our first Corsair sheet, and features some aircraft never before represented in decal form before. Heck, most of these aircraft have never been seen before by all but the most serious F4U Corsair researchers. A nice selection of markings, with interesting noseart and one of the wildest inscriptions ever seen on an aircraft in WWII! Available in 1/48th scale only this time, it will follow shortly in the other popular scales.

Now, I must point out that these new sheets are not available yet! They are coming from the printers in a week or so, and will be available for sale for the first time at the UK Nationals on November 13 and 14. They will be up for pre-sale on the website around the same time. Go to: www.barracudacals.com


White 126 is an extremely weatherbeaten Birdcage with an inscription that took four of us many hours trying to figure out what it said. We showed it to some fresh eyes, and he saw it immediately. When he told us, it instantly became readable. Let's just say it's not very politically correct!

Two more brand new decals sheets will be announced tomorrow. OK, consider yourself blogged. It's 2:30AM and I'm off to catch some shuteye... maybe I'll ever shut them both this time.

Happy modelling!

Roy

New Product Announcements for Scale Modelworld 2010 - Part 1

Cover art for the New Dragon 1/72nd scale Meteor Mk. III. This is a beautiful kit, but the decals... well, lets just say they need a little help!

Guys,

Dragon has kicked off their new Dragon Wings 72 product line with a kit that I have been not-so-secretly hoping Tamiya would shrink down from their 1/48 scale kit; the Gloster Meteor Mk III. Why Tamiya did not scale down some of their 1/48 scale kits to fill out their 1/72 scale line will have to remain speculation, but Dragon has now plugged the gap with a kit that might even be better than what Tamiya would have brought us.

Accurate in shape and nicely detailed, this kit also features separate flying surfaces, flaps and even gives you photoetched dive brakes that can be assembled in either closed or open positions.

While some of the scribing, such as on the rear fuselage, is a tad heavy, this should build up into a very impressive model.

The decals are even printed by Cartograf. A full suite of stencils are provided, as well as markings for seven aircraft. The decals are great; thin, cleanly printed with almost no excess carrier film and in perfect register. There is a glaring problem with the sheet, however. The colors on the roundels are awful. Neon lemon yellow and cherry red were not the real colors carried by RAF aircraft during WWII.

To correct this situation, BarracudaCals is proud to announce the next decal sheet in our growing 1/72 scale range. Printed by Cartograf, the acknowledged leader in decal printing, these are top quality decals printed in the correct dull red and dull blue shades, with proper identity yellow surrounds on the fuselage roundels. I have also thrown in the Sky codes and rear fuselage band for good measure. This sheet is priced to sell at $5.95

A quick and cheap upgrade to your Dragon Meteor, these will also upgrade the decals for your old Airfix kit. Printed in very limited numbers. Get your set before they sell out!

Watch this space. There will be a new product announcement every day for the next week or so. Got to run. I have lots of work to do before I leave for the UK in just over two weeks!

Happy modeling!

Roy

Spitfire Mk IX Cockpits - Part 1

Hi Guys,

Today, I have a real treat for you. We have a guest blogger. Jeroen Veen, a talented modeler who's work can be regularly seen on Hyperscale, has agreed to share some images of his work on the fabulous Tamiya Spit IX. So far, he has used two of the three of the Barra upgrade sets for the cockpit (the door with separate crowbar is installed much later), and has written a short piece on his experiences building the cockpit and installing the sets.

Jeroen writes:

Earlier this year I finished my Tamiya 1:32 Spitfire Mk IX and I was so impressed with that kit that I ordered the Mk VIII as soon as it was released. Straight from the box this really is a beautiful kit, and the longer you talk about it, the longer the list of superlatives will become. But... does this mean there is no room for improvement? As soon as I saw Roy's upgrade sets for the cockpit I knew I wanted to use them, because they really add that extra touch.

Jeroen's excellent paint work on the Tamiya Spitfire Mk. IX cockpit really makes it shine. He utilized all 3 of the BarracudaCast upgrade sets.

Set BR32003 gives you extra's and replacements. It is a bit strange that Tamiya missed the very present oxygen hose on the right hand side but BR32003 gives you a pretty and very subtle hose that is easy to attach. The set also has the gear retract quadrant which is a direct replacement for the kit one, but carries more refined detail. The four hydraulic lines that go to the front of the cockpit can easliy be fixed in the predrilled holes. The throttle on the left hand side is also a direct replacement for the kit part, but again more detailed. Most impressive is the stick. On the front of the stick are three wires that are to be fet through predrilled holes. How Roy managed to do this I don't know, but the wires -that come with the set - can be put in place without extra drilling. Great! I was thoroughly impressed with the detail on the stick.

Clicking on the images will bring up larger versions. Note the cockpit stencilling included in set 32002.

Now, is this all? It's getting better. The instructions (you don't really need them because this set is very easy to use) are enriched with a couple of color pictures which makes it very easy to see how everything should be painted. You can also see how Roy applied extra cabling on the sidewalls, which comes in very handy if you feel like spicing up you Spitty even more. Then there are the decals. Tamiya managed to miss the placards in the cockpit but this set has them all: for fuse boxes, landing gear retractor, instrument panel, throttle and so on. Thanks to the instructions it's not hard to see where they should go, and with some Micro Sol and Set they performed superb.

A closeup shot of the starboard sidewall shows the stencils applied to the resin throttle quadrant and other details in the cockpit.

I also used set BR32001, a direct replacement for the seat: it has the leather backpad which the kits seat lacks. Detail again is just wonderful, with a clear painting guide in the instructions. The seat comes with a big casting plug which is easily removed. When you have no experience with this, Roy's instructions will talk you through the process and you can't go wrong if you are careful.

Painting all these goodies is a real pleasure and puts the beautiful kit cockpit in a new dimension. I hope the enclosed pics show what I mean. These parts are delicately casted, very easy to use and I would advise them to everybody.

Happy modelling as always.

– Jeroen

Jeroen's cockpit, painted and ready for assembly. Hopefully, he will share more as his build progresses.

I'd like to thank Mr. Veen for allowing me to publish his work. There will be other guest posters soon. Takes the pressure off of me, and gives you a chance to see Barracuda Studios parts being used by actual customers. Much more to come in the next two weeks.

Happy modeling!

Roy

Upgrade Your Tamiya Spitfire IX for Less!

Hi guys!

Barracuda Studios has been working long hours to keep the flow of product coming to feed the demand. Seems the resin sets have been a welcome addition to the range. More are coming soon.

In the meantime, we have a special sale for you 1/32 devotees of the Spitfire. It comes to an end on Sunday at 11:59 and 59.99 seconds, so time is short to get your order in!

You get all of the new Spitfire Mk IX resin detail sets for the early production Spitfire Mk IX (with the resin 5 slot wheels and the early style wide blister corrected gun covers, plus the three cockpit upgrade sets) PLUS the BarracudaCals Spitfire Mk IX decal sheet with its 4 different and interesting schemes. Even if you don't want to model one of the schemes on the sheet, the roundels and stencils are a huge improvement over the kit decals. The roundel colors are much more accurate. Tamiya's roundel red is much too red. The kit decals are also quite thick, and some have reported the kit roundels splitting and cracking after application.

The package deal will save you almost 14% over normal retail prices, and Like I said, it's coming to an end soon!


Click HERE to go to the Early Production Spitfire Mk. IX Bundle

Next week, you can expect a slew of Blog postings showing forthcoming new decals that are at the printers as we speak. You know about the new Spitfire MK VIII sheet, but there are 3 other subjects yet to be debuted! More announcements will follow regarding new resin sets that will all be available for sale later next month.

Check back often. New posts will be coming at a greatly increased rate over the next 3-4 weeks.

Happy modelling! 
Roy


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