R/T arrived with its Spring edition and actually during spring which is a nice touch. As is becoming more frequent with many club publications, there are not as many articles as you have seen in the past, but those that are provided are generally more detailed or photo intensive. As some of you know, IPMS Canada also has on-line content called beaveRTales, so one has to wonder if this is part of the reason for this.

Once past the editorial and columns by the national director and others, we get into the articles.

This is a well balanced issue with a bit for everyone. The first article is Frank Cuden's Minicraft Ventura. Typical of the articles in R/T, this one is not out of the box with a lot of aftermarket and some scratchbuilding involved. I think you will agree with me that it is very nicely done.

Next is Mark Minnis' Trumpeter 1/35 AVGP Cougar. You can tell that Mark is a major fan of the type as he was able to point out some pretty esoteric stuff. A lot of modification and additional materials and work went into this very nicely done mode.

Gary Barling does an interesting one page article on Canadian Army call signs. Seems like the printer missed something as the title logo looks black on a black background.

We do not often see car builds, but this time there is a nice one. Barry Maddin builds the AMT 1941 Plymouth coupe. Barry does all the proper engine wiring and runs wiring along the inside of the engine compartment as well. His build points out the usual issue with AMT/ERTL kits, and that is generally poor fit. But the end result is a model I think you will like.

Moving to nautical stuff, Al Magnus builds the Dragon 1/72 LCM (3). Like pretty much all kits, this one has some errors and Al takes the time to point them out and show how to fix them.

We end the issue with the cover subject, Vic Scheuerman's very nicely done Italeri 1/72 H-44 Shawnee. Thanks to the kit's already nice level of detail, Vic put most of his efforts into improving the very visible cockpit. If you are going to build this kit, then this is an article you need to have at the ready.

How do you get this great edition? Simply join IPMS Canada and trade money for magazines. It is well worth it. 

April 2013

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