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World War II
Discuss WWII and the era directly before and after the war from 1935-1949.
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REVIEW
Meikraft SB2U Vindicator
JPTRR
Staff MemberManaging Editor
RAILROAD MODELING
#051
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Tennessee, United States
Joined: December 21, 2002
KitMaker: 7,772 posts
AeroScale: 3,175 posts
Posted: Monday, March 07, 2011 - 07:37 PM UTC
Another "Oldie but goodie" out of production review, this introduces you to what the late Meikraft Models are like. Meikraft tried to make a good model. With the optional parts it was a great concept! Unfortunately Meikraft just did not pull it off. This is definitely a model for those of you who want a serious undertaking.


Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!
JackFlash
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Colorado, United States
Joined: January 25, 2004
KitMaker: 11,669 posts
AeroScale: 11,011 posts
Posted: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 - 04:59 PM UTC
Greetings all,

Here is the deal. I knew John Meikranz. He lived in the Dallas area and loved models. So much so it eventually over took him and created hardships in his life. I had the Pfalz D.III / IIIa and Albatros D.I / II kit in his line. By the standards of the day an what was available in injected mouldings and noting they were slush moulded, its easy to compare them to today's highly detailed kits and see the vast gulf of workmanship that Computer Controlled Castings have given us today.

Its good to look back on these kits of the past and fully appreciate where we are today. Remember folks these kits literally came from a one man operation.
AaronW
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California, United States
Joined: August 03, 2003
KitMaker: 197 posts
AeroScale: 42 posts
Posted: Wednesday, March 09, 2011 - 09:09 PM UTC
I have a Meikraft Models 1/72 Grumman FF-1. The kit will definately require all of my attention, but the large parts are actually not bad, although I will probably have to replace a lot of the small parts. It is the only 1/72 FF-1 kit I know of so it does at least give me a decent start. As Stephen says, these kits do make you appreciate what we have today when many limited run kits now challenge the quality of older mainstream kits.


I don't know if all of these were actually made but the instructions list the following kits from Meikraft:

Vought SB2U, Piper L-4, Albatros D.I/D.II, Seversky P-35/P-35A, Hansa-Brandenberg W.29, B.E.2c, Douglas D.558-1 Skystreak, and the Grumman FF-1.

There is a reference to the April 1988 issue of Skyways in the instructions, so the kit is not as ancient as I expected.

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