[Epapazian]

As biplane enthusiasts on this forum probably know, DeAgostini is including a long list of 1:72 diecast biplanes as part of one of its magazine subscription deals in Europe. These have been mentioned in other threads, with many of us expressing concerns about the likely poor quality of these models----which would not be surprising considering who makes them (the Altaya/IXO guys ) and the mass production-low budget standards set for them. I have just received my first, of a number of these planes I intend to collect. It's a replica of the Curtiss Hawk III, as flown by the Chinese Nationalists in the late 1930s and, frankly, it's not as bad as I feared. For one thing, the model is very heavy. For another, the propeller and its piston is firmly attached, not loosely fitted and dangling askew, as some of the pictures indicate. And the pilot figure is acceptable. OK. So there isn'tvery much detail----no surprise here. And there are those inevitable glue blobs, especially where the supporting wire braces for the wings are installed. But these can be sanded off with care and new paint applied, while other minor corrections also seem possible. I'm sorry I can't post pictures right now, but I just wanted to let you biplane fans know that there may be hope. It's not a lock by any means, but this series may provide us with reasonably useful--albeit not perfect--replicas of planes like the Fiat CR-32, Fiat,CR-42, I-15, HS-123 and even the Japanese "Pete" floatplane. Certainly, we're not going to see the likes of these from regular diecast manufacturers any time soon.