As you probably read earlier, this is a first kit from a brand new company. AMtech is planning several other kits in various scales of equal quality to this one and their second release, The P-40E, is one that I know a bunch of people have been waiting for. If it is anywhere as good as this one, they will have trouble keeping up with the orders!

The first thing I did was to decide how I wanted my Ta-183 to be built. It was finally decided to use all of the available options on this one. That meant opening the holes in the wing for the X-4 missile pylons before gluing the wings together. Fit of the wings was superb and no filler was used on them at all, just sanding of the glue that squeezed out of the seams.

The cockpit was the next assembly to tackle. I glued the control stick into the tub and then gave all the cockpit components a coat of Testors ModelMaster RLM 66 enamel. While I had the parts in the paint room, the wheel wells, weapons bay, and inside gear doors were painted RLM 02, again using MM enamels. Landing gear components were sprayed semi-matte black as were the wheels. Outer gear doors got a coat of RLM 76 using Aeromaster enamels.

When dry, the parts were taken back to the modeling bench. At this time, the instruments on the consoles and instrument panel were brush painted black as was the gun sight. The cushions on the seat were painted leather. The wheel wells were installed in the slots in the fuselage. Both the main wells fit superbly; make sure the holes are to the rear or you'll get the gear in backwards. The front wheel well also fit extremely well.

When the cockpit was dry, it was glued into the fuselage. You cannot install this wrong as there are positive locators that keep it firmly in place. The fuselage halves were then glued together. All the bits fit quite well with no problems at all. Naturally, I needed a touch of filler on the seams, but this is true form me even the Tamiyagawa kits. While all this was drying, I assembled the X-4 missiles. These fit together fairly well, but I managed to damage the fins. I broke some aft ones and gouged the trailing edges of a few of the forward fins. I also noted that the body of the missile isn't circular where the main fins are attached next to the join area. I guess it is part of the molding process, but they are flat in that area and are not supposed to be. You can see this if you look closely at the X-4s in the lead image. Those who want perfect missiles will want to fill in that area and add the trim tabs the missile carried to allow them to spin. You'll also want to reshape the aft fins as they are not exactly the same shape as I have seen in drawings and photographs. Hopefully these will be remedied before the kit hits the market.

Getting back to the rest of the kit, the engine exhaust area was glued in at this time. I had decided to do the Junkers Jumo 004 version. It is a bit longer than the He 109-011 engined version and has an aerodynamic bullet in it, just like on the Me-262. Test fitting the two exhaust sections, I found the Jumo one fit a bit better as the Heinkel engine piece had a bit of a gap near the base of the tail. Again, this kit was a test shot so some of these things are expected.

It was obvious by test fitting the wings that this plane can be a tail sitter. Fortunately, there is lots of room for weight in the nose section, so I installed three largish fishing weights in under the cockpit to take care of that. When dry, the nose piece was glued on. This bit is just a tad smaller than the surrounding fuselage, so some filler and extra sanding was needed to smooth things out.

Once the fuselage was properly fillered (yes, you too can invent words) and sanded smooth, the wings were attached. The fit is so good that you might be inclined not to even glue them in place. Yup, the fit is really that good! Then the tail was glued on to the top of the fin. There is a small ejector pin mark on the center of this that needs cleaned up first. It takes just a few moments of sanding to cure. With the tail attached, I now had a complete airframe. Total time from start of gluing to this point, about 24 hours.

In order to get things ready for decals, I had to put the kit on its landing gear. These had been painted black as late war aircraft could have had them in RLM 02 or even RLM 66 so you have a choice. Any overspray in the wheel wells was also touched up by brush at this time. I also picked out some components inside the wells in various colors and also painted the retraction strut molded in the nose gear in black. The wells were given a wash and then some drybrushing.

The oleos on the landing gear were covered in Bare Metal Foil chrome and then the struts glued in. Fit is very good, especially the nose gear. You do have to keep an eye on the main gear to make sure they dry at the same angle. Perhaps superglue wouldn't be a bad idea for these, though I didn't use it. Attaching the main wheels was easy; just put glue on the axles and slide them in place. The nose wheel fits between the two forks on the nose gear. It is a tight fit and no glue was needed.

Now the missile pylons were glued on as were the landing gear doors. It is quite possible that I glued the pylons on backwards as I had no instructions and did not see the box top until after the kit was built! The fit of the gear doors is the best I have seen in a long time. No problems whatsoever. The main gear doors have a strut that fits to them and the fit is positive, so no worries about things sliding around.

Fitting the X-4 missiles was not a problem either. The attachment points are well done and help with proper alignment. I had painted these RLM 02 with black noses. Superglue was used to get them attached. I did notice that the missiles are not all identical. In fact, they are handed. Not having instructions, I wasn't sure which way was the proper one so put them on in a manner that looked symmetrical.

At this time, I press fit in place the optional bomb bay with the drop tank. The bay was first painted RLM 02 like the landing gear bays and the edge was then brush painted with RLM 76. There are spots for two shackles to fit in there. You are given four in the kit and that is great as I broke one of them removing it from the sprue. The drop tank was assembled, painted RLM 76 and glued on the shackles. I'm sure that a bomb from the spares bin would have fit just as well. I wanted most options on the kit so that is why I included the bomb bay assembly. I'm thinking that normally the plane wouldn't be weighted down with the drop tank and the missiles. However, it is easy to remove the bomb bay and snap the smooth cover in place. The fit is that good. The kit was then ready for decals.

Well, the problem with doing test shots is that often they do not come with decals. No worries as we long-time modelers often have a ton of excess decals laying about. I happened to come across an old sheet for a Fujimi Fw-190D that I built more than 15 years ago. From it I used the insignia, the commander's chevron, and the unit badge for I/JG 54, which was appropriate since I was doing a Russian Front aircraft. The swastika came from an Xtra Decal sheet of swastikas and the kill markings from a Monogram Fw-190A sheet. They all worked very well and succumbed to setting solutions. The Fujimi fuselage insignia is a bit transparent and you can see the demarcation between the light band and the darker camouflage. Oh well! Once all those were on and dry, the plane was given a coat of semi-matte clear acrylic and left to dry.

The last bits of construction were the installation of the exhaust cone (again, just pressed in place as it fit so well) the removal of the  tape from the canopy, and the addition of the boarding ladder (which is a bit fragile and would have probably been broken off earlier).

To say that I'm pretty psyched about this kit would be an understatement. I have not seen such high quality in both molds and engineering from a new company in a very long time. I can only encourage you to support the folks at AMtech by buying this and other kits. I can tell you that some very interesting subjects are coming, but they need your support to make those a reality. (Late note: AMtech has been out of business for several years due to a near death accident of its founder. I doubt they will be returning.)

Thanks to for the review sample.

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