C&H Aero Miniatures 1/48 TF-102A Conversion By Michael Benolkin

I had been hearing about some of the unique products that come from a company called C&H Aero Miniatures. They specialize in conversions to the family of 1/48 Monogram & Revell/Germany kits that have been on the market for years. Some of their offerings include:

• RF-8 Crusader

• F-106B Delta Dart

• TAV-8B Harrier II

• Two different versions of the single-seat RF-101 Voodoo

• F-100F Super Sabre

• TF-104 Starfighter

• F-105D 'Thunderstick II' Thunderchief

While I wandered through the vendor rooms at the IPMS/USA 2001 National Convention, I spied the booth for C&H Aero and tried to hide my wallet. They had all of their offerings available on display at the show and I had to take a few home.

One of the most impressive bits of resin casting is this conversion - the TF-102A Delta Dagger. The replacement nose is one piece and splices onto the mid-section of the Monogram F-102A kit. What is especially impressive about this conversion is that the nose is hollow, in fact the resin walls in the nose are no thicker than the stock kit's styrene. With a hollow nose comes a new cockpit tub, two new ejection seats, extra control yoke, instrument panel, panel shroud, and other great tid-bits. The new canopy is also provided as a vacuform casting with resin frames.

One other signature of these C&H Aero kits is a set of decals included with each conversion. This provides you with a few usable aircraft examples in case there are no other aftermarket markings for the kit you're converting.

In this set, markings for two aircraft are provided:

• TF-102A, 116 FIS, Washington ANG, 1966 (painted ADC Gray)

• TF-102A, 62 FIS/51 FIW (painted in SEA camouflage)

While these conversion sets cost more than the original kits, they are masterpieces of resin casting and build up into aircraft versions that are not available 'out of the box'. I recommend these conversions to anyone with average modeling skills and experience working with resin conversions.

C&H Aero Miniatures does not have a website, but you can reach them at bevjohn@bellsouth.net or by calling (615) 896-1119.