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Well, back on July 30th, I finally received my order of SNAFU Store 1/700 aircraft. Some of you might have caught my posts below detailing their "saga." 3DP Train, who print SNAFU's designs, was training a new person which slowed their production down by at least a week's delay, followed by the USPS sending them initially to the wrong town before finally getting them to my address. So, they were mildly delayed, but they were well worth the wait.

SNAFU used to be a shop on Shapeways, but has now moved to 3DP Train for printing. While I "looked hard" at many of his tempting offerings on Shapeways, I only ended up buying 3 different helicopter types from him...HUP, Dolphin and Kiowa Warrior. The Kiowas were overscaled. The other two were satisfactory additions, in the acryilic resin. The Dolphins were for my JAG Bear USCG cutter, and the HUPs for my CVN-65. He had lots of other nice looking offerings, but I had already built many of them as injected molded aircraft and was satisfied with them, so did not feel I needed any of them.

Finding him back in business with 3DP Train, I find he now offers CMV-22 Ospreys, which are the Navy COD version, which I wanted for my Gerald Ford CVN. In addition, I got the VTOL version of the F-35B for my Wasp LHD, and the USAF CV-22 special mission version of the Osprey to add to my PitRoad Air Force collection. I also added an MH-60L special mission helicopter of the Army 160th SOAR. These are all not types that are available (at least currently) in injection molded form. (Skywave is releasing an upcoming F-35 set which will include the VTOL version. Set S84.)

I love what I got. While I can't really completely compare them to any of his earlier Shapeways offerings, these are really very good. They come in gray resin, are quite accurately shaped, and have the details required to make them the specific versions offered. The CV-22 has the nose and tail electronics, and retracted refueling probe. The CMV-22 has the extra fuel tanks, and retracted probe. The MH-60L has a hoist on the starboard side, refueling probe, and open doors with a hollow "see-through" interior. The F-35B VTOL has the turned down rear nozzel, and all the open doors for gear and intake/exhausts. And all this in 1/700 scale. There are no panel lines, and the flight control surfaces are very faint. I needed a magnifying glass to get a good look at them, though they do show up in the right light without that.

I am quite happy enough, and do not hesitate to recommend these to you all. You can find them here:

https://3dptrain.com/collections/aircraft