Some time ago, I was in Ebay and bid on a 1/48 resin Claude, made by an unknown manufacturer name of Thrick. The seller had no information on this kit, other than it was a resin kit, unbuilt, and intrigued by the price(very cheap), I took a chance and bid on it. And was the only one to do so, and so, I ended up with a resin A5M Claude.

A few weeks later the kit arrived. It was a resin kit of a Claude, alright, a solid resin kit, the fuselage, wings, most of the stab and fin all one piece, the cockpit being a hole with a seat, with belts, molded in. One half of the stab appeared to be broken off, but upon looking at it closer, this was not the case, as the "break" was very smooth, very un-break like, and there was a key tab on one corner of this piece and a corresponding slot on the stub sticking out of the fuselage.

The box was heavy green corrugated cardboard, the corners stapled, and the only English on this was the manufacturer, Thrick, the rest of the label(no art work save the logo, which was a seagull head on) in Japanese.

The instruction sheet, if you could call it that, was printed in Japanese with a few helpful illustrations of the aircraft the ind screen, and a few paint scheme diagrams, all on a sheet that was something like 6 x 8.

The cowl(with engine molded in) and model were in green resin, the landing gear being beige resin. There is a white metal prop, a small sheet of clear plastic, and a rod with the form of the wind screen on the end, with the frame clearly delineated, There were a few steel rods of varying diameter which I presume are supposed to be guns, although there are no references to them in the instruction sheet, other than diameters.

I'm assuming that this is a very early vintage resin kit, or one that was supposed to go to another kit manufacturer to be engineered into a production kit.

When I first opened the box, I was greeted by bubble wrap and green excelsior, kind of like the grass used for Easter baskets, and lifting those, my first impression was that I got screwed, as it all looked very disappointing.

However, upon closer examination, and armed with a copy of Maru Mechanic, after doing some measuring and just plain looking at it, this is actually a very nice kit, the panel lines just bare hints, no deep ditches, no thick or tall lines, the finish is glass smooth, and it measures up to the listed dimensions, my only beef being the engine detail(very small matter), the cockpit(I'm debating whether to carefully cut it apart, at the headrest and build the cockpit from there, or treat it like a ship in a bottle kit and build the cockpit outside, piece meal, then carefully mount things inside after carefully digging the area out with a dremel) and the tail hook, or lack there of. There is a bump, where the tail hook pivot is supposed to be mounted, but that's it, and I'd like to install a hook.

However, the tail hook on a Claude looks different from others, as it looks like a casting in the few photos I've been able to find which show a minimum of detail, I'd like to find better photos of the hook.

Does anyone know where I could looks?