Paul R. Brown
Reviews By Author
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Sanding Sticks – Medium GritPublished:
This set includes 5 medium (280) grit sanding sticks. To help those of us who are visually oriented, the sanding sticks are a nice orange color, which will help distinguish them from Squadron’s other sanding sticks quickly as each grit is a different. The sanding sticks have a nice thick piece of styrene in the center of each stick to give them some rigidity, which I found useful when sanding larger flat seams such as the wing seam on my original issue Airfix Vulcan. The box advises you that the sanding sticks can be cut and shaped to fit specific needs or shapes, however they are not easy to cut due to the styrene piece in the center of the stick. I ended up using large house scissors and a sharp Xacto in order to cut off a part of the sanding stick. I tried the… more |
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F-16C/D Wheels (Block 40 and Later)Published:
This set supplies drop-in replacement wheels for 1/72 F-16 C/D Block 40 and later kits. As you would expect from Brengun, the wheels are very finely cast featuring realistic tread pattern, raised lettering and other markings on the sidewalls and sharply detailed brake pads and wheel hubs. I compared them to the wheels of a Tamiya F-16CJ kit and as shown in the photos, the detail on the Brengun parts is a vast improvement over the kit wheels. Each tire also has a flat spot to simulate the weight of the aircraft on the tires; however, it is not overdone so that the tires look flat. I painted the wheels Tamiya NATO Black and the rims/brake pads Tamiya Flat White, with a black wash to bring out the details. I used a white colored pencil to highlight lettering and markings… more |
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AN/ALE-47 Countermeasures DispensersPublished:
The AN/ALE-47 Countermeasures Dispenser system is a defensive system fitted to many current military aircraft. It is used to dispense flares or chaff or both to counter the tracking systems of incoming missiles and has been in use since the mid-to-early 2000’s by the United States and many other countries. This set from Brengun provides the chaff/flare dispenser portion of the AN/ALE-47 system in two different versions. One version has round dispenser holes, while the other version has more oval holes. There are three identical castings, each with 10 dispensers on it. There are seven dispensers with round holes and three with oval holes on each casting. The various dispensers depict different load outs from completely empty to completely full. Since there are two… more |
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Yak-1B ExhaustsPublished:
As you would expect from Quickboost, the exhausts are very finely cast, and feature hollowed out ends for each exhaust stack which will greatly improve the look of the exhausts on your model. To get an idea of how the parts would look in use, I painted them Testor’s Metalizer non-buffing steel and then dusted them with a reddish-orange pastel powder. All that is left is to dust them with a little black or dark grey paint at the tips and to find a Arma Hobby Yak-1B kit to install them in. Highly recommended. Thank you to Aires/Quickboost for the review sample. |
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Pe-2 ExhaustPublished:
This set supplies drop-in replacements for the kit exhausts for Zvezda’s Pe-2 kit. The set includes two sets of exhausts, left and right for each engine, and the coversheet lists the original kit part numbers that are being replaced by the new exhausts. As you would expect from Quickboost, the exhausts are very finely cast, and feature hollowed out ends for each exhaust stack which will greatly improve the look of the exhausts on your model. To get an idea of how the parts would look in use, I painted them Testor’s Metalizer non-buffing steel and then dusted them with a reddish-orange pastel powder. All that is left is to dust them with a little black or dark grey paint at the tips. Highly recommended. Thank you to Aires/Quickboost for the review sample… more |
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A-4F Skyhawk Landing GearPublished:
This set is designed to provide replacement parts for Hobby Boss’ 1/72 A-4F Skyhawk kit. As with most of SAC’s landing gear sets, the metal parts are intended to be one-for-one replacements for the kit parts. The set consists of the nose gear strut, port and starboard main gear struts and retraction/extension arms for all three of these. Like the kit part, the nose wheel is cast with the nose strut. SAC has also cast the nosewheel steering (part C21) as part of the strut, however as the arms on this part are very thin, they are easily bent, so take care around them. The set also includes the retraction/extension actuator for the nose strut, however, as the actuator is very skinny, it is easily deformed and when I first looked at it, I thought it was a brake line as the one in… more |
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MiG-25 PUPublished:
ICM has continued its series of MiG-25 “Foxbat” kits with probably the ugliest variant of all, the two-seat trainer. Unlike the other trainers built by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau where the trainer version was created by extending the cockpit aft to make room for an instructor’s seat and controls, for the MiG-25 trainer an entire new nose section was added in front of the existing cockpit along with a separate canopy for the instructor pilot. ICM replicates what the design bureau did as the kit is clearly a standard MiG-25 PD kit with an extra sprue providing the parts for the new nose and its included cockpit, and a second clear sprue with the canopy for the new cockpit. Having constructed the original Hasegawa MiG-25 years ago, I was initially concerned about ensuring… more |
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F-14A/B/D Ventral FinsPublished:
This set provides replacements for the ventral fins for the F-14 Tomcat in 1/72 scale. As the ventral fins remained the same throughout the Tomcat’s production run, they can be used on the F-14A, the F-14A+/B and the F-14D. The set is generic in that it is not designed to be used just on one particular manufacturer’s kit. To simplify production and especially maintenance and supply requirements, the left and right ventral fins on the F-14 Tomcat were identical, so the same part could be used on either side. Taking advantage of this fact, Brengun/Hauler’s set provides two identical castings of the ventral fin. Rather than make different versions of the ventral fin to fit different model kits, Brengun/Hauler elected to mimic Grumman’s decision and the set includes two identical… more |
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Bombers at Suez – The RAF Bombing Campaign During the Suez War, 1956Published:
The book is volume 38 of Helion & Company’s Middle East@War series and looks at the participation of RAF’s medium and heavy bombers in Operation Musketeer, the Suez War of 1956. The book includes over seventy black and white photographs and seven pages of color profiles depicting the markings of some of the Canberra and Valiant squadrons that participated in the campaign and aircraft of the Egyptian Air Force, along with several maps and order of battle charts. John Dillon is a former Vulcan navigator and the author of several military history books. An often-overlooked part of the Suez War of 1956 is the participation of the Royal Air Force’s Canberra medium bombers and Valiant heavy bombers in the campaign. Based in Malta and Cyprus these aircraft were tasked with… more |
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Skybreak – The 58th Fighter Squadron in Desert StormPublished:
Mike Guardia is a veteran of the United States Army and the author of a number of military history books. His most recent book, Skybreak takes a look at the operations of the 58th Fighter Squadron of the United States Air Force during Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in the fall of 1990, the 58th Fighter Squadron was one of the many USAF units deployed in support of Operation Desert Shield – the coalition effort to deter further aggression by Iraq – and eventually Operation Desert Storm, the coalition campaign to forcefully remove Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Flying the newest version of the F-15C Eagle, the 58th was tasked with protecting coalition aircraft from interference by Iraqi Air Force aircraft. During the air campaign the F-15s… more |