Reviews

Book Author(s)
Editor: Ray Rimell
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Albatros Productions, Ltd.
MSRP
$9.75

The Winter 2016 edition of Windsock World War Centenary is the fourth edition of Volume 32. The cover subject is a tease for Avro Vercamer’s two page spread of a Belgian Escadrille Sopwith Camel color profiles getting ready for the Wingnut Wings new releases on the Sopwith Camel. Rony Barr sneaks in the inset color profile on the Albatros D.III of Jasta 10. Avro Vercamer’s [ https://www.linkedin.com/in/arvovercamer , arvo@arvoart.com ] two page spread on the Sopwith Camel in the Great Warpaint series covers seventeen Sopwith Camels from the Belgian Escadrille to the USS Texas’ Camel equipped with flotation gear. Rony Barr provides three Albatros D.III color profiles to support Greg VanWyngarden’s Fabric Colours and Markings series that focuses on the iconic 1370/17 Pfalz D.III.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$19.95

The least expensive way to get an Eduard kit is by buying an Overtree kit. These kits are only available for a limited time, typically about one month after the release to the Profipack. This kit is typical of the Overtree line. The kit comes with just plastic. No decals, no masks, no instructions, no nothing but plastic. This is bare bones but I love the concept. I have lots of decals so I don’t need to worry about marking options.

The plain white box is about half the height of a normal Profipack box. This doesn’t diminish the quality of the plastic. Mine had a very small amount of flash on a few parts. Nothing to worry about. There are four sprues of light grey plastic and one sprue of clear plastic. The two main sprues are the same as the ones in the G-5 and G-6 kits. You get a new fuselage and new wings on the other sprues. The fuselage, wings and tail planes all feature restrained rivets and engraved panel lines.

Book Author(s)
Duncan Grinnell-Milne
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Pen and Sword Books Ltd
MSRP
$39.95

This edition represents a re-printing of two books by Duncan Grinnell-Milne. The first, An Escaper’s Log, was originally published in 1926 by John Lane. The second, Wind in the Wires, was first published in 1933 by Hurst & Blackett. This edition combines his two autobiographies.

Review Author
Perry Downen
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$6.99

A generous thank you goes to Aires Hobby Models/Quickboost for this review item.

The German Heinkel He111 civil prototype was demonstrated publicly in 1936. By the end of 1936 the bomber version, He111B, was entering service with the Luftwaffe. There were dozens of He111 variants developed over its 10 years of service making it a popular aircraft in the modeling world.

Quickboost has released a nice set of resin exhausts for the Airfix Heinkel He111P-2. The delicate parts come in a clear re-sealable plastic bag packaged with a small card insert showing a photographic image of the parts, part number, name of the parts and the recommended kit, Airfix. What is not included in the bag is a set of instructions. This is not a problem as the resin parts fit the exhaust locations the same as the kit parts.

Review Author
Mark Costello
Published on
Company
Revell
Scale
1/25
MSRP
$24.95

This new kit from Revell is the 2015 Corvette C7.R that raced at Le Mans and in the IMSA racing league in the United States.

Kit

The kit comes packaged in the usual Revell 1/25 size cardboard box with 4 bags of white molded parts, 1 bag with a white body, the metal axles, rubber tires and clear red tail lights, and 1 bag with the clear parts. There are a total of 13 sprues of white plastic plus the body, 1 sprue of clear red, 2 clear sprues and the 2 metal axles and 4 rubber tires. All this adds up to a total of 64 plastic parts. The parts are molded with good detail and little flash. There are some ejector pin marks that will need to be addressed, but not too many.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$7.95

The Eduard Bf-109s are some of my favorite models to build. They look great when done up. Of course there are limitations that plastic can do. So that is one of the reasons that we do resin aftermarket parts. Brassin is the Eduard resin line. It combines resin and photo etch in perfect harmony.

This set is designed for the Eduard Bf-109F series. Contained in a typical vacuformed plastic container you get five pieces of perfectly cast light grey resin and a masking set.

Removal of the parts from the sprue is easy enough. Nothing dramatic except the molded in detail which is impressive to say the least. I did have to sand down the spokes for both wheels. Each wheel is beautifully rendered. The tail wheel assembly is a single piece and looks great despite being a single piece.

Adding the parts to the kit is fairly straight forward. Don’t forget to add the tail wheel before you close up the fuselage.

Review Author
Scott Hollingshead
Published on
Company
Academy Models
Scale
1/700
MSRP
$35.00

When is the last time that you really had fun building a model? Taking a cue from kits like the Bandai Gundam series that my son built several years ago, Academy, and some others manufacturers, are beginning to release kits that are molded in multi-color plastics. The benefit is that without the use of paint, and only a minimal amount of glue, a modeler can realistically create a kit beyond a simple monochromatic representation of their subject. In addition, the fit and finish of kits like this are also beyond what is found in a typical snap-tight kit. In their latest release, Academy has produced a WWII era USS Missouri that really is fun to build, and will bring the joy of modeling to anyone that is able to work with small parts.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$9.95

The Eduard Bf-109s are some of the best engineered models ever. I’ve enjoyed building them from the get go but there are parts of modeling I don’t overly enjoy. The main one is masking the canopies. Eduard has designed the kit and the canopy masks.

The Eduard masks are made out of Kabuki tape similar to Tamiya tape. I think this is some of the best masking material available. It is pliable and conforms to compound curves.

Since Eduard makes the kit and the masks they fit perfectly. The Eduard masks for the G-5/6 gives you the inside mask for the rear canopy. This set does not. No big deal just an observation.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$19.90

With the release of the new Bf-109F-4 from Eduard we are treated to numerous ways to upgrade the kit should you want to. Eduard has always been known for their photo etch so it is to be expected that they would offer something in photo etch for this kit.

This set of photo etch comes in the normal Eduard resealable package with card stock keeping the photo etch safe. The actual fret is brass with really good detail. The primary areas addressed by this set is the wheel wells, landing gear doors and the flaps.

The wheel well portion offers an accurate rendition of the wheel well insert with the appropriate cutouts. The landing gear doors provide you with two different styles of landing gear covers. I chose to use the ‘normal’ doors. They worked out just fine but you will need to curve them slightly to be accurate. They are suitably thin too. Also to the landing gear are the brake lines and the tie down rings on the bottom of the landing gear strut.

Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
Company
RESIN2 Detail
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$9.99

This upgrade provides a 1//32 scale improved seat for the HK B-17. It comes in three different options, with two seats to a package. One is the plain seat, one has basic seat cushions and backpad, and one has seat cushions, backpad, and the lap-belt. As the B-17 was (from my references) rarely equipped with over-the shoulder harnesses until later versions, the lap belt is the ultimate in final detail. As you can see in the side-by side view, the kit seat (in basic gray plastic) is about 3/8” taller than the Resin2detail seats. I believe the Resin 2 detail seats are more accurate.