Reviews

Review Author
Scott Hollingshead
Published on
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/700
MSRP
$5.00

For ship modelers looking to improve the look of their ship masts, or specifically their yardarms, Master Model has come to the rescue. Their Yardarm Set Number 2 contains half a dozen replacement yardarms in lengths of 20, 22.5, 25, 27.5, 30, and 32.5 mm (one of each size is included). The already small brass items are finely tapered out to the ends, just like the real thing. If replacing plastic yardarms on a kit, the comparison photograph shows what a difference these can make, although it is comparing the 5mm yardarms available in set one.

My hits are that once again, the folks at Master Model have released some very finely detailed replacement parts, in this case for the 1/700 scale ship modeler. The fine taper are clearly visible, and will make a nice upgrade for a reasonable price.

Review Author
Keith Gervasi
Published on
Company
Academy Models
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$69.00

History

Enough has been written about the Tiger tank so I will not go into detail about it. The Gruppe Fehrmann Tigers were “procured” from the Lehr School at Fallingbostel and were re-built from damaged Tigers. The unit was formed around 5 Tigers and 6 Panthers on April 6th, 1944 and by April 11th only two Tigers and possibly 1 Panther remained active.

Review Author
Mark Costello
Published on
Company
Hasegawa
MSRP
$19.99

From the Hasegawa web page:

Set to strike

During the Pacific War, Charles MacDonald shot down 27 enemy fighters with his P-38, nicknamed "Putt-Putt Maru." These victories and his exceptional abilities as commander of the 475th Fighter Group made him one of the top Allied aces of World War II. P-38 Lightnings were the ideal aircraft for the Pacific; their long range, high speed and heavy armament let U.S. forces successfully engage Japanese planes at every turn.

Kit

This kit is a re-release of an older kit that comes packaged in a sturdy cardboard box with 1 bag of sprues, a single sheet of decals, and an instruction manual.

The sprue bag contains 4 gray sprues (36 parts) and 1 clear (1 part) sprue (in a small bag to prevent scratches).

The decal sheet is for 1 P-38 in the markings of Lt. Col. Charles Henry “Mac” MacDonald’s P-38 “Putt-Putt Maru”.

Review Author
Dick Montgomery
Published on
Company
Aviaeology
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$6.00

Please note that Aviaeology has a website that is currently under revision. Aviaeology requests that purchases be made through their eBay store.

For those who have purchased decals from Aviaeology before, you are already aware of the high quality of their products, and you are also aware of the excellent documentation that Aviaeology provides to its customers.

Review Author
Dick Montgomery
Published on
Company
Aviaeology
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$16.00

Please note that Aviaeology has a website that is currently under revision. Aviaeology requests that purchases be made through their eBay store.

For those who have purchased decals from Aviaeology before, you are already aware of the high quality of their products, and you are also aware of the excellent documentation that Aviaeology provides to its customers.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Academy Models
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$20.00

The Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) T-50 Golden Eagle Advanced Trainer is a new family of supersonic trainers and light attack aircraft developed by KAI and Lockheed Martin. It is the first supersonic aircraft developed by South Korea. The aircraft entered service with the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) in 2005 and has been ordered by several other nations such as Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$14.95

The BRU-42 triple ejector rack (TER) is a weapon suspension unit that attaches to an aircraft's main pylons to allow the carrying of three weapons instead of one on a single pylon. They have been around for a while and can carry multiple types of weapons. Many models have simplified representations of the TER in their kits. Eduard’s set comes with parts to make five separate TERs each is comprised of 2 shackles for the attachment and six sway braces and one central body. The total set is 45 resin parts, color instructions and a full set of decals containing all the markings needed.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$8.50

Accurate Miniatures had a great run producing kits that stand up even to this day. Academy has the molds currently and has reissued the kit regularly including the 1/48 B-25B which I was lucky enough to review. The kits has wonderful detail but could use some details here and there. To address one area, Quickboost has come out with an excellent set of pilots chairs with molded in seat belts. These are cast in the usual crisp, bubble free gray resin. One really, really nice thing is that both seats are the same EXCEPT the seat belts are different which is a wonderful little detail.

Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
Company
Brengun
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$5.76

This kit is one of those spiffy little diorama add-ons that you sometimes would like to add, but nobody makes it. Well, Brengun comes to the rescue here.

I have had some experience with one of these “vehicles”, when I worked in receiving for Sears. And the war story follows:

I was moving a refrigerator out to the floor for display. It wasn’t quite balanced because of the floor, and it started to stand up. As I usually did, I stuck my foot out against the axle to push it back into travel position. It didn’t stop, and broke my big toe.

Fortunately for me, my Mom worked as an emergency room nurse, so she took care of me at home. The fix was to tape part of a tongue depressor between the big toe and the second toe. This acted as a splint. Then she laughed at me for breaking my toe that way. You don’t get that kind of service at the local hospital.

Review Author
Chris Smith
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$16.95

This set provides belts for the F-104G using the Mk. GQ7A ejection seat. The F-104 also used a C2 ejection seat and one is provided in the Hasegawa kit I used (stock #PT 20) but the seats are very different designs and this set won’t work on the C2 seat. In general, the export versions of the F-104 used the Mk. GQ7A seat.

I would consider this a “must have” since the base kit doesn’t provide any kind of harness for the GQ7A seat. Eduard makes two harness sets for this kit, the FABRIC set reviewed here and SUPERFABRIC (Eduard #49 073) set that I’ll share with you in separate review. The FABRIC set is a little more difficult because you have small PE buckles and restrainers to thread the tiny belts through. This was my first exposure to this type of belts from Eduard. The details are very refined and the PE parts add a nice dimension of depth to the finished assembly.