Brengun has come out with a spiffy idea for making your US Navy 1/144 carrier-based aircraft base look even better. It’s a set of PE tie down anchors for the carrier deck.

The tie downs in this set are the “older” cross style. The newer ones, on newer ships are star type. The original tie down anchors on wooden deck carriers looked kind of like a grating which ran from one side of the deck to the other. I found pictures of these with B-25s tied down on the Hornet for the Doolittle Raid.

When the Navy went to angle deck carriers, they had a steel deck. The tie downs were the cross type. They were painted black, and later yellow. There’s a picture below of me standing on the deck of the USS America in 1996, on the ship’s last cruise. The tie downs are cross type, painted black.

Later carriers used the star type, painted yellow, and later white.

Quickboost provides you with a Su-9 Fishpot nose mounted data probe and a wing mounted pitot tube consisting of two parts. Of note is the re-sealable packaging that Quickboost uses that makes the parts easy to review and then stuff back into the package securely. There supplied two-step instructions address the installation of the wing pitot tube mount.

Quickboost has molded the pitot tubes perfectly in light grey resin with no apparent bubbles. The Quickboost pitot tube provide you with no mold seams to sand off on these tiny parts along with the superior detail. You may note that both Quickboost parts are longer then their corresponding Trumpeter parts. They look fine to me, but you may wish to check them against photos.

Aires and the Aerobonus line continue their 1/32 scale sets meant for modern airfields and workshops. In this case, the set is a 1/32^nd scale mechanics chair. This is similar to a backless office chair. The set comes with eight resin parts including five separate casters, a seat adjustment lever, the seat itself and a magnificent casting in one piece of the chair base.

For any of us that frequent the many scale modeling shows and contests, follow the abundant online forums, blogs, and websites, as well as read any of the numerous modeling technique publications it is very evident that WWII German armor is a niche that alive and well…and kit manufacturers and aftermarket producers are keeping this hunger well fed. A perfect complement to this appetite is a book brought to us from Osprey, “History of the Panzerwaffe Volume I: 1939-1942.” This book is extremely helpful for students of this genre (myself included) to understand the story behind the most recognized armored force in history.

This is an excellent kit, with extremely fine detail, great fit of the parts, and makes a highly realistic model. It’s not easy getting there however. Be prepared for small, delicate parts, microscopic locating pins, unclear instructions on some part locations, and many separate tiny parts where one would suffice without loss of detail. With a little patience an experienced modeler will enjoy a challenging build resulting in a great model.

Background

Gorkovskiy Avtomobilnij Zavod (GAZ) automobile company was a joint venture with the Ford Motor Company prior to WWII. The GAZ-05-194 Ambulance is one of several Soviet Army vehicles based on the Ford Model A truck, with an additional axle for a 2 ton truck. Captured vehicles were also used by Germany’s Wehrmacht.