New editor Gary Hatcher takes over the reins of Scale Aircraft Modeling and make some changes immediately in the format of the magazine. One thing you'll notice right away is the change to much more history interspersed with the modeling. Another interesting note is that many of the articles no longer have white backgrounds going to grey or blue gray in several articles. This is a first issue with these changes. The old structure and build types are gone and this concentrates more on feature articles.

For this issue, the first feature article by Tony O'Toole is refurbishment of a converted Airfix Stirling C.Mk.V. The article takes you through stripping the paint off, updating the engines with resin ones. He finishes it off with a nice paint scheme and subtle weathering.

This is the third version of the Buffalo 6x6 MPCV to be issued by Bronco Models. This release includes a different armor configuration than the previous two releases, with slat armor and spaced armor. This is an excellent kit that will be a challenging build for even more advanced modelers. The kit has lots of small parts, finicky assembly of the slat armor, but will result in a highly detailed and rewarding model.

The previous releases were reviewed here:

Aires has issued several styles of exhausts for the current 1/48th scale kits on the market. These kits have either open or closed nozzles and for either the Hasegawa or Revell kit. So there are four sets in total. This set is for the Hasegawa series of F/A-18E/F kits and has closed nozzles. The set consists of six parts- two flame holders, two exhaust tubes and two closed nozzles. Casting is perfect. There are no flaws or blemishes.

The set is simplicity to use by removing the casting blocks from each of the six pieces, three per side. You can see in the comparison shots that the detail is much higher in the resin parts. The interior of the afterburner petals is much better and has the correct shape.

Here’s a great picture.

This is a masking set for the Hasegawa F-104G. The masks are cut from yellow tape, similar to Eduard masks and the set includes masks for all three sections of the Hasegawa F-104G as well as masks for each of the tires. There are three separate masks for the three windscreen panels and there are two masks for both of the other two sections of the canopy. As with Eduard’s masks, the masks for the larger portions of the canopy establish the borders or the canopy leaving an open section in the middle that will need to be filled with either liquid mask, scotch tape or some other materials to protect the center of the canopy section.

The set also includes masks for the wheel allowing the tires to be painted black, the masks applied and the for the wheel hubs to be painted. As with the mask for the larger portions of the canopy, the areas outside of mask will need to be covered with some other material to keep paint off of the rest of the wheel.

Not too long ago, Trumpeter gave us a brand new, scribed 1/48th scale A-37 to play with and Scale Aircraft Conversions were not very far behind with a white metal landing gear to help support all of the added nose weight to prevent a tail sitter.

There are six total parts on two frets, with the nose gear being separate, The way they are cast makes cleanup of the parts much easier than the plastic kit parts. And, I must say they are every bit as clean and accurate as the kit parts. A cheap and welcome addition to the Trumpeter kit. I highly recommend this gear replacement.

My thanks to Scale Aircraft Conversions and IPMS for the review sample.