If you believe you know a lot about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor but don’t know about the Niihau Zero, you are in the same boat I was in before reading Syd Jones’ book about this obscure episode. During the second raid on December 7, 1941, a flight of A6M2s from the carrier Hiryu made a series of low level strafing runs on Bellows Field. After making what would be his final pass, Naval Airman1st Class Shigenori Nishikaichi was forced to break away from the group and climb to distance himself from the small arms ground fire that had peppered his aircraft. The Zero seemed to be responding to the controls and he was at maximum power but the cockpit was welling up with fumes. He cracked open the canopy for fresh air and was surprised to find he was alone. There were no American defenders in the air and by now he was far from the action.

I get excited when the new issues of Scale Aircraft Modeling arrive. This issue had a large surprise upfront in that the editor, Jay Laverty, has moved on and they are in search of a new editor. The good news is that Neil Robinson, frequent builder and previous editor has stepped in to keep the great article coming. While the previous formats have been consistent, this interim issue is a collections of great articles an aviation in profile plus two bonus profile sets and all the expected news on new releases and current in stock materials.

To start, the Aviation in profile series has eleven pages of coverage of the North American T-2 Buckeye. There are bunches of different color schemes including the trainer colors but also camouflage version of Greek use as well as some really interesting Navy schemes.

Master Model out of Poland, well-known for producing high-quality, precision after-market products, has recently released a German 2cm L50 KwK 38 Gun Barrel. This barrel is made to replace the ubiquitous AA and infantry support weapon found in a variety of 1/35th scale kits.

The barrel comes in two pieces of turned brass; a shaft and a delicately perforated cone that slips over the end of the shaft. The shaft is shorter than the standard 2cm L50 KwK 38 barrel and must be cut-in to the plastic using super glue.

I looked across my stash and found the following three comparison barrels:

• (DML) Dragon 6590 Flak 38(t) Ausf. M Late Production
• (TAS) Tasca Pz.Kpfw. II Ausf. L “Luchs”
• (ITAL) Italeri 380 Opel Maultier with FlaK 38

I decided to upgrade my Tasca “Luchs” kit for this article. It came with a barrel that, coincidentally, was the narrowest of the three.

The future of modeling has arrived! 3D Model Parts is a company specializing in 3-D printed resin accessories for car and ship models. Their only offering for cars at the moment is these wire wheels. They will work as 15” wheels for 1:25 scale cars, and14” wheels for 1:24 scale cars.

Available with 3 different styles of knock-offs, the wheels come in a pack of 5, with an instruction sheet that explains how to work with them. The wheels and knock-offs each come attached to a thin wafer of resin, not unlike traditional resin parts, which must be sanded away to release the part. I found it easier to cut the wafer away from the knock-offs, as they were too small to hold against any kind of sanding surface without also sanding the skin off my fingertips.

The Yellow Series from Mushroom Model Publications covers individual aircraft in great detail. This book on the Boulton Paul Defiant is an excellent example. The book starts out with the basic concept of the Defiant as a daytime bomber destroyer. It then covers night fighter operations, followed by air-sea rescue operations, its use as a target tug and other tasks.

Along with, and in addition to the description of the operational history of the Defiant, a great number of photos are included. These show experimental and operational aircraft as well as incredible details of all parts of the aircraft. The majority of the detail photos were taken of the only complete surviving example of the Defiant at the RAF Museum Hendon. The modeler will be very pleased with these detailed color photos.