Many of us have waited a long time for a quality kit of the Kfir, and Kinetic released a very fine example about a year ago. Though the kit is very detailed, of course there is always room for improvement and embellishment, so Aires has come up with a couple of offerings for this kit. One of these gives the modeler the capability of opening the gun bays and showing the two Rafael DEFA 553 30mm cannons.

Packed in the normal Aires card and bubble pack one will find three pour blocks which include two gun bays, two gun breeches and two gun bay doors with latches. The detail is typical high quality Aires. The installation is rather simple. All the modeler has to do is remove the two doors from the lower wing half and install the bays and the doors. There is no great concern about having to thin everything as much as possible on this installation.

For the modeler who likes to display all of the various bays open, this is a great addition to the Kinetic Kfir.

Finally! Yes -- finally a product to relieve the angst of modelers worrying about losing or damaging delicate and precision parts during the dreaded airbrush cleaning process. It’s simple, it’s attractive, and it’s ingenious – it’s Iwata’s Raised Ridge Airbrush Cleaning Mat.

Although, unfortunately, it does not clean your airbrush for you, it provides a soft, durable surface with a raised boundary edge – much akin to a giant mouse pad with wall around the edges. Springs, nozzles, needles, tips, seals, and the like have little to no chance of escaping into the jaws of the carpet monster or into cracks between work surfaces. It’s non-skid backing keeps it securely in place – even against moderate bumps or jostles while moving around at the workbench.

Kudos to Iwata for this gem! I highly recommend this product to all airbrush owners who actually tear down their airbrushes for cleaning. You can’t go wrong with this – especially for under $20!

Background

The world’s first and most-produced supersonic trainer, the Northrop T-38A Talon has trained over 5,000 military pilots since its introduction to service in 1961. Of the nearly 1,200 T-38A’s produced, the US Air Force continues to operate over 500 of the type as of 2014, of which most will be upgraded to T-38C configuration with new wings and improved avionics, including heads-up display and inertial navigation systems, and will continue to operate them until at least 2020.

The First World War, which marked its 100th Anniversary this year, was the first truly “Industrial War”. The slaughter on the battle fields, at sea, and in the air was aided, and the conflict prolonged, due to the industrial capacity of the belligerents to churn out the machinery of warfare. In particular, the relatively new invention of the internal combustion engine provided new killing “machines” in large numbers: the aeroplane in the sky, and the tank on the ground. And while both sides utilized aeroplanes for reconnaissance, bombing and aerial combat, it was the British and then the French who came up with the tank, the German and Austro-Hungarian forces having next to no tank production of their own during the war. The vast majority of the tanks utilized by the Germans on the Western front were in fact captured Allied tanks!

This latest offering from Aerobonus is typical of their line of figures. There is one pour stub containing four pieces of flawless light grey resin. There are two arms, body and head. That sounds all kind of boring but this figure is molded as if he were exiting a late war Bf-109. The two separate arms are set to lay on the top of the canopy frame. The arms are added on a natural seem line. The legs are already set to have one leg on the seat and the other on the canopy sill, no assembly required on them. Overall clean up is relatively easy. The pour stubs are small and easy to remove.