Background (Wikipedia)

The Husky VMMD (vehicle-mounted mine detection) family of vehicles are blast-survivable, mission-configurable, wheeled platforms employed by specialized route clearance teams operating in high-explosive threat areas. The Mk. III is the modern single-occupant Husky model. The platform is integrated with pulse induction metal detector panels and overpass tires that enable operators to regulate tire air pressure in order to reduce the risk of detonating. As with all Husky platforms, the Mk. III has been engineered in a unique modular, frangible configuration. In the event of a mine or improvised explosive device detonation, vehicle components break apart in a predictable fashion, reducing damage to the platform and occupants, as well as facilitating fast in-field repairs.

Hasegawa’s 1/32nd scale P-47D-25 is a great kit with good fit and form but like most of Hasegawa’s kits, they leave some room for improvement. In this case, the cockpit is Ok OOB but Eduard has produced a single fret of colorized photoetch that will bump the cockpit to the next level.

Inside the package, you’ll find one fret of colorized photoetch with 40 parts that address improvements to the instrument panel, the cockpit sidewalls and the rudder pedals. Two pages of instructions detail the installation including a little surgery on the kit parts.

This Polikarpov fighter, developed in 1934, took a lot of its design ideas from the then-revolutionary Gee-Bee racing airplane of the same period – that is, the largest engine that could be fit into the smallest airframe. Adding retractable landing gear and four rifle-caliber machine guns and you had the miniscule I-16, a staple of the Soviet air force through the early part of World War 2, almost 10,000 being manufactured.

These tough little aircraft served in other forces as well, most notably in the Chinese Guomindang, where they pitted themselves against the more nimble and far more numerous Japanese fighters of the period. How they fared is another story.