Although the B-24 Liberator shared the honors with the B-17 Flying Fortress of being the principal American heavy bomber of World War II, it was a much later design. It incorporated several unusual design features, including the Davis patent wing of very thin section and high aspect ratio, and bomb bay doors which rolled up like the top of a roll-top desk. This feature was created to make it more difficult for enemy fighters to know when the bomber was on its final bomb run. The doors moved up the side of the fuselage instead of hinging down as in the B-17. The B-24 had a range of 3,000 miles, together with a speed of more than 300 m.p.h. and a ceiling of 35,000 ft. The B-24Hs in RAF service were fitted with Boulton Paul tail turrets, but retained the rest of their standard armament.

Aires specializes in creating replacement parts for kit items that are either lacking in detail or have detail that isn’t quite sharp enough. This set provides replacement parts for the exhaust nozzles for the Academy kit of the F-22 Raptor.

The set is cast in medium grey resin, with no pinholes or miscast parts, along with a nice photoetch sheet for fine parts. The set includes the aft end of the turbine compressors and the afterburner section. The flame holders from the PE sheet are attached to the end of the compressor section, then the afterburner tube is added. The four long triangular pieces are the side pieces of the vectoring nozzles, and the smaller, wider, triangles are the vectoring parts of the nozzles. Each of them receives one of the four “batwing”-shaped pieces of PE, adding to the detail.

The Staghound Armoured Car was produced in America for the British Army and other Allied forces. It first went into action in Italy in 1943. The Staghound Mk. III had a modified Crusader turret with an Ordnance QF 75 mm gun. The bow machine gun was not fitted. It was supplied to some British armoured car regiments during 1944. I have seen the number produced listed as 37 and as 100.

Bronco Models has released this vehicle as their first 1:48 scale kit. The kit consists of 5 sprues of dark yellow plastic parts, one of clear plastic, a small photo etched fret, a length of nylon string, a small decal sheet for 2 vehicles, and a 15 page, 22 step construction booklet. All the parts and the decal sheet are in plastic bags.