As with all Eduard products, you can expect the detail to be excellent, and these nettings are no exception. The netting is so fine and true to scale and the colors used for the camouflage is perfect. The “Woodland” net is a mixed dark and light color which matches the foliage perfectly. The “Desert” net is of course lighter, but it has both a dark and light sand color which imitates the desert’s coloring perfectly. The size is big enough (5 ¼ x 9 ¼ in) to cover small munitions models and medium size tanks, but for large models, it might fall a little short. The “netting” is a little stiff (after all it is metal) so don’t expect it to just fall on the model and contour itself on its own. Rolling it shouldn’t be a problem but folding it might need something round at the fold to prevent it from creasing and after the fold is complete then the round object could be removed. It would have to be given some thought and planning ahead of time as to where and how it should be placed.
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HMS Campbeltown was originally the Wickes-class destroyer USS Buchanan, DD-131. She was commissioned in 1919 and transferred to the UK as part of the “Destroyers for Bases” deal between the US and Britain in 1940. In exchange for 50 aging “four-piper” destroyers like the Buchanan/Campbeltown (obsolete for fleet duties, but still useful as convoy escorts) for the Royal and Royal Canadian navies, the US got basing rights in the Caribbean and Newfoundland.
HMS Campbeltown is one of the most well-known of the traded ships, as she was famously expended as a floating bomb in the “Operation Chariot” raid by British commandos on the St. Nazaire docks in March of 1942. The purpose of the raid – and it succeeded – was to deny the use of the St. Nazaire dry dock to heavy German units such as the battleship Tirpitz.
Ever have to rob a perfectly good kit for just the bombs? I have and I regretted it later when I either wanted to build it or sell it. Italeri has a solution to this problem, bombs and lots of them. The latest release contains two identical sprues of 53 parts each and the decals that go with them. You can build AB70, AB-250, AB500, the ER-4 Bomb rack, ETC 50 bomb rack, PC1400, PD500, SC50, SC250 with Dinort fusing, SC500, SD250, SC1000, SD1700, Pfeife Geraete, 300 and 900 liter Fuel Tanks and WB81 gun pods from the kit. That is a lot of ordnance. There are multiple aircraft that can be armed with this set. Included in the instructions are the load out plans for various aircraft such as the Ju-88, He-111, Ju-87, Hs-129, FW-190, and Me-262. As an example, you can use the bombs and gun pod on Italeri Stuka.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to Minicraft Model Kits for providing this kit to IPMS/USA and to them for allowing me to review it.
In the mid-1930s United Airlines decided they needed a larger plane than the DC-3s they were using. They contacted Douglas Aircraft to develop such a plane. Douglas designed and built a large aircraft they called the DC-4E (E for experimental). It flew for the first time on June 7, 1938. More than twice the size of the DC-3 (138 ft. wingspan and 97 ft. long) the cabin had a wide pressurized cross-section, a tricycle landing gear, and triple vertical stabilizers similar to the Lockheed Constellation. With its four Wright R-1820 engines developing 1450 hp each, it could potentially fly nonstop from Chicago to San Francisco.
Monogram’s venerable ’58 Thunderbird kit---first released in 1964---has been updated and re-packaged under the “Car Show” banner, meaning it can be built stock or with extra customizing parts in the kit---including a double-bubble clear top of really heroic proportions. Moilded in white plastic, the kit has just a couple of fit issues, but is generally an easy build, and despite its age, can hold its own with today’s releases.
Since I grew up “back in the day” with these classic cars, I opted to build the kit stock. I had some questions with the instructions’ colors for the engine components, so eventually consulted a website for “Squarebird” enthusiasts (www.tbirdranch.com) and though there was a bit of conflicting info there too, I decided to paint mine per the website’s Concours table for ’58 Thunderbirds---Ford light engine blue block with black valve covers. (Great site, by the way.)