Ryan Aircraft was awarded a contract to develop a new, second-generation target drone based loosely on the Q-2A drone. It vaguely resembled its Q-2A ancestor in general outline. The BQM-34 would spawn a whole family of remotely controlled drones, from the original aerial target, up to reconnaissance variants.

Molded in light grey plastic, there are 42 pieces in all, four of which are not used in the build. The only major problem with the kit is that the intake lip, for some reason, is a separate piece.

Atlantis Models gets credit for another Tom Daniel classic save by resurrecting the Glowing Ghost of the Red Baron kit Atlantis M6742-Model Kit. At 1:4 scale it’s easy to work with and It’s a great kit for beginners too.

Attesting to its popularity the kit’s been re-released a few times in various versions as well as, but this fresh new 2023 offering by Atlantis Models is the first reissue in decades.

Originally released as kit #PC220 in 1969, and according to Tom, “I thought we could do something fun with the chrome helmet again (at the time) and sketched out this skeleton "ghost" design on a place mat at a Mexican restaurant.”

Also included is a beautiful new waterslide decal sheet featuring the Iron Cross markings from WWI and a rubber band to activate the “bobble bone” and invoke the jittering eyeballs.

The original, “far out” instructions now printed in red and black, detail the 10,740 steps required for construction.

I’ve built two ICM AH-1Gs in 1/32nd scale. They are great kits, but the landing gear mounts can be fragile in the hands of a ham-fisted modeler like myself. On the two I built I had to pin and glue the gear back on a couple of times. It was frustrating as it was near the end of the build.

The difference between the early and late gear is the early gear has the fairing around the crosstubes. The late are just the round crosstubes.

Inside SAC’s typical blister pack are two white metal landing gear and four parts for the ground handling wheels. Mine were perfectly cast and were exact replicas of the kit landing gear, but stronger. This set does NOT have the aerodynamic fairings installed. Many of the later Vietnam era Cobras had the fairings removed to save weight but more importantly was they really didn’t help. They were a major pain to remove and reinstall.