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Decal set packaging

Luftwaffe Cockpit Placards
Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Airscale Model Aircraft Enhancements
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$10.00

The latest release from Airscale is a sheet of decals to replicate 1/48thscale Luftwaffe cockpit placards. The cockpit placards are on a single sheet of film. These are typical of the rest of Airscale’s releases. High quality decals printed by Fantasy Workshop.

Included on this set are General Warnings, Notices, Manufacturers Data Plates, Primary Instructions and Radio Labeling. You get plenty of placards to do numerous aircraft. If there was a downside, it is that there aren’t any instructions as to where these placards go. A little bit of research will take care of that though.

These decals are the same as any other water slide decals. This will be a nice addition to your model. I know I can’t paint this detail.

Highly recommended

You can obtain yours by contacting them at www.airscale.co.uk. Let them know IPMS/USA sent you.

Thanks to Airscale and IPMS/USA for the review copy.

Front cover

1973 - 2010 The Story of Matchbox Kits
Book Author(s)
Jean-Christophe Carbonel
Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
Company
Histoire and Collections
MSRP
$19.95

The Author

This book is the English translation from the French by Jennifer Meyniel and the author. I have to say that it is a very good translation, as the text is very readable. I finished this book in one evening, during the commercial breaks in a couple of favorite Tuesday evening TV shows.

Mr. Carbonel has taken the time and trouble to track down many of the players in the Matchbox plastic model division, done interviews and has done pretty extensive research on this subject. I had never heard of him, but apparently he is a respected author and aviation authority in France.

The Book

There are four sections:

  1. 1973 – The Range
  2. The AMT-Matchbox Era
  3. The Twilight Period
  4. Under German Control

Each section is divided into chapters covering one year, although some years are skipped late in the book, as not much happened after 1997.

Box Art

Soviet Fighter LAGG-3
Review Author
Stephen Bierce
Published on
Company
Zvezda
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$4.00

The Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LAGG-3 was an important fighter aircraft for the Soviet Air Force at the time of the German "Barbarossa" invasion in 1941, and a technological parallel to the British Hawker Hurricane, French Dewoitine D.520, and the American Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk of the time. With a mostly wooden construction and a relatively powerful engine and adequate firepower, it held the line while giving the Russians time to develop more advanced combat machines to fight the Luftwaffe.

This model kit is part of Zvezda's "Art of Tactic" wargame model series, which also includes ground vehicles and figures as game pieces. In that role, this kit is engineered more for ease of assembly and sturdiness than surface detail, although it does quite well in that regard for the size and scale.

Box Art

Jagdtiger Sdkfz 186 Henschel Production w/2-metric Ton Lifting Crane
Review Author
Gary Telecsan
Published on
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$19.95

The actual box art image does not do the kit justice - it is a great little diorama accessory. There are 186 plastic parts, 54 of which are extra. There are also 25 photo-etched parts and two vinyl tracks. I’ve built 6 or 8 of these little Dragon 1/72nd armored kits and have accumulated a massive spare parts box.

I’ve built one of these Jagdpanzer VI’s before, though without the crane, and basic construction is very simple. The suspension (Picture 1) goes together in about 15 minutes, and another 10 can be spent on adding the parts for the rear armor plate. I added everything to it prior to painting. I found the photo-etched shields difficult to bend in this scale, and not a good fit. They are optional depending upon the vehicle you wish to depict, and although I got them to go on, I left them off the final product.

Detail Set Package

Self-Adhesive PE Detail Set for Ki-27
Review Author
Roger Rasor
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$22.95

Eduard offers modelers a single fret photo etch detail set for the Special Hobby 1/32 Ki-27 kit. Set #32 864 provides parts for adding detail to the engine and the cockpit. The set includes a total of 42 pre-painted parts either to add something not in the kit, to replace some kit parts, and/or to enhance the ones that will be used. This set features Eduard’s self-adhesive backing to make installation easier.