History

The Curtiss P-40 E was one of the few US aircraft available in any numbers at the start of World War II. In addition to US usage, a large number were supplied to the British under Lend-Lease provisions. These were called the Kittyhawk 1A. These were used in various Commonwealth nations and a number were even reacquired by the US. While adequate in performance for it’s time, the performance of the P-40 E was somewhat inferior to the Zero, Messerschmidt and Spitfire.

Early versions of the P-40 were made famous by the AVG (Flying Tigers) and the image of the tiger mouth on the front fuselage intake became well known.

SAM Publications is an independent publisher based in Bedford UK. Established over 25 years ago, they have gone onto become a household name in the hobby sector. SAM Publications prides itself on producing quality publications, well researched and affordable to customers. SAM Publications is noted for their magazines, Scale Aviation Modeller International and Scale Military Modeler International magazines, as well as their series of monographs with Modellers Datafiles and Modellers Datafile – Scaled Down.. SAM has not stood still over the past 25 years and has adopted to the ever-changing publishing industry. Technology has played a big part in this and has only enhanced the quality of their publications by allowing them to reach out to authors and researchers all over the world. You can see that most evident in this issue of SAMI, with a contribution from American Floyd Werner (although he will always be a Texan) and his review of the Eduard 1/48 Phantom II.

Packaged in a thin, heat sealed pouch with three parts, two gun barrels, and one pitot tube. Compared to the Academy parts, the Master parts are very fine and detail is the finest I have ever seen and directions are very clear and easy to follow. The gun barrels are very precise and retain concentricity where the kit parts seem thick and may appear warped. As for the pitot tube, I wish I had a 1/32 scale T-38 to compare to but the crisp and consistent shape that is spot on to reference photos. The pitot tube is plenty long for any kit with adjustments to each kit a simple procedure.

Master details is known for exquisite detail on all of their update sets and this review sample is no exception. I am hopeful there will be an injected molded 1/32 scale T-38 released so I can use the pitot tube. I would like to thank Master Models for this review sample.