Lifelike Decals has always produced some fantastic decals with awesome marking options. This latest decal sheet is designed for the Hasegawa Tojo kit. Typical of Lifelike Decals, this sheet contains four marking options of three II Hei and one II Kou. All the aircraft have the yellow identification stripes on the wing leading edges for that little splash of color.

For me, Aires has always been synonymous with quality aftermarket products. This latest release is designed for the 1/32nd Hasegawa Bf-109F-2. Like many of their cockpit sets, this set is based off of resin parts, accentuated with photo-etch metal parts and a pre-printed decal film. The instructions are on an 8.5x11 sheet of blue paper. They are a little vague with some parts, but present nothing that can’t be determined with good references.

The resin is molded in light grey on 11 resin pour stubs. I did have a bubble on the base of the stick. This was easily fixed with some Apoxy Sculpt. The rest of the detail is exquisitely rendered. My floorboard was slightly warped but a little hot water took care of it. The seat is beautiful and looks great, especially with the addition of the PE seatbelts.

Usually, when I get a Dragon 1+1 kit, it contains two of the same plane or AFV. Not this one. It contains the LTV-4 amphibious landing vehicle and a Jeep, which can be put in as cargo or, with the ramp down, can be shown loading or unloading.

The LVT was developed as a civilian ambulance/rescue vehicle which would operate in swampy areas where “normal” wheeled and tracked vehicles were useless. It had a watertight hull, with propulsion in water provided by the movement of the tracks. The unit could go directly from water to land to water with no problems. The Marines in the Pacific Islands found this particularly useful, as many islands had offshore coral reefs which would stop landing barges well offshore. The “Amphtracs” (or “Amtracs”), as these amphibious tractors were called, could cross the reefs and go up on the beach as far as needed.