Scale Aircraft Conversions celebrated their Silver Anniversary last year, and now have over twenty-five years of supplying resin and white metal parts to model builders. This is the sixth landing gear set from SAC that I have reviewed, and once again, they have provided an excellent metal option for kit-supplied landing gear. This set is intended for the 1/72 scale F4D-1 Douglas Skyray that was released by Tamiya in 1998 (kit 41 of the 1/72 scale War Bird Collection). The purpose of this replacement set is to provide stronger landing gear that is adjustable if necessary to obtain proper angles. Even with no previous experience in using white metal parts, this set will provide an upgrade that most modelers will have no issue installing.
This kit is the 2nd release of a 24th scale Mosquito by Airfix, the first being the Mosquito kit, A25001 released toward the end of 2009. Note that the box art for the two releases is not the same and the item numbers are slightly different. The original release is “25001” and this new release is “25001a”.
Opening the box, one will find 14 plastic bags containing 18 sprues loaded with 617 parts. Having some experience with the original release, a very cursory inspection leads me to conclude that the new release is the same, or very similar to the original release. I noticed the same pattern of ejector pin marks that appeared on the original release, and that is a bit of a disappointment. Many will not be visible when the model is complete, but those that are visible can prove to be time-consuming to eliminate.
The Products
- 672 077 - Eduard Brassin UTI MiG 15 Cockpit (Resin) - $19.95
- CX 427 - Eduard UTI MiG 15 UTI Die-Cut Canopy mask - $9.95
Eduard Brassin Resin Cockpit Interior For MiG 15 UTI
This kit contains 13 resin-cast interior parts plus one small PE sheet for the Eduard MiG 15 UTI jet trainer kit. Included are a cockpit floor, two seat mounts, two ejector seats, one rear canopy part, one front instrument panel, two control sticks, two cockpit side panels, one clear plastic forward gunsight, and a PE sheet containing such things as seat belts, rudder pedals, and other very small details.
Aerobonus has provided another addition to the great Diorama releases with this US WWII load cart. These were used to manually transport single bombs to the aircraft on Aircraft Carriers and also airfields.
The detail quality is great, there minimal flash or other imperfections. The parts once removed from the mold base are ready to assembly. The small parts are very delicate and you must take extreme care when removing from the mold base. I had a big problem with the four small grab handles which all broke and I had to replace them with wire ones I made.
The Assembly is quick and easy. The final part is painted yellow and looks great as an addition to any diorama.
Thanks go to Aires for providing this kit to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them.
Revell has re-released their vintage WWII Gato Class Submarine in enormous 1/72 scale – topping off at just over 52 inches in length! Surface detail of the deck and fittings is excellent, as well as their renderings of the 20mm, 40mm, and 4inch deck armament. Also included are three sets of pre-bent, steel wire steps as well as a variety of pre-drilled stanchions for stringing safety cabling.
Overshadowing everything, however, is simply the sheer size of the hull – an ambitious project for any modeler.