Master – Reality in Miniature has produced a replacement nose pitot for the Airfix BAE Hawk 100 kit. The replacement pitot is a clean drop-in for the kit’s plastic part. The supplied item includes a one piece main pitot tube of turned brass.

A side by side evaluation (see photos) indicates an identical replacement that provides a much more realistic assembly with a significantly improved abuse tolerance. Painting of the main tube will require a quick touch with silver, aluminum or your favorite metalizer after priming, to transform the brass. Check your references.

No other assembly is required. The tube should be attached to the kit fuselage with CA glue. Using care in handling after assembly would seem to be good advice, as the part will be quite fragile, even though it is metal, and the point will pierce human skin easily, given an opportunity. Heed my experience!

Model Art is a Japanese publication that specializes in different aspects of plastic modelling. They have a monthly publication that covers all different genres, but also they publish special issues focusing on a specific topic. In this case how to improve your airplane models.

Be aware that all the text in this special issue is in Japanese. Still the step-by-step pictures are self-explanatory and if you install Google Translate in your smartphone, you can get a machine-based translation for the images captions.

This special issue has tips and techniques being applied in the following airplane models

Overview

I won’t go into too much detail on the B17E because its been covered extensively with all the other B17 kits out there. It started the war headed right into the middle of the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The B17s were not armed so they had no way to fight back. They had to land because they were low on fuel. Some were destroyed some damaged and a couple escaped with little damage. From that point on the B17 was the only big bomber in the pacific that was used for the first year and did what it could to slow the Japanese onslaught. It’s amazing that they could accomplish anything with the limited men and materials available during the early part of the Pacific war, not to mention the horrible conditions they had to work in.