This Aires accessory wheel bay set is made for the Academy SB2C-4 kit. As you can see from the photos, the kit’s molded-in wheel bay details are found on both the top and bottom halves of the wing. The resin replacement bays are single pieces with additional detail inside each bay. The instructions will have you remove the molded-in details on each upper and lower wing and replace them with a one-piece resin bay. This will prevent any seams from showing inside the wheel well.

You also get replacement pieces for the gun tubes that go through the outboard end of the wheel wells as well as a retraction rod for the landing gear. All of the parts are nicely cast in Aires’ customary medium grey resin; they are well molded and bubble free. This set is certainly recommended.

Thanks go to Aires for providing the parts and to IPMS/USA for allowing me to review them.

The firm Master Model, from Poland, produces a very wide range of exquisite turned-brass accessories for the aircraft, ship, and armor modeler. Their products include Pitot tubes, machine gun and cannon barrels, shells, and spent shell casings in almost every scale you can think of from 1/700 scale for ship models to 1/24 scale for aircraft models.

The pitot tube under review today came in a simple card-backed package with the part contained in a plastic sleeve. It is listed for “all kits” of the BAC/EE Lightning in 1/72 scale. This includes the most recently released gem from Airfix, the recent Trumpeter releases, and kits dating all the way back to the Frog issues of this aircraft.

This is one of a prolific series of very fine brass replacements for pitot tubes and gun barrels from Master Model Poland. They do ranges in 1/24, 1/32, 1/35, 1/48 and 1/72 for aircraft as well as guns in all the major scales for ships and a few guns in 1/35 for our armor-building friends. They are all very well made, being very petite and usually more in scale than their plastic counterparts. And, once installed, they’re much harder to accidentally break off than plastic. Yes, some of them are sharp enough puncture the less than vigilant. Ask me how I know.