Master Model has turned out quite a few turned-metal parts in the last few years. They’ve recently sighted in on some common US Navy guns with three new turned-metal barrel upgrade sets as part of their Sea Master line of products:

• SM-700-37- 1/700 USN 16in/50 Mark 7 barrels (9 pcs) - Iowa and Montana battleship classes- $7.00
• SM-700-38 - 1/700 USN 14in/45 (12 pcs) - New York (B-34), Nevada (B-36) and Pennsylvania (B-38) classes - fits to USS Arizona model - $7.00
• SM-700-39 - 1/700 USN 5in/51 (22 pcs) - many USN warships - fits to USS Arizona model - $5.50

Both the 16” and 14” barrel sets are an excellent replacement for kit parts. The barrels are hollow and the shapes appear dead on. The 5in/51 barrels are fantastic, but they will require a modeler of extreme skill and determination to use thanks to their small, but accurate, size in 1/700 scale.

Last released in 1970 by MPC, Round2 has re-issued this classic kit. You may remember that the original MPC kit had parts for the flying version. I remember the cardboard tube for the central rocket cylinder used to hold a small rocket motor, thinking that the plastic parts would not survive more than just one launch. I never put that to the test and I still have that original 1970 MPC kit sitting in my display case.

The Round2 release does not have those parts for a flying model, although the launch rail brackets are still present. There are some other items still in the box from its “flying” days but they can be ignored.

During this project I did not fill seams and I did not conduct any research to achieve an accurate paint scheme. I sanded down the more obvious “steps” during assembly, and chose a very basic White/Gray paint scheme, painting some Vostok components to make them pop out a bit in the images accompanying this review.

Number 59 in Osprey’s ‘Duel’ series provides a trip back in time to an era when flying machines began serving as platforms for continuing warfare above ground level. In this volume of ‘Duel’ author Jon Guttman presents the story of how exchanging rifle and revolver gunfire rapidly evolved into aerial duels between aircraft mounting machine guns. War in the air became serious business when, in the summer of 1915, the Fokker E1 appeared on the scene with a forward mounted machine gun and interrupter mechanism that permitted a pilot to aim and fire upon an enemy without concerns of shooting off his own propeller. The result of this game-changer was a period that became known as the ‘Fokker Scourge’. In an attempt to counter this technological advantage and level the playing field, the Brits introduced various pusher Scouts and the French mounted forward firing machine guns on the top wings of nimble Nieuport Scouts that fired above the propeller arc.