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Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
SuperScale International
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$14.40

If you want to dress up HobbyBoss' excellent 1/32 P-61, Superscale decals give you three options for P-61B's based on Iwo Jima from the 548th NFS. Inside the package, you get a page of full color instructions and a nicely done decal sheet printed by Cartograf.

The instruction sheet contains paint and marking schemes for three planes all of which are black with red spinners and cowlings which match the red plane numbers. The planes are:

  • "Lady in the Dark", P-61B-1-NO, S/N 42-39408
  • "Midnight Madness", P-61B-1-NO, S/N 42-39404
  • "Cooper's Snooper", P-61B-2-NO, S/N 42-39454

There are placement guides for the excellent nose art and unit markings and also the national insignia. The nose art in two cases are very well done pin-up girls.

The decals are beautiful and perfectly in register and also include propeller markings, plane data and pilot data. Cartograf makes excellent decals and I am sure these will apply very well.

Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
Company
Two Six Decals
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$14.50

The Aircraft

The Boeing 720 is a “downsize” of the Boeing 707, with a smaller fuselage. It was used for short-haul routes where the 707 wasn’t economically feasible. It was built from 1958 to 1967. The 720 was a money-maker for Boeing because all of the development and testing was done on the 707.

The Two Six decal set.

You get markings for one of three Aer Lingus B-720s, EI-ALA, EI-ALB and EI-ALC. The decal sheet is complete down to the little shamrocks on each side of the jet intakes. These are laser printed decals, but they are separated on the backing sheet, so you don’t have to do a lot of trimming and cutting to get the markings off the sheet.

Instructions

The instructions are a little on the sparse side, but I found a great photo of EI-ALC on Airliners.net, which was larger than the instructions, and gave me a pretty good idea of what went where.

Book Author(s)
Various
Review Author
Mike Van Schoonhoven
Published on
Company
Model Art
MSRP
$12.00

In the Novembers issue of Model Art they start as usual with the special feature. This months special feature is on weathering techniques and painting of aircraft. The article starts of with Tamiya's beautiful 1/32 F4U-1 Corsair. With this model they incorporate post shading, exhaust staining and fuel stains. The next model is the Hasegawa 1/48th A6M2b Type 21 "Junyo Fighter group". This aircraft was originally finished in IJN gray but then was over sprayed with one of the greens that Japan used during the war leaving a blotchy finish. They show you how to achieve this in this section. Next up is the Tamiya 1/48 Spitfire Mk.1. This section covers chipping, masking and some general weathering. Zvezda Yak-3 1/48th is used next. This section deals with general weathering and details of the kit. The next section covers dust. They use the Eduard 1/48th Bf-109E-7 Trop for this demonstration. The last next article uses the Hasegawa 1/48 Henchel 129B-2 "Winter Camouflage".

Book Author(s)
David Doyle
Review Author
Mike Van Schoonhoven
Published on
Company
Squadron Signal Publications
MSRP
$18.95

As quoted from Squadron/Signal Publications " In Action books, despite the title of the genre, are books that trace the development of a single type of aircraft, armored vehicle, or ship from prototype to the final production variant. Experimental or "one-off" variants can also be included. Our first In Action book was printed in 1971".

The M-1 Abrams was designed to fight multiple Communist manned tanks in the forests of Europe. Even though the "Abrams" has been in combat, it has been limited to desert warfare. The M-1 was designed to be technologically superior and to provide the crew the best protection possible. During the M-1's career it has gone through many upgrades and modifications, both in technology, armor and armaments.

Review Author
John Kelly
Published on
Company
Aires Hobby Models
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$13.49

These resin parts are designed to replace the exhaust nozzles in any of the first-generation Harrier kits from a number of manufacturers. They are advertised to fit the Italeri and Hasegawa Sea Harrier FRS.1 and the Italeri and Hasegawa Harrier GR.3. Since the Italeri kits are reissues of the ESCI AV-8A/GR.3 and FRS.1 kits, these parts will fit those kits as well. They will also work on the Fujimi AV-8A kit, as that is a copy (not a reissue) of the ESCI kit. These are first after market nozzles available for the first-generation Harriers, although similar items have been available for the second-generation Harriers (AV-8B, AV-8B+, GR.5/7/9) for some time by a variety of manufacturers. They are not the same.