Vought’s Vindicator was designed in 1934 in response to the U.S. Navy’s requirement for a new all-in-one bomber, torpedo bomber, and reconnaissance platform, and was first produced in 1937. Ultimately, the SB2U was more successful as a movie star than a weapon of war, being featured in the motion picture “Dive Bomber”. Vindicators were used by the Marines of VMSB-241 at the battle of Midway, but were mostly ineffective and outclassed.

Special Hobby’s kit represents the SB2U-3 version and comes with markings for for USMC aircraft - three in camouflage, and one representing the first SB2U-3 to roll off the production line, in its pre-war yellow-wing scheme. The kit’s gray plastic parts have really nice recessed panel lines, and I liked the treatment of the fabric areas of the wings, tail, and fuselage. According to photos I have, I think the contour of the rear cockpit sill should be more curved, but it doesn’t detract from the overall appearance.

When Eduard released the Bf109E Instrument they also released a mask to go along with it. Unfortunately the only way to purchase this mask is through Eduard's store and you have to be a member of the Bunny Fighter Club.

Now when it comes to masking a model you could take and make your own mask with one of the many medias available, or you can purchase a ready to use mask for that specific model and cut your masking time in about half. The mask for the Instrument panel helps in several difficult areas. One of the areas that the really comes in handy is for some of the raised details on the instrument panel that have to be painted. Another very helpful part of the mask is for molded on bolt heads. It makes painting these a breeze. You can follow the link above for a better idea of what is included or Eduard has a great article on building the instrument panel which includes a breakdown of the mask. The article can be found by following this link:

Lifelike has produced this set of decals for he recent RS Models Ki-100 kit. They can also be used for the FineMolds kit but the producer does not that there might need to be some modification.

In the package, there is one decal sheet which covers the five aircraft. The decals are printed by Cartograf and beautiful, in register and colorful. Also included is the sheet with five full color profiles of the aircraft and their histories and information which is wonderfully researched. Last is a page indicating the paint colors and also the stencil placement and reference sources.

The planes covered are: