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Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$25.00

This set is a single fret of excellent relief-etched material which fixes the seats on the HK Models 1/32 B-25. So, you ask, what’s wrong with the kit seats? Not much, but research does indicate that the co-pilot’s seat was not a full seat like the pilot’s, more of a half seat. The fret includes 35 parts which allow you to build more detailed and correct seats.

Construction will be helped by use of one of the PE bending tools on the market today – I used a Hold and Fold and it is much more precise making the bends than any other way. Also, you will need some plastic rod to construct the seat mounts – two pieces of 1.2mm rod, each 26.5mm long, and for the smaller seat, two pieces of 1.2mm rod each 14.5mm long. I used stock styrene rod from the LHS.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$35.00

Eduard has issued an upgrade set to enhance the detail on the ammunition belts in HK Models 1/32 B-25J. This set includes one fret of 15 parts which replicate the detail on the ammunition belts for the rear guns, waist guns, and, if used, the nose gun.

HK Models’ detail on the gun belts is okay but does lack for some of the detail on the outside of the tracks. To upgrade this, the photoetch parts are added to the outside of each plastic part and are bent at a 90 degree angle to cover the top and sides. This gives a much better representation of the real belts.

I started by trying to glue on a belt and then bend the PE over – not too successful. In the end, I prebent all the needed parts on my Hold and Fold and glued them on in sections, using CA glue and accelerator. It was very fiddly and time consuming but yielded a nice result in the end.

Book Author(s)
Mikael Forslund and Thierry Vallet
Review Author
Hub Plott
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$48.00

This book looks at all of the piston engine fighter aircraft used by Sweden from 1925 to 1946 and their paint schemes. Each aircraft is covered with many period pictures, some even in color. There is a section on the operational history, a listing of production numbers, as well as a chart detailing the individual aircraft history of all aircraft of each type that served Sweden. Each aircraft section ends with color notes spelling out the colors used for each. While not in FS numbers, these callout will still prove useful to the modeler. The book is more of a history of these aircraft in Swedish service with color information included than it is an in-depth analysis of the colors used on these aircraft.

Review Author
Mike Hinderliter
Published on
Company
Aoshima
Scale
1/350
MSRP
$59.79

The I-20 was a Type C-1 Class submarine, which was based on the Junsen-type, developed from the Type KD6. The C-1 Class was designed to carry the Ko-Hoteki midget submarine or Kaiten suicide torpedo. All 5 of the boats in this class took part in the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941. All of them launched midget submarines near the harbor entrance and they were never expected to return to the mother ship.

The kit was released for the 70th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. There are examples of the midget submarines at the Naval Submarine School, Groton, Connecticut. While I was in Submarine School I was able to walk around them and take some pictures. In the end, the I-29 was finally
sunk by the USS Ellet in late August of 1943.

The kit comes with a really nice 16-page instruction booklet which leads you through the assembly process. The steps are pretty logical, and the assembly is well represented by pictures.

Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
Company
Hasegawa
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$53.99

The Aircraft

SAAB of Sweden built the Draken as an interceptor in the early 60s, with a recon version soon following. The Draken was used by Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Austria. All operational Drakens were retired between 1993 and 1999. There are a few flyable Drakens at the Test Pilot School at Mojave Spaceport in California.

The aircraft in this kit is a pair of Danish RF-35s, the reconnaissance version. The major differences are the nose, which contains the camera suite, and the wingtips and tail top, which are different.

THE KIT

You get the basic Hasegawa Draken fighter kit, which has been out for over 10 years. The additions are a resin camera nose, resin wingtips, and a new top for the vertical stabilizer.

ASSEMBLY