This kit is a combination of the Bronco gun kit and the Dragon 6275 crew kit. The gun can only be presented in the firing position as the travel bogies are not present. The crew can be depicted in either anti-tank mode or anti-aircraft mode. However, the crew instructions included with the Bronco instructions only show them in the anti-tank mode. You can get Dragon 6275 instructions and build the crew in different poses, and even in the anti-aircraft mode, which is what I did.

The basic point to remember when building this kit is that there are numerous small plastic and PE parts. Care should be exercised during the build, and you may even want to delay attaching certain parts until almost the end of the build.

I recently built and reviewed ICM’s 1/144 Tupolev Tu-144 "Charger". When the opportunity came to review the SAC metal landing gear for this plane, I jumped at the chance.

The white metal landing gear is obviously far stronger and better suited to large models than the injection molded parts you get in a kit. I have a number of finished models on the shelf or in storage which could use a new set of gear legs. And I thought I’d save the Tu-144 from this fate. There’s only so much you can do with CA and sprue to fix broken gear, especially with missing parts.

I first took photos of the landing gear on the model as it was. There might be a set of instructions for the kit somewhere in my workroom. Or not. I bet on the latter, and took reference photos to show where the parts went.

Windsock Datafiles from Albatros Productions are very familiar to most of those who have been building WW I aircraft models for some time. And, a number of those who have been awakened to that era by the recent introduction of 1/32 scale kits from Wingnut Wings, Roden, Special Hobby, and others have discovering the value of collecting these publications. Number 156 in the series has just been published and it is the second Datafile about the AVRO 504. However, it is a companion to the earlier title because, unlike Datafile 28, this volume focuses attention on the types that preceded the 504K.