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Review Author
Bill Kluge
Published on
Company
Hasegawa
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$56.99

The Hasegawa quarter-inch scale Draken kit has been around for several years now, released in the markings of all of the European countries that flew it, including a number of special anniversary schemes for Swedish, Danish, and Austrian aircraft to commemorate the aircraft’s decades of service. This kit provides decals for the Finnish anniversary scheme to highlight the aircraft’s 28 years with Finland’s Ilmavoimat.

The kit itself is a relatively simple and easy build, with a fairly low parts count compared to many Hasegawa kits. One of the nicer aspects of this “special” kit is that, with the exception of decals and weapons, all the parts are included to build a Finnish Draken at any time of its service with the Finnish Air Force. That includes extra antenna, optional gun ports for dual cannon-armed aircraft, parts for late model aircraft with rear fuselage flare dispensers, and an optional chin mounted IR seeker.

Review Author
Pablo Bauleo
Published on
Company
Italeri
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$62.00

The Wessex family of helicopters has always been popular among modelers. There has been only one kit in 1/48 before and it has been out of production for a few decades, so this newly molded kit is certainly creating some positive ripples in the modeler community!

Italeri brings a brand-new mold of the Wessex UH.5. Surface detail is good, with most of the detail being recessed, but in some areas –where it should be – it is actually raised detail. The kit includes 4 sprues, nylon mesh for the intakes, and a small photoetch fret for cockpit detail plus some external detail, too. Clear parts are very transparent, but a bit thick. Decals are glossy and allow you to finish your model in 4 different finishes, either in Royal Air Force or Royal Navy service.

Review Author
Ron Bell
Published on
Company
Airfix
Scale
1/76
MSRP
$11.99

For those old-timers in the hobby, the name Airfix may bring back many a fond memory of simple kits that only generally resembled what they were supposed to, and could be put together on a rainy Saturday afternoon at the kitchen table. However, since being taken over by the toy giant Hornby, Airfix has been in the process of re-inventing itself. Old kits are being updated and new ones issued as well. Their latest military vehicle offering is a King Tiger. It's all-new molding, as Airfix never did a King Tiger. There are 89 parts on three sprues. The molding is good – nice and crisp. However, they chose to mold all the tools and cables, etc., onto the hull. This makes adding zimmerit tricky and requires careful painting to pick them out.

Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
Company
Starfighter Decals
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$12.50

I bought this upgrade set at the Orlando Nationals to upgrade the Monogram P-36 which I was going to do with the Yellow Wings decals, which I have also reviewed.

The Monogram P-36 has been around for a long time, first released in 1967. While it’s not a new kit, it has decent shape and fit. But the interior is just a seat and an instrument panel. Starfighter Decals, part of Mark’s Models and Toys, comes to the rescue with resin parts.

You get wheel wells, a seat, cockpit sides, a floor, an instrument panel, and a stick.

Mark Tutton made the masters for the resin parts, and he’s done a good job. Everything in the cockpit went together well, and I’m happy with how it looks.

The instructions call for an aluminum interior, or possibly interior green. Since the 77th Pursuit was at Moffett Field when they had this aircraft, and they were there in late 1939 to mid 1940, I chose the green.