This is the second volume of the Belgian Military Forces in Belgium. The first book, “Belgian Military Forces in the Congo, Volume 1: The Force Publique, 1885-1960”, covered the events of Belgium’s 75 years in their Congo colony, leading to the official withdrawal of Belgian forces. Volume 2 picks up in 1964 after the newly independent Republic of the Congo-Kinshasa’s (later renamed Democratic Republic of the Congo-DRC) brief, bright future was overcome with internal factions, and the independence movement spreading through Africa (with several backed by Marxist forces). While Belgium wanted to remain hands-off, it quickly became apparent that they needed to step in to protect Belgian and Congolese interests.

This set provides replacement nosewheels and main wheels for 1/72 F/A-18C/D kits. It includes two nose gear tires, two main gear tires, and is designed to provide one-for-one replacement parts for the kit wheels. The set does not specify which kits it applies to, so I assume it is intended to be a generic set applicable to any 1/72 F/A-18C or D kit.

I had a Hasegawa F/A-18C kit on the workbench, so I used the wheel set on it. All four wheels are very well cast with excellent hub details and tread along with the brakes on the main gear tires. The detail is very crisp and a big improvement over the kit wheels. The wheels are molded with a flat spot on each one to simulate weight on them.

After washing the wheels and separating them from the pour stubs, I painted the tires Tamiya NATO Black and the hubs Tamiya Flat White. After sealing them with clear flat, I applied a dark brown wash to the hubs to bring out the bolt and brake assembly details.

The book compiles the 4-view color profiles, scale plans and photo details of the single variant of the Republic P-47C-5. Scale plans are in 1/72 & 1/48 scale, plus drawings from wartime technical manuals. Also included are photos of the details in B&W and color.

For any person wishing to build the P-47C model, this book would be a great resource. There are 3 view drawings showing the fuselage formers, wing rib size and location, panel lines on the aircraft and rivet lines. There are technical drawings for the construction of landing gear, cockpit layout and dashboard instrument locations to name a few. This book can be used to give extra detail your model’s cockpit. One page focuses on the area of the cockpit containing map pocket storage and other pocket storage areas.