Hobby Boss has issued many 1/350 submarines from modern day to WWII. This offering continues the WWII kits with a 1941 version of a Gato class submarine successor, the Balao class, and the submarine that carried much of the burden of the submarine war in the Pacific.

This offering is the lead class in this series as the USS Gato, SS-212 from 1941. The kit includes three sprues, a stand, a photoetch name plate and a small decal sheet. Molding is crisp and clean with no flash. The kit is 26 parts including the photoetch and the stand.

The assembly instructions are two steps with the first adding the hull and bottom parts and the second were finishing the conning tower and detail. Fit is very good with only a little putty on the bottom.

Bregun has provided a better option for the flare dispensers that are either blanked off or poorly represented on most kits in this scale. The AN/ALE 39/47 dispenser system is used on the F-16, F-18 as well as some helicopters and transports. The real system can accommodate mixed decoys in the same pack. These are programable, to release in predetermined or automatic order. Brengun duplicates the canister boxes in resin and the frame of the mounting boxes in PE. The canisters are molded fully loaded with 30 decoys. Installation consists of opening a 4x9mm hole for the resin parts. The PE frames fit precisely over the canisters. The resin is typical of Brengun meaning it's easy to work with. The cut outs need to be very precise since the PE frames won’t cover any overcut. While not an easy installation, this set offers an improvement over most of the kit molded options out there.

Thank you to Brengun for providing the sample and to IPMS for letting me have a go at it.

One of the latest in Mushroom Model Publications’ White Series, Finnish Aces. Their Planes and Units 1939-1945 follows up earlier volumes on Finnish aircraft: (2021’s Finnish & German Seaplane Colours, Finland 1939-1945; 2018’s Finnish Jet Colours; 2018’s Finnish Bomber Colours, 1939-1945; 2015’s Finnish Fighter Colours, 1939-1945, Volume 2; and 2014’s Finnish Fighter Colours, 1939-1945, Volume 1); MMP is calling this book part of their "Rainbow Series." I'm guessing that refers to their large format camouflage and markings set of books in their "White" series that have addressed Bulgaria, Finland, Hungarian, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, and Sweden. This series seems to share a commonality of discussing the specific topic of the evolution of a countries' evolution in markings. To that end, this book utilizes many previously un-published pictures and focuses in on individual aircraft to supplement with superb color illustrations.