There is somewhat of a recent trend in home furnishing circles that gives renewed life to older furniture and kitchen cabinets. The painting technique of which I speak is dry brushing. The trend has even caught the eye of Bob Vila, once and former host of the PBS series 'This Old House'. Bob is no longer affiliated with the program after lambasting (allegedly) a homeowner for being a lazy twit, but that's a story for another time.

This dry brush technique involves dousing your paint brush into the paint of choice, removing almost all of it from the paint brush bristles and applying the minute amount of remaining paint onto the selected object. In the case of a home improvement project that might be cabinet doors or the odd tabletop but for our purposes this missive will focus solely on scale models.

If not for the continued support of companies such as Osprey, IPMS USA would not have the excellent review opportunities we do. Thanks very much to our stateside distributor of these great books, Mr. Wellington. Was not he the guy who’s Army someone else’s’ Army, named Napoleon, at Waterloo? (Answer: yes) And where is “Waterloo”? (Answer: Belgium). I’ve seen that battlefield from both the air and ground (flew over it in an H-53C in a typical European Rainstorm) and it’s not very big as battlefields go. And not once did I associate it with a bomber. Until I put two and two together and got seven (new math). Oh, and it’s not a set of waterproof rubber boots (“Wellingtons”, or “Wellies” as the Brits call them) either.

This set provides replacement two main gear tires, 2 variations of tire rims and a new tailwheel. The main wheel tires have radial tread with raised markings. There is a flat spot, with slightly bulged sidewalls on each main gear tire to simulate a loaded aircraft. The tailwheel appears to be a solid style tailwheel, so there is no flat spot anywhere on it. Oddly, the set does not include the tail wheel strut but instead instructs you to remove the molded tire from parts “A6” or “A7”, so a little surgery will be necessary to install the replacement tailwheel.

The set includes two options for the left rim for each main gear, one with a spoke type pattern and the other a more standard looking rim. To avoid confusion later, I installed the same rim on both sides of each tire.