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Review Author
Ben Morton
Published on
Company
Hauler
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$19.00

The M9 Armored Combat Earthmover (ACE) is a highly mobile armored tracked vehicle that provides combat engineer support to front-line forces. Fielded by the United States Army, its tasks include eliminating enemy obstacles, maintenance and repair of roads and supply routes, and construction of fighting positions. (Wikipedia)

Takom released a 1/35th scale model of this vehicle in 2015. That kit has been reviewed elsewhere and one of the minor shortcomings of that kit (and there are few) owes more to the limitations of injection molded styrene than to anything else. The oversized and out of scale headlight covers being one of those items that is first to come to mind.

Review Author
Ben Morton
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$9.95

Many already know that Scale Aircraft Conversions has been pumping out replacement, white metal landing gear sets for some few years now. I believe that this endeavor (Scale Aircraft Conversions) began as a way to provide you, dear modeler, with a sturdier option than what was being supplied by the kit manufacturer. While kit supplied landing gear and struts may have been to scale they were sometimes unable to handle the actually weight of the completed model.

To help solve that issue, Scale Aircraft Conversions has an extensive line of landing gear sets for an extensive number of kits. Adding to that line is a new one designed for the Eduard's series of MiG-21's in 1/144th scale. Scale Aircraft Conversions includes two complete sets of landing gear with this offering. Which is a good thing as there are two complete kits in Eduard's boxing of the 1/144th scale MiG-21.

Book Author(s)
Dariusz Grzywacz
Review Author
Bill O'Malley
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$4.95

This is the second adult coloring book published by MMP following their Classic Fighters book. The Operation Dynamo adult coloring book focuses on the airplanes and military vehicles used at the time of Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940.

The book is 8 1/4“ x 11 1/2“ and includes 32 pages with 15 vehicles on two-page spreads. Each vehicle or aircraft includes a black-and-white photo, technical specifications, and a brief description. The image to be colored is a simple line drawing without a lot of detail, which makes coloring easier.

Aircraft & Vehicles Included:

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$7.95

This set is part of Eduard’s growing line of Steel seat belts sets. The set consists of 3 sets of seat seatbelts and shoulder harnesses for Yakovlev World War II fighters and 3 sets for Lavochkin World War II fighters. The set will particularly useful for dressing up the cockpit of an older kit. I had an old Italeri La-5 kit that has been in my stash for quite some time, so I pulled it out to see how the belts worked.

Review Author
Pablo Bauleo
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$4.95

Eduard Models continue to expand its Brassin line, this time with a drop-in replacement part for their excellent Spitfire Mk IX line: the top cowling.

The part itself is molded in resin and very small casting pours, making removal of the part trivial. The part itself shows no bubbles and exquisite fine detail, down to the rivets.

The plastic parts are not bad at all, however, they have a seam line that needs to be puttied and sanded to make it disappear. The resin part does not have any seam line and it is ready to be installed.

Note that the resin part fits excellently the width of the fuselage nose. However, when removed from the pouring stab it is slightly longer than the rest of the fuselage, perhaps by 1/32 of an inch.

It was very simple to sand it to fit of the surrounding plastic parts. Moreover, the sanding marks will be hidden by the propeller spinner.

Recommended to modelers of all skill levels.