The Apache is an impressive helicopter (when it works, sorry former Cobra pilot said a bad thing). What makes it really impressive is the Hellfire missile system. Also carried by the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior and many drones the Hellfire has allowed anti-tank and anti-personnel capabilities unheard of before. The ability to reach out and torch things 10Ks away is always good for the crewmembers and bad for bad guys.

Packaged in a typical Brassin box with foam cushioning. Inside the foam are three small ziplock bags containing the resin parts in light and dark grey resin. There are two clear resin blocks with the missile warheads. I could not find any flaws or blemishes on any of the parts. There are 50 resin parts. The resin covers two eight missile launchers. This is a typical loadout for the Apache. The Kiowa Warrior would have a single launcher with two missiles per side.

The North American P-51D requires little if any introduction, however reference material for it is always sought after. This book is intended to cover all bubbletop variants: -D, -K, CAC production and Cavalier production.

The book is broken down in a logical way, having a 2-page introduction to the type (as I said, it does not need much introduction). Then it goes into the production series, with the –D and –K series as the main versions covered while the CAC (Australian) and Cavalier production are also covered, but not as in depth as the previous versions. You get many 1/72^nd scale drawings of all the different production series.

A really interesting section is a comparison of performance with other fighters of the same time: Bf-109G, Mc.202, Fw-190, P-47 and Spitfire. Let’s be clear, this is not a “how will win a dogfight”, but rather a comparison on climb rates, weight, speed, ceiling and such.

One thing that 1/48th scale helicopter modelers have been without for so long is the lack of armament. Hueys and Loach crewmembers normally carried the M-60 machine gun as protection for the aircraft and crew. Up until now there has been no available machine gun to hang in the door.

Packaged with a card stock backing, this set features four air M-60Ds. The guns feature the front mounted bipod mount molded on. Everything is there except the front gun sight, which in this scale would be almost unnoticeable. The detail on the machine guns is impressive. You may want to add the front sights, but depending on your configuration the guns may not have it. Along with the M-60s you get two small belts of ammunition. They will be fragile in this scale but they are a nice touch. I would have liked more ammo, but I am a gunship pilot and more ammo is always good.