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This set provides replacements for the two nose mounted pitot tubes and the 30 mm gun barrels for Su-17/20/22 kits. The set is designed for the Modelsvit series of kits, but as I had an Italeri Su-22M-4 kit in the stash and Modelsvit kits are not seen often in my neck of the woods, I used the Italeri kit for comparison.
Aires Quickboost has released a replacement for the Monogram (and later Revell) series of 1/48 B-25J kits that replaces the cheek gun packs. There are no instructions but this is direct a replacement for the kit part. No modifications to the kit are required; the assembly simply goes in the same place as the kit parts.
Quickboost has molded the external gun packs in light grey resin with no apparent bubbles on three resin sprues. Each Quickboost twin gun pack is supplied on its own resin sprue with a separate sprue for the four .50 caliber gun barrels.
Although most paints will adhere to resin alone, I would recommend that you wash this part to remove any remaining mold release and prime it first. This part will need to be installed with your favorite CA (super glue) or epoxy, as the normal plastic glues or solvents will not react with the resin.
The M4A3 was the main medium tank used by the US Army in Europe starting in the Fall of 1944 until the end of the war. The A3 version had the Ford 8-cyclinder GAA 500 horse powered engine. The (76)W stands for the 76mm gun version with the T23 turret and the “Wet” ammo storage bins built into the floor surrounded by a jacket filled with an anti-freeze solution. This kit represents a M4A3 that would have fought during the Battle of the Bulge in mid to late December 1944.
Greg Van Wyngarden has taken a new look at the Pfalz D.IIIa service in WWI. This is the second volume of a two volume set (Datafile 173: Pfalz D.IIIA At War!). Datafile number 21 by Peter M. Grosz came out in1995 so it is about time that Windsock revisited the Pfalz D.IIIa. The initial Pfalz D.III aircraft received a poor reception amongst German pilots as it was regarded as inferior to the Albatros D.V. That doesn’t negate the fact that it was still superior to most of the Allied opposition of the time. The Pflaz firm, however, did listen to the pilot’s concerns over the D.III and soon offered improvements in the form of the D.IIIa.
Italeri recently began producing a line of 1/56 scale AFVs and figures. This might be an unusual scale for most model builders, but is a fairly common wargaming scale, equivalent to the 28mm scale. The M3 Stuart tank kit is one of their newest releases in that line of kits, and it is done in coordination with Warlord Games, who designed the 28mm WWII-themed wargame, Bolt Action©.
