Landing Gear Closeup

J7W1 Shinden - Final Construction and Painting - Part 2

Hood opened

Fairlady 240ZG Street-Custom

Front

Bf-110F Nachtjager

Phantom Left Front

F-4J Phantom II & F/A-18F Super Hornet "Jolly Rogers" (2 kits) Limited Edition

Bomb Bay FrontView

Lancaster B Mk.III Dambuster – Part 3 of 3

Cockpit area completed

Nakajima B5N2 Type 97 Model 3 Kate “Folding Wing”

Cockpit tent

U-2A Dragon Lady

Sprue

Heinkel He111 P-2

Bottom

53 Foot Smooth Side Trailer with Reefer

Gaps filled in and around aft section

Gato Class Submarine

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Front Cover

Fire Bombers In Action (Videobook)
Book Author(s)
Frederick A. Johnsen
Review Author
Chuck Bush
Published on
September 26, 2010
Company
Specialty Press
MSRP
$34.95

Frederick A. Johnsen has been a fire bomber enthusiast since childhood. He saw his first, a TBM Avenger, in 1961 and was hooked. Mr Johnsen has been an Air Force historian, NASA public affairs officer and is currently the director of the Air Force Flight Test Center Museum at Edwards AFB, California. He has written over 20 aviation books and articles for numerous periodicals.

Fire Bombers In Action is an 8.5 x 11”, 144 page, softbound book containing 120 black and white and 114 color photos. It includes a 60 minute DVD (more on that later.)

Box Art, Pavla Lorna

Kyushu Q1W1 Tokai "Lorna"
Review Author
Brian R. Baker
Published on
September 26, 2010
Company
Pavla Models
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$16.95

History

Once the Japanese Pacific "empire” had expanded to its greatest extent in mid-1942, the Navy General Staff realized that their supply lines -- basically consisting of slow, plodding “marus” usually sailing independently and not in convoy -- were extremely vulnerable to American submarines, which patrolled almost unopposed throughout the empire.

The Japanese considered the submarine mainly a weapon to be used against enemy warships. But American submarines were used primarily as commerce destroyers like the German U-Boats, and took such a toll of Japanese shipping that more and better aircraft were required for anti-submarine duties. In 1942, the Watanabe Tekkosho, later Kyushu Hokoki, was assigned the task of developing a specialized aircraft for this role. A design was quickly developed, the Q1W1, which appeared as a three-seat twin engine monoplane emphasizing endurance over speed.

Box Cover

Schwerer Plattformwagen Typ SSY and Pz Bef Wg III Ausf K

Review Author
Tom Moon
Published on
September 25, 2010
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$44.95

The Orange Box Series kits from Dragon are basically previously released models that have been repackaged. The kit in this review is a combo of Dragon 6069 Schwerer Plattformwagen Typ SSY railcar flat top and Dragon Kit 9018 Pz Bef Wg III Ausf K.

Review of the Railcar

The instructions are a composite of the two separate sets of instructions, so I’ll start with steps 23 and 24: the assembly of the railcar frame and top or deck. Make sure that you have a flat surface to place the 4 pieces of the deck and that surface will not be marred by the possible glue seepage between the 4 pieces. Lay the 4 pieces face down and run a line of glue between the panels. While the glue is still soft, place the frame on the underside of the deck and make sure that everything is square. Glue the frame to the deck and let it dry.

Box Cover

Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf H Late Production with Zimmerit
Review Author
Ben Guenther
Published on
May 3, 2022
Company
Dragon Models
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$58.00

Dragon certainly has produced a lot of Panzer IV kits and this latest one comes with some parts with Zimmerit on them, so you don’t have to apply it. This kit, other than the new Zimmerit parts, is a duplicate of their earlier kit no. 6300 (May 2009) of the Panzer IV Ausf H late production. Dragon also has supplied DS tracks rather than a set of “magic tracks”. We’ll see during the build how this works out. In the Dragon fashion we have at least 23 sprues (two of which come from their Brummbar kit) and as the box top states “over 520 parts”. I did not count the total parts, but just the parts marked "not for use" came to 158. I used about 200 parts on this model, so your spare parts box will have a large addition.

P-38 Lightning Wicked Women Decals

P-38 Lightning Wicked Women Decals
Review Author
Robert DeMaio
Published on
September 25, 2010
Company
Bombshell Decals
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$18.00

Two aircraft are represented on this sheet of decals for the P-38J aircraft for the 9th Air Force, and as the title sheet suggests, nose art of wicked women. One set for the 402nd Fighter Squadron, 370th Fighter Group flown by Lt. Ian B. Mackenzie with D-Day invasion stripes. His nose art is the “Vivacious Virgin II”. The second choice is for the 80th Fighter Squadron, 8th Fighter Group flown by Lt. Charles B. Ray sporting “San Antonio Rose” for his nose art.

These are very nice decals produced for the P-38 Lightning. There are two complete sets of decals here including the stenciling. Three sets of national insignia are provided, one being in a faded blue. There is no need to cut around the solid color decals and some of the stenciling, since there isn’t any to be found. The decals are thin and shouldn’t sit in the water too long to soften up.