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Package covers

Albatros D.V and D.Va Decals
Review Author
Roger Rasor
Published on
Company
Wingnut Wings, Ltd
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$19.00

Wingnut Wings is now offering decal sheets for markings that go far beyond those included in their growing line of WW I aircraft kits. The decals are packaged in zip-lock sleeves along with a comprehensive full color 4-page instruction booklet that includes application instructions, aircraft profiles, top and bottom wing plan views, historical information and period photos of each of the aircraft covered by the decal sheets. These sets exhibit the same high level of quality as do all of the kits marketed by Wingnut Wings.

Set 30011 provides markings for five Albatros D.V fighters from Jasta 18. Some of them require upper and under wing lozenge patterns (and rib tape) that Wingnut Wings sells separately.

The markings are for:

A) Albatros D.V 2117/17 flown by Oliver Beaulieu-Marconnay, Jasta 18 in late 1917 (who was credited with 25 victories)

B) Albatros D.V 4594/17 flown by Paul Strähle, Jasta 18 from 1917-1918 (credited with 15 victories)

Product packaging

Camo Netting

Review Author
Roger Carrano
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$29.95

As with all Eduard products, you can expect the detail to be excellent, and these nettings are no exception. The netting is so fine and true to scale and the colors used for the camouflage is perfect. The “Woodland” net is a mixed dark and light color which matches the foliage perfectly. The “Desert” net is of course lighter, but it has both a dark and light sand color which imitates the desert’s coloring perfectly. The size is big enough (5 ¼ x 9 ¼ in) to cover small munitions models and medium size tanks, but for large models, it might fall a little short. The “netting” is a little stiff (after all it is metal) so don’t expect it to just fall on the model and contour itself on its own. Rolling it shouldn’t be a problem but folding it might need something round at the fold to prevent it from creasing and after the fold is complete then the round object could be removed. It would have to be given some thought and planning ahead of time as to where and how it should be placed.

Box Art

HMS Campbeltown
Review Author
Paul Helfrich
Published on
Company
Revell, Inc.
Scale
1/240
MSRP
$16.95

HMS Campbeltown was originally the Wickes-class destroyer USS Buchanan, DD-131. She was commissioned in 1919 and transferred to the UK as part of the “Destroyers for Bases” deal between the US and Britain in 1940. In exchange for 50 aging “four-piper” destroyers like the Buchanan/Campbeltown (obsolete for fleet duties, but still useful as convoy escorts) for the Royal and Royal Canadian navies, the US got basing rights in the Caribbean and Newfoundland.

HMS Campbeltown is one of the most well-known of the traded ships, as she was famously expended as a floating bomb in the “Operation Chariot” raid by British commandos on the St. Nazaire docks in March of 1942. The purpose of the raid – and it succeeded – was to deny the use of the St. Nazaire dry dock to heavy German units such as the battleship Tirpitz.

Box Art

World War II German Aircraft Weapons
Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Italeri
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$25.00

Ever have to rob a perfectly good kit for just the bombs? I have and I regretted it later when I either wanted to build it or sell it. Italeri has a solution to this problem, bombs and lots of them. The latest release contains two identical sprues of 53 parts each and the decals that go with them. You can build AB70, AB-250, AB500, the ER-4 Bomb rack, ETC 50 bomb rack, PC1400, PD500, SC50, SC250 with Dinort fusing, SC500, SD250, SC1000, SD1700, Pfeife Geraete, 300 and 900 liter Fuel Tanks and WB81 gun pods from the kit. That is a lot of ordnance. There are multiple aircraft that can be armed with this set. Included in the instructions are the load out plans for various aircraft such as the Ju-88, He-111, Ju-87, Hs-129, FW-190, and Me-262. As an example, you can use the bombs and gun pod on Italeri Stuka.

Box Art

United Air Lines DC-4
Review Author
Perry Downen
Published on
Company
Minicraft Model Kits
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$29.95

I would like to express my sincere thanks to Minicraft Model Kits for providing this kit to IPMS/USA and to them for allowing me to review it.

In the mid-1930s United Airlines decided they needed a larger plane than the DC-3s they were using. They contacted Douglas Aircraft to develop such a plane. Douglas designed and built a large aircraft they called the DC-4E (E for experimental). It flew for the first time on June 7, 1938. More than twice the size of the DC-3 (138 ft. wingspan and 97 ft. long) the cabin had a wide pressurized cross-section, a tricycle landing gear, and triple vertical stabilizers similar to the Lockheed Constellation. With its four Wright R-1820 engines developing 1450 hp each, it could potentially fly nonstop from Chicago to San Francisco.