Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
April 17, 2016
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$14.95

Hasegawa’s 1/48th scale F-104 kit has been around for a while and it is a very nice kit making the grade at many shows all over the world. One thing missing from the standard kit is any underwing pylons. Granted, there are a lot of pictures of F-104’s with any pylons attached but they were able to carry one under each wing and also a centerline pylon also. Eduard gives that option in spades with this newest release- a complete set of pylons for the entire airframe.

Inside the package, you’ll find 25 beautiful resin cast parts, a photoetch fret with 25 detail parts for the pylons and also a full set of decals. This is a very comprehensive set for $14.95.

Let’s take a little more detailed look at what the pylons are and what they are used for:

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
April 17, 2016
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$19.95

Merit quietly issued a 1/35 X-craft submarine and once I got my hands on it, I was impressed with both the molding and size of the kit. Still, there was some room for add-ons and improvements and Eduard has issued a photoetch sheet to help address some of the issues.

Eduard’s sheet is composed of a single sheet with 30 superb parts. The sheet addresses the hatches on the top of the ship by replacing 6 individual parts and adding detail and texture. A little removal of the hinges and these go on smoothly. There are slight folds on four of the parts but this is easy to accomplish with a new #11 blade.

Next, the kit propeller is undersized and Eduard uses the kit hub but has you wrap three individual blades around a dowel and add them to the hub. This takes a little patience but the result is a larger and more accurate prop.

Review Author
David Horn
Published on
February 3, 2020
Company
Airscale Model Aircraft Enhancements
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$12.95

Applications

Airscale, as usual is a leader in making cockpit enhancing products and this is a new product to their line. Finally the modern cockpit has been addressed with these decals allowing a modeler to get just the right look of warning markings and dataplates. Trying to paint the cross hatch lines of two colors is extremely difficult and these decals make it easy to do so. There are also tri-color (black/white/yellow) markings in the selection. In addition to the striped markings, dataplates for the sidewalls and for ejection seats are also provided. There is a little surprise and a real bonus in this set, a legend giving the name of each placard and warning type.

Review Author
David Horn
Published on
February 3, 2020
Company
Airscale Model Aircraft Enhancements
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$12.95

Applications

Airscale, as usual is a leader in making cockpit enhancing products and this is a new product to their line. Finally the modern cockpit has been addressed with these decals allowing a modeler to get just the right look of electronic flight displays and round instruments. Included on the electronic displays are the bezel buttons surrounding the bezel. The modelers would have to remove any raised buttons if retaining this portion or simply cut the display portion out and paint the buttons.

There is a little surprise and a real bonus in this set, a legend giving the name of each instrument type. Usually if you look close enough you can guess here but this is taken care of with this nice feature.

Review Author
John King
Published on
April 17, 2016
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$13.95

The Parts

Scale Aircraft Conversion is known for making white metal landing gear replacement sets for numerous aircraft in multiple scales. I have reviewed a few of these sets before. Normally, the only advantages that I see are that these make for a sturdier model. However, this set I feel is different. The parts are exact replacements of the Airfix parts; instead of plastic, these are made of white metal. There really is no additional detail. The parts do not have the mold seams that the kit parts do, which is nice.

The reason I am very much for this set is that the Airfix parts are very finicky. What I found to be very useful of the SAC parts is the ability to bend slightly some of the parts so that you can fully assemble the landing gear. Once assembled, and thanks to the material (white metal), you are able to manipulate the landing gear so you get the perfect stance of your Wildcat!