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P-38 Lightning Wicked Women Decals

P-38 Lightning Wicked Women Decals
Review Author
Robert DeMaio
Published on
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.

Book Cover

Air War Over Kursk: Turning Point in the East
Book Author(s)
Dmitriy B. Khazanov
Review Author
Phil Pignataro
Published on
Company
SAM Publications
MSRP
$31.50

Whenever “Kursk” is mentioned, my thoughts turn to the massive tank battles that took place between the German and Soviet armies in July/August 1943. This book reminds us above that battlefield, a fierce air campaign was also taking place. After their disastrous defeat at Stalingrad in February 1943, the German High Command believed the Soviets, despite their victory, had been gravely wounded and unable to replace lost men and equipment. Thus, they planned a large summer offensive aimed at a narrow front near the town of Kursk, located about 250 miles south of Moscow. The code name for this plan was “Zitadelle.”

F-102A Delta Dagger Box Cover

F-102A Delta Dagger
Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
Company
Encore by Squadron
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$51.49

Back in the late 1980’s, I was stationed at Sembach in Germany. Having left England behind in 1986 due to reassignment, the word on aircraft modeling was mostly about what Revell and Italeri were up to. Everything in the shops was Revell or R/C related, and my only link to what was happening in the rest of the static scale world involved the Squadron shop flyers. A friend from Miami sent me a letter saying “sign up for the “Golden Eagle Society” newsletter… the word here is there are going to be 1/48 PBY’s, F-89’s and F-102’s from a major manufacturer…” I signed up, saw the newsletter, and was thinking to myself, “Yeah, right”. But at the same time I had high hopes; we had, in the space of a few years since 1982, seen the F-106 from Monogram, along with the consummate A-10, A-37, and the A-6 (the latter under the Revell label, but it was a Monogram kit based on the stock number lettering tab on the runners).

Bell UH-1N/Bell 212 Box Cover

Bell UH-1N/Bell 212
Review Author
Pablo Bauleo
Published on
Company
Italeri
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$37.00

The Bell “Hueys” have been a workhorse of rotary wing groups in many air forces for decades. The UN-1N/Bell 212 is the twin engine of the ‘Huey’-family, sporting an enlarged fuselage.

This kit is a re-issue of the venerable “Twin Huey” from Italeri. The kit comes in two sprues (molded in medium gray plastic) plus a third sprue of clear parts. There is no flash and no ejector pin is located in any visible area. (Good engineering there!) The sprues include 7.62 mm machine guns. Decals look very nice, although the green on the Italian national markings seems to be a little bit out of register.

Storage box

Precision Punch & Die Set

Review Author
Bill Kluge
Published on
Company
Roll Models
MSRP
$48.00

Punch & die sets are one of those tools that you don’t think too much about until one day when you need it. Then once you have one, you wonder how you ever did without it. Roll Models now offers the familiar Waldron set containing a punch guide and six punches in the following sizes:

.160”, .120”, .089”, .081”, .059”, and .039”