Summary

Hasagawa has re-released their previously out-of-production Tamago Plane Series Egg Plane caricature of the venerable TBF/TBM Avenger, this issue sporting two sets of new markings, including the popular set for USS Mission Bay (Code E16).
The small, sturdy box contains two sprues of relatively hard, blue plastic, a clear plastic canopy packaged separately, one medium sheet of decals which are thin and in perfect register, and one instruction sheet totaling 6 pages with 2 steps, printed in black and white.

The markings in the kit cover two schemes: TBF-1C: U.S. Navy USS Mission Bay Code: E16 and TBM-1C: U.S. Navy VC-42 Code 21.

This is the first installment, “First Look,” of Trumpeter’s Douglas ERA-3B 1/48^th scale variant to be released by Trumpeter in 2016. The plane represents the US Navy, VAQ-33 ‘Firebirds’, ERA-3B, 104/GD BuNo. 146447. The ERA-3B variant was converted from the RA-3B variant as an electronic aggressor aircraft serving with the VAQ-33 and VAQ-34. I won’t bore you with a long lengthy dissertation on the history of the Douglas A3 and this variant so I will just include here a description presented on Trumpeter’s product website which will suffice for most modelers. I’m sure during your build one would do their own further research. “The Douglas A-3“Skywarrior”was a strategic nuclear bomber developed for the US Navy.

Background

This is an interesting accessory for Mirage III or V models from PJ Production of Belgium. These R.P.K. tanks are basically 500 L fuel tanks with four 250 kg bombs attached to each. The weapons are used for ground attack. They were used by French aircraft as well as Australia, South Africa, Peru, Bolivia and possibly others. I was able to find a few photos on the internet but very little data. Most of the information came from a request to PJ Production.