IPMS Number
45849

Reviews By Author

Kitsets packaging in review

German Destroyer Barrels, Z-25 (1944) and Z-39 (1945

Published: July 22, 2011
Company: Master Model

These two armament sets from Master Model provide a full range of replacement brass gun barrels for the new Dragon German Destroyer kits. Set contents include:

  • Z-25: Four 150 mm (5.9”); Twelve 37mm; Eighteen 20mm
  • Z-39: Four 150mm (5.9”); Fourteen 37mm; Twelve 20mm

Each of the brass barrels is slightly tapered with very finely defined segmentations.… more

Front cover

Kamikaze: Japanese Special Attack Weapons 1944-1945

Published: July 5, 2011
Book Author(s): Steven J. Zaloga, Illustrated by Ian Palmer
Company: Osprey Publishing

Any student of the Pacific War will be familiar with Japan’s use of thousands of conventional aircraft – fighters, bombers, trainers and nearly every other type flown by her Army and Naval Air Forces – into “Special Attack” weapons: the Kamikazes. What is less understood is Japan’s development and use of purposely designed suicide weapons. Author Steven Zaloga is well known for his extensive… more

Box Art

USS Independence CVL-22, Smart Kit

Published: June 4, 2011
Company: Dragon Models

The Ship

They say Necessity is the mother of Invention. Such was the case with the Independence class of light aircraft carriers. The U.S. Navy’s pressing need for fleet carrier decks during the early stages of the Pacific War brought these vessels into being. The nine Independence class carriers were converted from Cleveland class light cruisers already under… more

Kitset packaging

Railings 2 Chain Bars

Published: May 18, 2011
Company: Eduard

This photo etch ship railing set is similar to their 3-Bar Chain railing set, with the obvious difference of having two chain levels instead of three. The accompanying photo compares the two Eduard sets, side by side.This similarity will enable me to liberally borrow from my earlier review:

This unpainted stainless steel set represents drooping chain railings founds on the main… more

Kitset packaging

3-Chain Bars Railings

Published: May 4, 2011
Company: Eduard

Adding to its expanding line of ship detail sets, Eduard has released photoetch ship railings in the popular ship modeling scales. This unpainted stainless steel set represents drooping chain railings founds on the main decks on most all types of vessels (metal bar railings tend to be found more often on the upper superstructure deck levels). This is generic railing, not geared to any specific… more

Package cover sheet

F4F-3/4 Wildcat

Published: May 2, 2011
Company: Yellow-Wings Decals

This decal sheet represents another of the Yellow-Wings “complete aircraft packages”, this time concentrating on pre-WWII and early war Wildcats. Covered are F4F-3s from two Atlantic Fleet carriers from early 1941, USS Ranger’s VF 41 and USS Wasp’s VF 72, and an early war F4F-4 from USS Enterprise VF-6 based on Guadalcanal and flown by ace Donald Runyon, complete with “tombstone” kill tally… more

Decal packaging

US Navy WW2 Instrument Dial Decals

Published: April 28, 2011
Company: Airscale Model Aircraft Enhancements

I don’t know how many times I’ve scoured through page after page of my aircraft decal sheets looking one or more dial decals to use on a particular instrument panel. Now, Airscale has saved me a whole lot of looking. They have produced a multi-national series of instrument dial decals in 1/48, 1/32 and 1/24 scale. This set, for US Navy aircraft, has scores of different instrument dials printed… more

Front cover

Imperial Japanese Navy Heavy Cruisers 1941-1945

Published: March 16, 2011
Book Author(s): Mark Stille, Illustrated by Paul Wright
Company: Osprey Publishing

While the aircraft carriers of Imperial Japan may have captured the glory of the navy’s early victories in the Pacific, by and large it was her cruisers that did the slugging, round after round, with the U.S. and Allied navies during the initial stages of the war. This latest New Vanguard edition by Osprey Publishing chronicles the development and use of Japan’s heavy cruiser force. All 18 of… more

Book cover

US Fast Battleships 1938-1991: The Iowa Class

Published: January 22, 2011
Book Author(s): Lawrence Burr, Illustrated by Peter Bull
Company: Osprey Publishing

This volume of the Osprey New Vanguard series highlights perhaps the most enduring class of fighting ships of the 20th century. Considering that transformation in warships during the last 70 years, the longevity of the Iowa class battleships is noteworthy and a testament to their design and construction.

The book is basically divided in to two sections. The first deals with… more

Box Art

F-4C/D Phantom

Published: November 27, 2010
Company: Revell, Inc.

I must be one of the few modelers left that hasn’t built at least one of these since this kit was introduced more than thirty years ago. The 1/48th F-4, along with the Century Series and Naval Aviation jet aircraft molded by Revell and Monogram back in the 1970s and 80s are truly classic models: exemplified by outstanding detail throughout (for their day), but particularly in the… more