Dave Morrissette
Reviews By Author
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Detail & Scale F/A-18E & F/A-18F Super HornetPublished:
Detail and Scale is an iconic brand in the aircraft modeling world. Bert Kinzey and friends have been putting out top quality aircraft books for decades and this latest release covering the F/A-18E & F/A-18F Super Hornet and the EA-18G Growler is no exception. Also, this is version two as the original was released back in the early 2000’s. The book is available in two formats- traditional book and electronic e-book. This review covers the paperback version. Let’s dive in and see why these books are meant for both aircraft enthusiasts and modelers. Let’s start with the table of contents:
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P-47D-25 Cockpit SetPublished:
Hasegawa’s 1/32nd scale P-47D-25 is a great kit with good fit and form but like most of Hasegawa’s kits, they leave some room for improvement. In this case, the cockpit is Ok OOB but Eduard has produced a single fret of colorized photoetch that will bump the cockpit to the next level. Inside the package, you’ll find one fret of colorized photoetch with 40 parts that address improvements to the instrument panel, the cockpit sidewalls and the rudder pedals. Two pages of instructions detail the installation including a little surgery on the kit parts. The instrument panel is made from 17 parts. It is basically a two part affair with the back being dials with a clear raised “lens” for each instrument. When sandwiched with the front section, it is awesome. One trick I… more |
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P-47D-25 SeatbeltsPublished:
Hasegawa’s 1/32nd scale P-47D is a wonderful kit with great shape and like many Hasegawa kits is basic in some areas. One of those areas is seat belts. The cockpit opening is smallish, and the seat is prominent and there is no provision of any kind for a seat belt. Eduard to the rescue with set 33234, a seat of belts made specifically for the Hasegawa P-47D-25. Inside the package is a single sheet of instructions with a fret of colorized photoetch which has nine parts with three spares included. The shoulder harnesses are one piece and the are four. Start by cutting the parts from the sprue and sanding off any nibs. The should harnesses have a bend on each buckle. The lap belts have a pad and latch installed on the left belt; nothing n the right belt. … more |
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North American B-25 Mitchell Decals, Part 4Published:
Lifelike Decals from Japan is one of those hidden gems people need to hear more about. With a large selection in the most popular scales, they have decals for WWII era planes from Japan, Europe and the US. This set covers Part 4 for the B-25C/D/J in 1/72 scale and is meant for the Airfix B-25C/D and Hasegawa B-25J. The first two markings are for the famous Air Apaches of the 345th BG. Inside the package, there a three small decals sheets covering the roundels and markings for four aircraft. The decals are a mixture of Cartograf and Microscale which is great. A separate page has information on the roundels used at specific times. There is a profile page containing the instructions and details about the four planes represented. Lastly is the cover with the top and… more |
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North American B-25 Mitchell Decals, Part 2Published:
Lifelike Decals from Japan is one of those hidden gems people need to hear more about. With a large selection in the most popular scales, they have decals for WWII era planes from Japan, Europe and the US. This set covers Part 2 for the B-25C/D/J in 1/72 scale and is meant for the Airfix B-25C/D. Inside the package, you’ll find three decal sheets with two being made by Microscale and one by Cartograf all in perfect alignment. Two sheets cover the plane markings and one is for the roundels in two different styles. Also, there is a masking sheet for “Old Baldy”. There are specific instructions for each aircraft along with color profiles and details of how to represent that specific aircraft with aftermarket accessories where needed. A separate page on the history and types of… more |
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North American B-25 Mitchell Decals, Part 1Published:
Lifelike Decals from Japan is one of those hidden gems people need to hear more about. With a large selection in the most popular scales, they have decals for WWII era planes from Japan, Europe and the US. This set covers Part 1 for the B-25C/D/J in 1/72 scale and is meant for the Airfix B-25C/D or the Hasegawa B-25J Solid Nose Version. Inside the package, there’s a lot! First, there are three parts to the decal sheet. The first part is a selection of national insignia; second are a set of nose markings, build no’s and mission markings for four of the planes printed by Microscale and lastly, is a set of markings for the last plane and propeller decals printed by Cartograf. All are printed perfectly with great register and color. Also included are color profiles of each aircraft… more |
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Super Bug - F/A-18E HornetPublished:
Eduard continues their upgrades to existing kits by giving the treatment to Hasegawa’s 1/48th scale F/A-18E and calling it Super Bug! Inside the box, you get the wonderful Hasegawa F/A-18E Sprues which are excellent with fine panel lines, no flash and good detail. To give it the updates treatment, Eduard adds Brassin details including a resin seat and tires; a colorized PE fret is added with parts to upgrade the cockpit and an Eduard Mask set for the kit. To top this off, a superb decal sheet is included with colorful markings for the following:
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Henschel Hs-129B-2/RIII Wings, Cowlings and Things!, Part 3Published:
In Part 2 of my build of Zoukei-Mura’s HS-129B-2, we got the wings and horizontal stabs on and prepped the kit for paint. I primed the plane and checked for flaws and (not surprisingly) there were several. I had to work on the cannon doors and a little bottom seam work. A quick sanding another round of primer and I wanted to give the instructions a last go over. Reviewing the detailed instructions, I see a few parts I needed to add- the flaps and ailerons. I added those and moved on to paint. For the color scheme, there are markings provided for one plane:
The paint scheme is a standard Luftwaffe desert scheme consisting of a boot of RLM 65 Light blue, a top of RLM 79 Sand Yellow… more |
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Part 2 - Henschel Hs-129B-2/RIII Wings, Cowlings and Things!Published:
In Part 2 of my build of Zoukei-Mura’s latest Release, the 1/32nd scale Henschel Hs-129 B-2/RIII, we’ll get the wings and horizontal stabs on and get the kit ready for paint As a bit of background, the Hs-129 was a WWII version of the modern A-10 and was designed to and good at killing tanks. In Part 1, we built the engines cockpit and got the fuselage assembled. Let’s finish the rest of the assembly. To start, the wing spars were cut from the sprues. If you want the interior parts to show, you will need a little sanding to get rid of the seam lines. These slot brilliantly into the previously shown slot and provide a nice fit. This should also provide the needed dihedral for the wings. The four fuel tanks are built and added along with MG151 magazines and lastly, the… more |
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Henschel Hs-129B-2/RIII - Part 1 - Cockpit, Engines, and FuselagePublished:
Zoukei-Mura’s latest Release in 1/32nd scale is a Henschel Hs-129 B-2/RIII. The Hs-129 was a WWII version of the modern A-10 and was designed to and good at killing tanks. Inside the box, you will find 18 sprues in light brown with excellent engraving, no flash and also one small sprue of clear parts. There is also a set of masks and decals for one set of markings from 4(Pz)/Sch.G2 in Libya February 1943. For those that have never built a Zoukei-Mura kit, their philosophy is to show the entire kit so that this kit includes all the interior stringers plus all the fuselage internals, highly detailed engines and parts. This does raise the parts count to 428 and the builder has the choice of many open panels or closed. This build starts a little different in that… more |