Seatbelts Luftwaffe WWII Fighters STEEL

Published: May 11, 2017
Company: Eduard

This set is another of Eduard’s new “Steel” seatbelt line. The set is advertised as being for World War II Luftwaffe fighters, but the fret is etched “Bf 109” and “Fw 190”, so it appears the set is intended for just these two aircraft. However, in looking at photographs of belts in other Luftwaffe fighters, I think they could be used for other aircraft as well.

The set includes four sets of lap-belts and shoulder harnesses, two for the Bf 109 and two for the FW 190. In looking at the belts closely, about the only difference I can see is the upper attachment point for the shoulder harnesses. As I did not have either a Bf 109 or a Fw 190 underway, I installed the Bf 109 set in a Hasegawa Me 262 and the Fw 190 in a Ta 152H that have been in the bench queens pile for a while.… more

Falanga 9M17P missiles

Published: May 8, 2017
Company: Eduard

The Falanga 9M17P Flite (NATO reporting name of AT-2 Swatter) is a radio controlled anti-tank missile developed by the Soviet Union. It was one of the standard weapons fit of the Hind A and Hind D helicopter gunships used in the Soviet Union, many Eastern Europe countries and others that operated the Hind A and Hind D helicopters. The missiles were normally mounted in pairs on each side of the helicopter. The launch rails usually mounted at bottom of the end plates on the Hind’s stub wings. The missiles were also mounted on several types of armored personnel carrier of the BRDM series.

Eduard’s set provides a full set of four missiles and four launch rails. The missiles are single pieces of resin, while each launch rail is made up of five photo-etch parts. I started with the… more

CBU-87 Bomb

Published: May 3, 2017
Company: Eduard

The CBU-87 was developed on behalf of the US Air Force and became operational in the mid-1980’s replacing earlier cluster bomb munitions. The CBU-87 is designed to be a multi-purpose weapon effective against armor, soft-skinned vehicles and troops.

Eduard’s set consists of twelve resin parts, 6 canister bodies and 6 tail units. The hardest part of the whole build is cutting the parts from the casting blocks. Despite my best efforts, only about half of my cuts were straight, resulting in the need for some careful aligning of canisters and tail units in order to keep them properly lined up and then filling the resulting gaps with filler or Mr. Surfacer, depending on the size of the gaps.

Thankfully the units are overall Olive Drab, which as a dark color helps to hide some… more

FW-190A Balkenkreuze

Published: April 26, 2017
Company: Eduard

This decal sheet states that it was designed exclusively for use with Eduard’s outstanding 1/72 Fw 190A series of kits. The sheet provides seven different styles of Balkenkreuze, consisting of the simple white outline Balkenkreuze for the upper wings, and three options for both the fuselage and the underwing Balkenkreuze. There are the simple black Balkenkreuze outline, a solid black Balkenkreuze with a white border and the solid black Balkenkreuze with the white outline and a thin black outline outside of the white. This provides a lot of options to match the style Balkenkreuze used on the aircraft you are modeling.

As with all of Eduard’s new decals, these are very thin, but strong and react extremely well to Microsol and Microset, snuggling right down over details without… more

Su-24 Fencer Antennas

Published: April 26, 2017
Company: Quickboost

This is the second detailing set from Quickboost for the new Trumpeter Su-24 Fencer kits and focuses on the external antennas. The set includes replacements for 3 of the antennas in the kit and provides 5 others that are not in the kit. As the set is market simply for the Trumpeter Su-24, you may need to alter the antenna locations a little bit depending on whether you are building the Su-24MR or the Su-24M.

The antennas are sharply cast in Quickboost’s standard resin and the castings not only include the individual antennas, but also the mounting plate by which the antenna is attached to the aircraft. The antennas are easily separated from the cast block, either with a razor saw or even with sprue nippers. I removed the antennas one at a time, sanded down the mounting plate… more

Su-24 Fencer Refueling Probe

Published: April 23, 2017
Company: Quickboost

Last year Trumpeter released a pair of very nice Su-24 kits, replacing the old Dragon kits. This set is one of two released by Aires/Quickboost to upgrade some of the Trumpeter parts. The set consists of five parts: the inflight refueling probe, the refueling probe door that covers part of the probe when it is retracted, the bay into which the probe retracts and the two fuel dump pipes under the engines.

The parts are one-for-one replacements for corresponding kit parts, with a few differences. As shown in the photographs, the refueling probe itself is better detailed than the kit part and the probe door is much more refined and thinner than the kit part, which is molded as part of the prove itself. I was not able to find any clear photographs of the probe in the extended… more

Me 262A-1/2 'Last Ace'

Published: April 22, 2017
Company: Academy Models

The Me 262 continues to be a popular aircraft, both with modelers and with model manufacturers. I admit to being a fan of the aircraft and its sleek lines, so I was excited to see that last fall Academy released a special edition of its Me 262 kit with markings for 7 different aircraft. The kit is marketed as the Me 262A-1/2 and unlike some other kits, it actually does contain the parts necessary to build either of these variants of the jet.

The kit consists of 4 light grey sprues and one clear sprue along with a decal sheet printed by Cartograf. Panel lines are recessed and nicely done. In order to allow you to build either the bomber or fighter variants, the kit includes separate upper gun bay doors, one with two guns and the other with four guns. In addition the kit provides… more

F-4 Seatbelts (grey) STEEL

Published: April 15, 2017
Company: Eduard

This is the second set of steel seat belts and harnesses for the Martin-Baker MK. H-7 ejection seat as installed in the F-4 Phantom II. The set includes four complete sets of seatbelts and harnesses, allowing you to detail four seats, or two kits worth. The other set #73050 provides 4 sets of green belts and harnesses, while this set provides 4 sets of light grey belts and harnesses. As many of the older F-4 kits have a very generic ejection seat that does not even resemble the actual seat, these sets are intended for new kits. I used a seat from a Hasegawa F-4S kit as it has the correct configuration with the upper parachute container that is missing on many earlier kits. I assume that the new Academy kit seats are the correct shape as well, but I have not actually seen them yet.… more

F-4 Seatbelts (green) STEEL

Published: April 15, 2017
Company: Eduard

The F-4 Phantom II needs no introduction. With over 5,000 Phantoms built, it is one of the most popular Western fighters since the Korean War. It served with the US Navy, the US Air Force and the US Marines, as well as 14 other air forces across the globe from Japan to Egypt to England. A number of them are still flying today in a variety of roles.

This set continues Eduard’s new lines of photo-etch seat belts and harnesses made out of photo-etched steel instead of brass. This set provides complete harnesses and ejection handles for four ejection seats, enough for two Phantoms. The F-4 was equipped with the Martin-Baker MK. H-7 ejection seat and the set’s instructions have a good depiction of the basic Mk. H-7 seat. Before you pick up a set, be sure to look at the seats you… more

MiG-21 Seatbelts STEEL

Published: April 13, 2017
Company: Eduard

The MiG-21 (NATO code name “Fishbed”) has the distinction of being the most-produced supersonic jet aircraft in history. It has served in the Air Forces of more than 60 countries around the world and continues to fly for a number of countries even today. Early versions of the MiG-21 were equipped with the SK-1 ejection seat while later versions were equipped with the KM-1 ejection seat.

One of Eduard’s newest lines of photo-etch is a series of seat belts and harnesses for a number of aircraft made out of photo-etched steel instead of brass. This set provides complete harnesses and ejection handles for two ejection seats. Based on the instructions for this set, it appears it is designed for the later KM-1 seat, so it would be appropriate for later versions of the MiG-21.