I received this book as a big fan of the MiG-3 WWII fighter and hoped to get more info on the subject.

There has not been much written on the actual aircraft and even fewer photos.

This is volume 1 in the MiG-3 Monograph Series #80 and deals mainly with the development of the aircraft.

Most of the first half of the book deals with other aircraft in Soviet development and concentrates on the designers and design boroughs of the VVS and others.

The majority of the book talks about the disjointed workings of the soviet government under Stalin and how designers of early soviet aircraft were shuffled around and sometimes imprisoned.

This book shows how the early designers cared about only speed and not much on aircraft strength and maneuverability. Many pages talk about the development of just early soviet power plants and engines.

Scale Aircraft Conversions specializes in white metal replacement parts. Its line of replacement landing gear has been expanded to include a set for the Hasegawa (reboxed by Revell as well) 1/48 Hurricane. This set applies to the whole line of Hurricanes: Mk.I, Ia, II, IIB/C/D and IV.

The set is including a total 5 parts covering the main landing gear struts and tail wheel. These parts are drop-in replacements for the plastic parts.

Considering that the Hurricane is a medium size model -in 1/48- I don’t think the reason to get a metal landing gear is due to the weight (unless you add a lot of resin to it) but rather the reason to get the set might be to be able to ‘tweak’ the landing gear strut for an improved alignment of the parts to achieve a proper stance.

You can see from the pictures the parts are very cleanly molded and formed, without barely visible molding lines, which can be removed just a few passes with a metal file.

Scale Aircraft Conversions provides resin and white metal parts for scale model aircraft, most of which are drop-in landing gear replacements.

The Airfix 1/72 Buccaneer S.2 was released in 2019 and this set from SAC is a direct copy of that kit’s landing gear. The set contains both main gear legs and the nose gear leg, with the actuator strut for the nose leg also included. This set departs from the kit in that the lower forks of one side of each main leg are included as separate pieces, presumably to aid with construction as the original legs are in two separate halves.

No instructions are provided, as the use is fairly self-explanatory; being copies, the legs have the same attachment points as the kit parts and should be drop-in replacements.

Despite being direct copies, these white metal pieces have lost a lot of definition and finesse compared to the kit parts. In addition, the separate forks add an element of weakness not present in the kit.

This is the third edition of the 2nd book in the Airframe and Miniature Series. This book covers the Hawker Typhoon and its predecessor the Hawker Tornado. This series of books covers the development of the Aircraft, detailed walk around pictures, profiles and covers model kits and accessories to build them.

I found this book a fountain of information and rare pictures of the development of the Hawker Typhoon. The Profile pictures are a particular favorite and awesome source for modeling.

The chapters on the different model builds and kits are of great interest and will provide a good resource when modeling these two tanks.

I was impressed at the amount of information and history found in the pages of this extremely enjoyable book. The pictures along are worth the cost of the book. I will find this book indispensible in my library of aircraft and modeling books.

Iliad Design has recently released an aftermarket decal set covering T-33B/TV-2s in Naval Service.

This decal sheet covers a total of 4 aircrafts and you are provided with enough markings as to be able to model all of them and covering both US Marines, US Navy and Royal Canadian Navy service.

The airframes go from overall Light Gull Gray, to Natural Metal Finish, to even a very attractive NMF with Hi-Vis areas in Fluorescent Red-Orange

The decal sheet provides you with national markings, BuNo numbers, air intakes warning signs, plus rescue markings. You might need to provide your own stencils, but those can be easily sourced from the original decal sheet of your model.

The decal themselves are glossy and in register. The colors are vivid (good density) and while I have not tested them, my previous experience with Illiad Decals is that they are easy to work with and conform to the model surface really well.