Brengun, from the Czech Republic, has released a nice set of resin wheels to help dress up any 1/32^nd scale Hayabusa Ki.-43 Oscar. The wheels are beautifully molded in a dark gray resin and are clean and defect free. The product packet includes two wheels with a nicely detailed spoked wheel, as well as two choices of wheel covers. One flat cover features four bolt heads. The second cover has a centerline seam and six bolt heads. There is also a clearly printed instruction sheet.

I built the old Hasegawa Ki-43 and found that when applying the wheels that the molded hole on the resin wheel fit nicely to the axle with only minor sanding. I chose to use the spoked version as I thought them more interesting. In fact, the Brengun wheels were the highlight of this build and much more detailed than the kit wheels.

Highly recommended for any 1/32 Ki-43 Oscar.

I’ll be honest. I’ve never heard of HMH Publications or Duke Hawkins before I had the opportunity of reviewing this book. After having had the chance of reviewing the book I am very glad to have been introduced to them. This book exudes quality.

The quality evident, both in the content that is covered (i.e level of detail) and the quality of the printing. The paper quality is super, with a satin finish. All pictures are in color, with proper exposure and very sharp focus, so all details are crisp.

The pictorial book is split in the following sections: Action, Cockpit, Fuselage, Weapons, Maintenance. As you can imagine, the pictures have very descriptive and relevant captions, helping you understand what detail is being highlighted in each image. Not only are you getting all the walk-around images you need for your build, you are also learning details of the aircraft as you read along.

Aires Models from Czech Republic specializes on aftermarket details; for the most part releasing drop-in resin replacement parts.

This set is intended to replace the wheels of the 1/48 Hasegawa Macchi 205. The set includes tail wheel and tail wheel fork. The parts are molded in grey resin, free of bubbles or imperfections and with great surface detail, down to the manufacturer of the tires molded with enough raised detail that will take dry-brushing fantastically!

The attachment points of the wheels to the casting blocks are miniscule and removal and clean up should be an easy task.

In addition to the resin parts, they include painting masks which are super-handy to have and use. The masks are pre-cut so it is as simple as peeling, placing and you are ready to airbrush.

This is a review of the digital version of the Details & Scale’s Jet Fighters of the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps book which has been released concurrently with the hard copy that is reviewed here. The digital version of the Jet Fighters book is available in both Apple’s iBook and Amazon’s Kindle formats. The digital edition has a few more pages and photographs than the hard copy. I have a MacBook Pro computer, so I decided to try the iBook on my computer. Most people use the iBook app on an iPad, but it works just as well on a MacBook laptop. iBooks can be viewed on Apple iPhones also, although the image is much smaller and difficult to view without zooming in on the page.

History

The Lockheed P-38J was one of the finest twin engine fighters to be developed during World War II, and although it wasn’t as effective in the European Theater, it excelled in the Pacific, where some of the highest scoring aces scored the majority of their victories on the type. Although faced with developmental problems, it became a highly effective, well armed, and long ranged fighter with excellent overall performance. It was especially effective against the Japanese, and one little known achievement was that Charles Lindbergh, who had been rejected by President Roosevelt for political reasons, went to the South Pacific to work with pilots extending the range through improved piloting techniques, actually scored a victory against a Japanese plane in a 475^th FG P-38 . He was the only American civilian to do so during World War II.