I’ve always been a fan of the iconic silver and blue Hughes H-1 Racer. I was familiar with the long wing variant, but as it turns out, two sets of wings were made for this one of a kind beauty - long wings for endurance flights, and short wings for speed records. You’ll have to decide for yourself which one appeals to you, but no worries - Special Hobby/Planet Models provide both in 1/48 resin.

The kit itself is fairly simple and straightforward - resin one-piece wings, fuselage halves and cockpit, engine “cob” and many, many cylinders, etc. Two vacuum-formed canopy blanks are included, good for those of us who need a spare. (Although I lucked out this time). The kit includes decals and a simple but thorough exploded view of the assembly sequence.

Thank you to Bert Kinzey and Rock Roszak for continuing to bring back a tremendous resource for the modeler and aviation historian in a digital format. Thank you to the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to test out this new and exciting method of researching history, details, and versions of early USN and USMC jets and related aircraft carrier design changes. The official title is Jet Fighters of the U. S. Navy & Marine Corps, Part 1: The First Ten Years. The second volume is due for release later this year.

Introduction

This kit was released at the end of 2018 and features resin crew figures, photo etch details, and marking options for seven jets, including two from Russia, one from Bangladesh, and four company demo aircraft. There are almost more sprues of weapons then there are of the actual aircraft, included are Kab-500kr, Kab-500Kl, Kab-500se, Kab-1500-Kl, Kab-1500-Kr, Kab-1500-se, KH-29L, KH-29T, KH-31, KH-58, and three versions of the KH-25. It’s almost worth buying the kit just for the weapon sprues! The kit looks impressive in the box.

The Model

The F-15E Strike Eagle is a development of the F-15. The concept of the Strike Eagle was to produce a bomber aircraft which also had fighter capability. The biggest visual differences between the E model and earlier F-15s are the two-seat cockpit and the addition of conformal fuel tanks on the sides of the fuselage.

This F-15E is a reissue of a kit previously sold as part of a multi-kit collection from F-Toys which contained an AV-8 Harrier, An A-10 Thunderbolt II and an F-15E. The kit is designed to have the parts pressed together, with little or no glue needed. As such, there is some filing and sanding required to get an acceptable fit. You get two aircraft in the box, and decals for 3 planes.

Assembly

The assembly is pretty simple. The seats are glued in the cockpit, the instrument panel is inserted, and the cockpit assembly is placed between the forward fuselage halves. I glued the fuselage parts together. This was a mistake.

The Aircraft

The Douglas C-133 Cargomaster was the only turboprop powered strategic airlifter for the US Air Force. The 50 C-133s in service were built from 1956 to 1960. They were designed to carry large and heavy cargo and were superior to the preceding C-124 Globemaster in that they were faster, easier to load and could carry larger loads. One of the duties of the C-133 was delivery of strategic missiles, the Atlas, Titan, and Minuteman, being faster and safer than over the road. C-133s also delivered Atlas, Titan, and Saturn missiles to the launch pads for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.

When the C-5 came out in 1971, the C-133s were quickly taken off inventory, as most of them had reached their service limits for hours flown.