The Aircraft

The DC-8 was Douglas’ version of the Boeing 707. I reviewed Minicraft’s DC-8-73 back in 2014.

Unfortunately, sitting on the shelf for 5 years has taken its toll on this model. It’s still quite good looking, and when Phil Peterson, who manages the sending of review items, said there was a landing gear set available, I took it. When I picked up the model from the shelf to see how tough it would be to remove the original gear, one of the main gear legs fell off. OK, SAC to the rescue.

There are also kits of the DC-8 61 and -71. These are pretty much the same kit, with a different fuselage. Minicraft also released their DC-8 63 and -73 as a bagged kit with no decals. The big advantage to this kit is that it has the engines for either the -63 or-73, which the original kits didn’t have.

In conjunction with the release of its new 1/72 MiG-21 series, Eduard has released an Overtree set of the weapons sprue that is included with its new MiG-21MF kits. In looking at the weapons included on the sprue, I expect that this sprue has been designed to be a common sprue through-out all its planned MiG-21 kits.

Two Bobs Aviation Graphics is one of leaders in aviation decals with an impressive variety in 1/32, 1/48 and 1/72 scale. This latest release has very interesting markings used by VAQ-209 with a “Star Wars” theme on the aircraft. A black/white Darth Vader helmet, the word “VADER” on the spine and VADER 1 on a black fuel tank are on the CAG aircraft. The line jets have a gray/white Darth Vader helmet on the tail.

The sheets are printed perfectly without any print register errors. The small markings are very fine and easy to read. All the markings are included from unit markings down to the stencils and walkways. Stencils and other markings are included for the fuel tanks and jamming pods. There is one (front and back) color instructions sheet that clearly show placement of markings for the three subjects. The instructions indicate the correct FS paint colors for each aircraft and easy to distinguish where each color is applied.

The IAR-80 is the best-known production fighter to come out of the Romanian plant during WW2 and has always had a certain fascination for me. Developed in the 1930s as the Rumanian Air Force was working valiantly to get into the arms race then taking place in Europe, the IAR-80 featured a license-built Gnome-Rhone 14K engine and some various bits and pieces purchased from other countries, including the machine gun armament. Despite the comparative lack of experience in such design work, the IAR-80 proved to be a relatively modern and well-thought-out design, although some fixes needed to be included during its design life, including external bracing for the rear fuselage, which had a tendency to twist during high-speed turns.

Among my several favorite aircraft I have an affinity for the B-25 Mitchell in any form. So when Airfix announced the B-25C/D in 1/72 scale I put one on reserve at my local hobby shop and my plans are to start building at my local IPMS club modeling retreat this January. I planned on building the Desert Warrior scheme so this set will work out perfectly for me. Up until just a week or so ago I usually took for gospel that decal sheets were reasonably accurate…

Upon receiving the Lifelike decal sheet, I started doing a little research on the B-25 “Desert Warrior” that Airfix provides as one of two finishing choices in their new B-25C/D kit. My goal was to try and get to the bottom of the decal dilemma. The dilemma being why did Lifelike Decals release decals to correct some of the decals provided in the Airfix kit.