Reviews of products for scale aircraft models.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
New Ware
MSRP
$9.00

The Tamiya Bf-109G-6 is a great model kit. It comes with its own masks but they are not pre-cut nor do they stick to the compound curves very well. Kabuki tape masks work so much better and if they are pre-cut they are the answer to the shortcomings.

New Ware Masks are the answer to those issues. This set is pre-cut on Kabuki tape and provides nearly everything that you’d want to mask off on the kit. More items are included than what is included in the kit. The masks are printed on a 39,5x111 mm sheet of Kabuki tape.

As you’d expect, masks for the canopy are provided as is the normal but unlike the kit masks, this set includes masks for the inside AND outside canopy framing. But this set doesn’t stop there. There are masks included for the spiral, the wheels, the radiator faces and all the other clear parts. The one thing not provided is masks for the wingtip lights.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$9.95

Per Wikipedia, the AN/AAQ-28(V) LITENING targeting pod is an advanced precision targeting pod system currently operational with a wide variety of aircraft worldwide. The targeting pod contains a high-resolution, forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensor that displays an infrared image of the target to the aircrew. It has a wide field of view search capability and a narrow field of view acquisition/targeting capability of battlefield-sized targets. The pod also contains a CCD camera used to obtain target imagery in the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum capability. They are currently in use in over 20 countries in the world.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$19.95

Eduard has a variety of options to build their aircraft. There is the Royal Class, ProfiPack, Weekend, and Overtree options, so depending on your budget or what you like to add there is something for everyone.

The Overtree and Weekend releases do not have photoetch parts added. Many, myself included, think that the pre-painted instrument panels are worth the extra cost of these Weekend/Zoom sets.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$34.95

The Eduard Bf-109F/G series of models are really nice kits. It is nice that Eduard provides a variety of cost options should you want to build one on a budget. The Weekend releases are a bargain, especially if you build it out of the box. Each release has two marking options.

Their latest release is the Weekend Edition Bf-109F-2. It comes with decal for two aircraft, one from JG-2 and from JG-54. Both are quite colorful and choosing which to build will be the difficult part. I elected for the JG-2 machine.

The model comes in a sturdy cardboard box with a colorful top opening cover with profiles of the subject aircraft. The box is about half as deep as the ProfiPack boxing. Inside the box are an instruction booklet with the appropriate parts breakdown. You also get two decal sheets one with the markings and the other is a stencil sheet. These are printed by Eduard and are in perfect register as well as being suitably thin.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
HK Models Co.
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$169.00

HK Models has released a 1/32nd scale D0-335 A and B single seat versions of the Pfeil and continues their 1/32nd scale DO-335 releases with this variant, the B-6 Night Fighter. The B-6 was a two-seat version and included radar for use in night fighting American bombers. This was a proposed variant and never built. HK has taken their initial kit and added a second cockpit and the needed radar antennas along with all the existing detail.

Review Author
Phil Pignataro
Published on
Company
Amigo Models
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$10.99

Amigo Models from Russia is producing some wonderful after-market resin products for 1/72 and 1/48 aircraft. This particular set is for the Mig-21bis and Mig-21-93 which both use the R25-300 engine. The box contains five resin pieces secured in bubble wrap. These pieces make up the afterburner/exhaust sections of the engine and exhibit excellent detail both inside and out.

Book Author(s)
Robert Peczkowski
Review Author
Hub Plott
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$35.00

This is volume one in the Yellow Series from MMP. The DB-605A engine powered the majority of Bf-109G variants from the dash 1 through the dash 8 and including the dash 14 and two seat trainer variant converted from earlier G models, the dash 12. Many modifications were made over the G series production after its introduction in 1942. The Bf-109G served in Romania, Finland, Italy, Bulgaria, Switzerland and Hungary besides Germany during WWII.

The book is laid out into 19 sections with coverage for each main production variants, tropical conversions, factory and filed modifications, reconnaissance versions and those assembled in Romania. A brief three page technical description and flight performance follows the main text body. The G models maximum speed at altitude varied from 347MPH to 405MPH. These speeds are compared with other fighters showing the 109G to be faster than theYak-3, A6M and Spitfire MK.IX and slower than the P-71 and P-47.

Review Author
Ron Bell
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$19.95

Airfix has released two 1/72 Blenheims, a Mk I and a Mk IV, and Eduard makes several detail and masking sets for both. The subject of this review is their exterior detail set for the Mk IV. Most of the “true” exterior parts are mostly access hatches and panels that are glued to the exterior skin of the aircraft. These are simple to deal with; however, they do stand proud of the surface, which is probably not accurate. The only way to avoid this would be the route out the appropriate space under each and inlay the PE part but unless you have a teeny-tiny router, that’s not going to happen, so you have to live with it.

There are also a few parts to detail the crew hatch on the top of the fuselage just in front of the top turret. The next group of parts consists of detail for the landing gear and wheel wells. While the kit supplied ones are nice, the twenty-one parts Eduard supplies for each wheel well really dresses this area up.

Review Author
Dick Montgomery
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$13.95

The SAC product provides four parts to replace the Trumpeter landing gear. The kit part number for the recommended Trumpeter kit are part numbers 7, 14, 15, and 16.

Part 14 is the nose wheel strut, which is the gear strut and the starboard side of the wheel fork. This is molded as a single piece.

Part 7 is the port side of the wheel fork, which is a separate piece and must be glued to the nose wheel strut (Part 14) “trapping” the nose wheel in the wheel fork.

Part 15 and 16 are the starboard and port main gear struts. Like the gear in the Trumpeter kit, the SAC main gear struts are molded as single pieces. One needs only to attach the tires to complete the “gear”.

Of significance is the fact that the SAC gear strut locating pins are of the same shape and size as the locating pins on the Trumpeter kit. This is, of course, important so that proper fit and alignment can be easily achieved when using the SAC gear.

Review Author
Phil Peterson
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$13.95

The Spey engined Phantom did stellar service for both the RAF and Royal Navy. Airfix finally released a new kit of the FG.1 version and while it is missing a few details, it builds into a neat model.

Once again Scale Aircraft Conversions has released a new set of landing gear specifically for the Airfix kit. The Airfix kit gives multiple options for the landing gear as the British naval Phantom had an extended nose gear to help it get airborne off of the smaller decked British carriers. Airfix’s design breaks the nose gear into two parts. Normally SAC does direct replacements for the landing gear based on the kit parts but in this set they cast the nose gear so it is one main piece. The extended gear will need the scissor added which might be a bit tricky. This should make for a stronger option.

As usual there are no instructions included but their website does have a nice section on how to use white metal and mentions there is no lead included in the metal.