What’s in the Box?

There are a lot of parts in this nicely packed box, about 71 pieces, with the photoetch included in the parts count sandwiched between two foam boards in a typical top-folding rectangular lid cardboard box.

The Build Interior/Exterior

Construction starts the build by separating the cylinder heads from the pour stub, the first of 22 steps covering 8 pages. Keep in mind to cut as evenly and straight as possible to help alleviate any alignment issues when it comes to attaching the heads to the radial block using the alignment tools that are part of the PE fret. I was a little paranoid so I cut them right at the base of the stub and kinda just worked my way up to make sure everything was perfect. The alignment tools were a lifesaver and made my life a lot easier. I definitely think things would have turned out much worse for me and my patience if the tools where not included.

When I was a kid of about eleven living in Lincoln, Nebraska, I used to regularly visit one special park there. That's because not only did they have an open Sherman tank you could crawl around on, but a real live ex-Korean Corsair. I spent many a happy Saturday afternoon inside the cockpit or wandering over the wings of that aircraft, and ever since then I've had something of a love affair with this bent-wing beauty.

As a modeler, I translated this love into 1/32nd scale ever since high school. I've built the Revell kit too many times to mention, the 21st Century Toys version and the Trumpeter version. However, nothing I have ever seen compares to the quality of the Tamiya rendition of this bird.

This is a white metal landing gear set is to for the Eduard Se.5a Wolseley Viper 1/48 aircraft.

The white metal parts are outstanding and are a great replacement for the already well details kit parts. The parts include the main two struts and support struts plus the rear wheel assembly.

The parts are well cast, the parts were a perfect fit to the existing mount and were a dream to assemble.

I highly recommend these parts are a great addition to an already extremely well detailed kit.

Thanks go to Scale Aircraft Conversions for providing this set to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them.

Iliad Design from Canada is a stalwart name in decals for WWII era aircraft and this set is a rerelease of their Prewar Spitfires sheet which was one of their earlier releases and sold out quickly. To up the ante, this set has additional markings not found in the first set. This set covers six Spitfire Mk. I’s from the 1938-39 time frame.

AOA Decals continues their excellent releases focused on USN/USMC subject from the Vietnam war period with this release for the 1/32 Tamiya F-4J Phantom and representing a specific VMFA-334 Phantom, BuNo. 5565 with a call sign of “Lovebug” (and you gotta love that). The markings represent the Lovebug in Vietnam during 1960-69 and later in Japan 1969.

One thing that always stands out with AOA decals is the depth of their research. This scheme has been issued in the past but had some issues primarily with the falcon insignias and the modex numbers which are too small on previous releases. AOA is good enough to have a picture of the Lovebug on the cover and both markings look perfect. Also, there is information on adding fuel tanks as far as which pylon and markings, walkways and color call outs.