PJ Productions from Belgium makes great aftermarket and figures in resin for aircraft modelers in all scales. This set is a resin Mirage Pilot wearing of the 1960's wearing the white suit named "habit de lumière" and the Garneau helmet T312 or the high-altitude helmet EFA T12. The figure is designed to fit either the Mirage IIIC or early IIIE in 1/32nd scale.
Some things are just better in a scale thickness. Eduard has always provided some of the world leading photoetch. The Eduard 109s are some of the best kits out there of this iconic aircraft, but like other manufacturers, they are limited what they can do in plastic.
This fret of photo etch is designed to allow you to do a variety of options to improve your kit. The big things on the fret are the flaps and landing gear doors. Also included on the fret are the oil cooler exhaust, radio compartment, and lots of parts for the landing gear. Both the flaps and the landing gear doors are a very scaled thickness. The flaps will allow you to position your flaps in any position you so desire.
The radio compartment is a very nice addition if you want to open up the panel. It is interesting that this panel is slightly different than the one in the Brassin Radio Compartment set. This particular one has the area for the first aid kit. Which isn’t on the Brassin set.
Hasegawa has recently released a limited edition, re-box kit of the Aichi E13A floatplane, featuring a separately molded catapult and two marking options.
- IJN Kashima NFG, Kashi-98
- IJN Kashima NFG, Kashi-95
Nicknamed "Jake" by the Allies, the Aichi E13A floatplane made long-range recon a reality for the IJN (Imperial Japanese Navy) during World War II. E13As were typically launched by catapult off of ships, and many were used for kamikaze missions during the latter half of the war. Several E13A1 pilots were from the Kashima Naval Flying Group, which had begun as a flight training group in 1938.
This book traces the early history of Ju-52 combat units and operations. The book is broken up into six chapters.
Chapter one covers the development of Junkers Ju-52 from the lifting of the ban imposed by the Treaty of Versailles on the production of commercial aircraft in 1922. Beginning with the all metal F-13 and moving through the A-20 and on to the G-24 leading up to project “EF 30”. This was essentially a single engine Ju-52 and eventually progressing to the now familiar three engine design. There is a brief discussion of their use by Bolivia in the war with Paraguay that was very interesting. Discussion is also present on the civilian use of the Ju-52 noting that by March 31,1936 839 Ju-52s had been built and orders came from all over Europe, North and South America, Asia and Africa for this sturdy airliner.
Bios from Osprey:
This is a photoetch exterior set to for the Hong Kong Models B-17 E/F. This set consists of one photoetch sheet and adds detail to mainly the wings.
In the packet is
- 1 photoetch sheet
- 1 instruction sheet
Summary
This is a nice simple set for adding additional detail to the wings mainly and some to the fuselage. The parts are very easy to install and add details not included in the kit.
Thanks go to Eduard for providing this set to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them.
Scale Aircraft Conversions has produced white metal replacement landing gear for the recently issued Italeri H-21 “Flying Banana” kit. I have reviewed several of these sets, and purchased a few more on my own, because in all cases they have been superior to the kit items. The white metal gear typically provides a much greater weight tolerance than kit-supplied plastic parts.
These white metal replacements are a clean drop-in for the kits’ plastic parts. The set includes main gear and nose gear struts and supporting hardware. Detailing has been improved over the kit parts (mold lines removed, etc.). The supplied items also include all main and nose gear braces, the nose gear oleo scissor assembly, landing lights and a pitot replacement.
If you prefer the added level of detail provided by aftermarket resin items, Eduard has recently released a set that you will love for arming your F-14A Tomcat. Consisting of the AIM-9G/H Sidewinder, AIM-7E Sparrow, and AIM-54A Phoenix, this Big Sin set provides four of each missile in glorious resin detail. I would highly recommend the set, and if you have some experience fitting resin parts, and working with fine decals, you should have no problem building and marking these missiles for your Tomcat.
The weekend edition of Eduard’s Bf-109s are for those that don’t want to spend a bunch on their kits. Eduard has started to include markings for two aircraft per weekend edition. This particular release covers the Bf-109G-6 manufactured by Erla. The two aircraft are flown by Hptm. Heinrich Ehrler or Hptm. Gerhard Barkhorn. Erla G-6 are unique in a few ways. The first is that they typically had the extra bulge on the right engine cowling, typical of the G-5 or G-14 variants. Another difference is the ‘sawtooth’ camouflage pattern on the wings.
Italeri has put together a set of models to commemorate the anniversary of the Gulf War. The set includes tanks and helicopters from the United States and Iraq. Iraq is represented by the T-62 main battle tank and the Hind-D MI-25 helicopter, while the U.S. is represented by the M-1A1 main battle tank and the Cobra AH-1W helicopter.
Since this is a large box of models, Jim Pearsall asked me if I would like to build the Helos from the set. I was glad to accept because both of these models are on my “Models I want to build list”.
The MI-25 HIND-D Helicopter
The MI-25 is an export variation of the Soviet MI-24 and is denoted with a letter suffix of “HIND-D”. It is a large helicopter that is used as a gunship/attack helicopter. It is also utilized as a troop transport that can carry 8 passengers. It is armed with a turret mounted 12.7 mm gatling type machine gun, 57 mm rockets, and AT-2C/SWATTER ATGMS.
