The Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien ("flying swallow") is a Japanese World War II fighter aircraft used by the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service. The Japanese Army designation was "Army Type 3 Fighter" Allied pilots initially believed Ki-61s were Messerschmitt Bf 109’s and later an Italian aircraft, which led to the Allied reporting name of "Tony", assigned by the United States War Department. It was the only mass-produced Japanese fighter of the war to use a liquid-cooled inline V engine. Over 3,000 Ki-61s were produced. Initial prototypes saw action over Yokohama during the Doolittle Raid on 18 April 1942, and continued to fly combat missions throughout the war.

Development of the F-86 actually started before the end of WWII, initiated by North American Aviation. Using captured data from the design of the ME-262 showed that a swept wing was the only way to fulfill an Army Air Force requirement for a 600 mph speed for the new design. Progressive modifications led to the fighter that effectively countered the threat of the Mig-15 during the Korean War.

The kit comes as three sprues of light gray plastic, along with one clear sprue. Parts are cleanly molded, with engraved panel lines and no flash. Cockpit detail consists of raised details on the instrument panel and side consoles, a three piece pilot seat, and a control stick. There is nice detail on the wheels, wheel well interior, and the inside of the speed brake wells. The interior of the wheel well covers and speed brakes themselves also have well detailed surfaces. Rounding out the details are several pieces that complete the interior at the rear of the canopy.

Dariusz Karnas is a skilled modeller and amateur aviation historian. He lives in Przemyśl, Poland. He has authored or contributed colour plates and / or scale drawings for over one hundred publications. These include MMP’s Polish Wings, Scale Plans, and Inside series as well as books in the MMP Yellow series: Fieseler 156 Storch 1938-1945 (2012) and Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15 (2004). You can find Dariusz Karnas on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/people/Dariusz-Karnas/100008987326348 .

This is the third volume of the “Inside” series of books featuring the instrument panels of various Polish WWII aircraft. MMP Books previously released Vol 1 which covered the Bf-109F-4, Bf-110E, Fi-156 Storch, Fw-190A-3, Hs-123, and the Ju-88A-4. Volume 2 featured the Bf-109E, Me-262A, Ju-87A, He-111, Hs-126 and the Do-17.

RES-IM has recently released several sets of replacement wheels for modern aircraft. Often kit wheels are not accurate representations of the real thing, being rather featureless.

This set provides a very nicely molded set of four replacement tires for the Tornado. The set does not state which Tornado kit it is for and as I only have Hasegawa kits of the Tornado, I don’t know if there are any differences between Hasegawa, Italeri or Revell moldings, but I can say they are a big improvement over the kit tires of my Hasegawa Tornado F3 as shown in the photos. The set consists of two main wheels and two nose wheels. The tires are crisply molded with nice tread detail and outstanding hub detail that really pops out with a light black wash.

Thanks to Ross at SAC for sending us improved metal landing gear for the massive Boeing 777, and thanks also to IPMS USA leadership for sending it to me….

This is ‘du rigeur’ SAC white metal upgrade to the basic kit plastic! The set consists of 9 parts: Two main struts, two strut retraction cylinders, the nose gear, retraction arm, and a drag brace, and two centering and leveling cylinder assemblies for the main trucks.

The landing gear on the 777 is a monster in real life; it has six wheel/tire assemblies on each wing, and is quite a piece of kit for supporting this highly-successful airliner and cargo hauler. On the kit, it makes sense to have similar strength. For 1/144 scale, it’s a big model. Zvezda’s plastic is pretty strong, but the SAC gear makes it better…