Tom Cooper and David Nicolle's Arab MiG series is an incredible history that addresses the Arab air forces of Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria and from 1955 through 1973. Although MiG aircraft dominate the story, all Post-WWII Arab aircraft are included. The authors have been able to access official archives as well as the combatants involved to provide a unique perspective of the Middle East conflicts. Volume one in this series, published November 19, 2009, covered the background of the Arab air forces from 1955 focusing on MiG-15 and MiG-17 fighters. Volume two, published October 19, 2011, addressed the Arab air force supersonic fighters from 1956 through 1967. Volume three in the Arab MiGs series focuses on the Arab air forces in the June 1967 War. Three additional volumes follow in this series, all with the same thick 256 glossy page count. I counted 148 black and white photographs, 28 color pictures, 17 color side profiles, and three maps.

Recently I was given the opportunity by IPMS USA to review Quickboost's Messerschmitt Bf 109G Exhaust for the 1/48 Eduard 109G series of kits. One of the first things to notice with this product is the excellent presentation of the packaging with the sealed flap on the back of package to allow for easy access to parts.

Upon removal of the resin exhaust you will notice the great detail that we have come to expect from Aires Quickboost products. The molding on the exhaust is excellent and they come off of the resin block with little effort, I tried a couple of different methods of removal, on the first one I removed with razor saw and the second on I was able to score with a blade and remove easily.

Scale Aircraft Conversions specializes in white-metal replacement parts, now including the 1/48 Hobby Boss Saab J-29 Tunnan.

The set includes 10 parts with the following breakdown:

• Nose gear main strut
• Nose gear wheel housing halve
• Main gear struts (2)
• Main gear retraction scissor struts (2)

These parts are little more than drop-in replacements; the white metal parts actually are the equivalent to several plastic parts, and are interchangeable as they fit the plastic parts almost perfectly.

The main gear retraction struts are molded to their runners with a rather thick base at the pinion point. It took quite a bit of careful sawing to free the part. This resulted in deformed pins with not much "pin" left over even after I had removed the runner. The main gear legs are very thick (which is to scale), and seemed very stable when simply snapped into place.

Hot on the heels of the release of the new Kinetic 1/48 F-18C, Scale Aircraft conversions has released a set of replacement gear in white metal. The set comprises 12 parts and includes both the main and nose landing gear.

A couple notes on the SAC parts: The kit nose gear leg has several ejector pin marks and the top of the main strut is two parts. The SAC kit has no ejector pin marks and the main leg is a single solid part. You will need to drill out the main leg to attach the top section but that’s simple. Second, that main gear are complete replacement parts, but the nose gear will have to have several parts added, such as the nose gear light and the landing lights.

Eduard continues to amaze with the release of its Bf-109G series of models. They’ve taken the kit and provided you with some impressive detail right out of the box. However, they also have their photo etch line and the Brassin line of resin. It was a natural to add this detail to their kits. The problem was that as you add more stuff the aftermarket stuff would become cost prohibitive. Eduard has an answer for that. They offer options in the BigSin series that bundles some of their sets into a lower cost offering. Same great aftermarket but at a lower cost.

This BigSin set offers the new Brassin multi-media cockpit set, fabric seatbelts, and a photo etch set. There is no part of the model that is not addressed. Let me look at each set separately.