Reviews of products for scale aircraft models.

Review Author
Clarence Wentzel
Published on
Company
PJ Production
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$6.73

The PJ Production company from Belgium makes some very nice resin aircraft kits as well as resin aftermarket accessories for aircraft, plus lots of pilot and ground crew figures. This set provides an interesting set of five modern Ground Crew members. This set can be used to upgrade modern aircraft dioramas. These parts are nicely molded in resin, and require very little clean-up.

The instructions show the crew with gray uniforms. In looking through some French aircraft references, I found crew members with intermediate blue colored uniforms. I used this color to provide a better appearance. I am not a figure painter, and these crew members are really small, but I found that different flesh colors on the hands and faces, followed by a light coat of dark gray tint, brought out the details of the faces and the uniforms.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Furball Aero-Design
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$19.99

The Tomcat has to be one of the most famous aircraft of the Navy. Thanks to movies like ‘Top Gun’ and ‘The Final Countdown’ the shape of the large fighter is ingrained in history. What isn’t as well known is that the cat changed its spots late in its service. No longer the pure fleet fighter, but relegated to the role of fighter bomber. It actually excelled in this role as the F-14D Bombcat. The aircraft was capable of carrying every form of bomb and missile that the Navy had at its disposal. That is where this sheet comes into its own.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
Company
Advanced Modeling
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$12.75

Underwing armament such as bombs are always nice to add to your model. With the plethora of new Russian aircraft models, the abilities to bomb them up has never been better. The GPS guided bombs are quite well known in the West but the Russian equivalents are not as well known. Advanced Modeling has stepped up to plate with their impressive 3D CAD developed products.

The packaging is a self-sealing bag that contains the parts for two KAB-500S Satellite Bombs . There is a small decal sheet for the bombs. Also included are two end caps in photo etch.

The instructions are beautifully printed and attached to card stock packaging. They are written in Russian and English. The drawings are simply beautiful and extremely accurate. The one sheet shows where the decals go.

All the resin parts are in light grey resin with no blemishes or bubbles anywhere. The bomb bodies are separate from the warheads. The instructions show where to cut off the resin pour stubs.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
AOA Decals
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$22.50

Trumpeter’s 1/32 A-4E/F Skyhawk has been out since 2012 and while some aftermarket companies have addressed the cockpit and intakes, there have been almost no decals issued to a very familiar kit with lots of marking potential. Enter AOA Decals and Part 1 of their multi-part coverage of the Scooter in USN/USMC markings. The decals are printed by Cartograf. Included in the package are two large full color sheets covering the colorful markings and one gigantic sheet covering the black and white markings. Printing is superb as Cartograf is a leading manufacturer of decals. The instructions are full color and have side profiles in color for all 10 schemes as well as detailed information on each scheme. A full set of stencil instructions are also included.

The marking choices are:

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$19.95

Eduard has produced many different sets of seat belts over the years for many sizes and types of aircraft. Hey also have several different style with the fabric belts and straight photoetch belts. This set is 1/32nd scale photoetch steel with pre-printed color on one side. The printing is top notch and even includes the required stitching on the belts. There are enough lap and shoulder belts for four separate seats. The detailed instructions show attachment to Bf-190 and FW-190 variants. I had a spare seat for the Trumpeter Me-262 and used that for this demonstration (after painting it).

The shoulder belts are simple in that there are no attachments necessary so you can cut them loose and attach them. I bent them to shape and glued them in place. Please take note that they are “handed” in respect that there is a left and right.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$29.95

Earlier this year Eduard released an F-4 Phantom weapons set to complement Academy’s new F-4J kit. The set actually consists of five Eduard Brassin sets: 672030 AIM-7E Sparrow missiles (4); 672036 Aim-9B Sidewinder missiles (4); and three sets of 672087 Mk. 82 bombs (6 in each). As each of these sets has been previously been reviewed, I don’t want to repeat earlier reviews, but I want to mention a few things I encountered in my build.

Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Pilot Replicas
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$55.99

Background

The Saab 29, colloquially called Flygande tunnan (English: "The flying barrel"), was a Swedish fighter designed and manufactured by Saab in the 1940s. It was Sweden's second turbojet-powered combat aircraft, the first being the Saab 21R. Despite its rotund appearance, from which its name derives, the J 29 was a fast and agile aircraft for its era. It served effectively in both fighter and fighter-bomber roles into the 1970s.

Review Author
Jarrod Booth
Published on
Company
Academy Models
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$33.00

This AH-64D Apache Longbow is license built by Westland/Boeing for the British Army. A couple of interesting features unique to the British built aircraft are the inclusion of folding rotor blades, and Rolls Royce Turbomeca engines that replace the General Electric T700 in the US machines. There are also some avionics and weapon systems differences.

This was a very enjoyable and for the most part easy model to build. The two instruction sheets are a foldout type with, for the most part, clear pictures and logical directions. There is one for assembly, and one for the parts tree map and decal guide. It was nice having the tree map separate as I didn’t have to fold pages back and forth to find a part.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$19.95

Eduard has produced many different sets of seat belts over the years for many sizes and types of aircraft. They also have several different styles, with the fabric belts and straight photoetch belts. This set is 1/32nd scale photoetch steel with preprinted color on one side. The printing is top notch and even includes the required stitching on the belts. No specific aircraft are mentioned on the set. One set is tan and one is green and there are two complete sets of each including the lap belts.

The shoulder belts are straightforward in that you cut them free, bend the bottom clips perpendicular and glue them in place. One note here- to make the belts drape more naturally, I bend them up a little and twist them slightly. Not too much or the printing can come off but by doing this and bending them into place and then gluing, you get a more natural look.

Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$4.99

Master Model has a line of finely done brass parts which upgrade the kit they’re designed for. These parts are great if you have an accident and one of the cannons breaks off. The other possibility is AMS, as the machine guns are far superior in detail to the little nubs provided on the kit wing. See the parts comparison below.

The Spitfire IXe had a pair of 20mm cannons in the wing. These had been moved outboard to allow more ammunition for the Browning .50 caliber machine guns. The cannons stuck pretty far out from the wing, but the Brownings barely showed. The “fix” for the Brownings was to put the muzzle inside a tube which extended from the wing.

The kit contains six parts, two cannon barrels, two .50 muzzles and the wing tubes for the Brownings. The cannons for the early e wing were conical in shape. The later e wing had a more elliptical shape for the cannon fairings. This kit has the “late” cannons.