The Build Part 2: Continuing with the build is the 2 Daimler-Benz DB603 inverted V-12 liquid cooled engines. It starts with the two halves of the block with molded in pistons and rods. There are two halves of each bank of pistons that all get put together, then the upper sections are glued to that and the top cap of the whole assembly to finish it off. The valve covers are next along with the front gear box and propeller shaft and also the rear engine accessory components which are very well detailed. Next is the ignition piping and wiring, some oil tubing and the supercharger, all well detailed. The engine mounts are next along with the exhaust pipes, shrouds, cooling fluid tanks and related tubing. There are many tubes and piping that must be put together in this step that must be painted and applied and again all go together very well. That was the front engine now you have to do it all over again for the rear engine.

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). The B-17 was primarily employed by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the daylight strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial and military targets. The United States Eighth Air Force, based at many airfields in central and southern England, and the Fifteenth Air Force, based in Italy, complemented the RAF Bomber Command's nighttime area bombing in the Combined Bomber Offensive to help secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for the invasion of France in 1944. The B-17 also participated to a lesser extent in the War in the Pacific, early in World War II, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields.

Over the past few years Airfix has been turning out some stunning kits and thankfully the detail community has been stepping up to the plate to provide details for those new kits. No exception is the Czech company Brengun who has released a nifty detail set for the new tool Airfix DH.82a Tiger Moth series of kits.

THANK YOU to our friends and suppliers at Aires/Quickboost (“QB”) for this excellent improvement set for the re-release by Italeri of the old AMT/ERTL A-20! And thanks also to the reviewer corps leaders for making them available to me to review!

This set takes the kit components and improves them by saving the modeler the trouble and frustration of trying to drill out all the radial exhausts on the A-20G series. The exhaust stubs on the kit parts are separate triangles of plastic as we would normally find from a mid-1990’s kit, remove and place on lightly-marked locating lines. Hmmm… and in each case, the exhausts are not drilled out. A great way to slash your fingers and test your patience.

Moving into the new century: 20 years later, the Italeria kit is the only game in town for a 1/48 A-20. QB not only provides hollowed-out exhausts, but have installed them for you so it’s a true drop-fit swap with vastly improved detail. Need I go further? (I must)

This is a white metal landing gear set is to for the Eduard 1/72 Fw-190 series of aircraft.

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

The parts are well cast. One part was slightly bent, probably due to shipping and was easily bent back. 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.