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.

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.

Model Art Modeling Magazine is an excellent monthly from Japan providing an abundance of modeling subjects in each issue. It doesn’t matter what your modeling focus is, each issue will provide something of interest for you, and more than likely, you’ll find something interesting that you didn’t know you would.

The magazine is published in Japanese, but even if you can’t read Japanese, the photography is really fantastic and the old saying “a picture says a 1,000 words” is very true. Each issue includes enough “work in progress” photos for even a layman to be able to follow along. The photos of the builds highlight many of the tools, materials, and techniques used by the master builders for each model built. Although, I’m sure something is lost in translation, the photos go a long way in explaining the builds visually. Honestly, sometimes I find myself spending as much time looking at the many advertisements as much as I do on the work in progress photos.

Scale Aircraft Conversions specializes in white-metal replacement parts, now including the 1/48 Airfix Meteor F.8.

The set includes 10 parts with the following breakdown:

• Nose gear main strut
• Nose gear retraction strut
• Nose gear wheel housing halves (2)
• Main gear struts & wheel housing halves (2)
• Main wheel housing halves (2)
• Main gear retraction struts (2)

These parts are drop-in replacements; the white metal parts actually are

the equivalent to several plastic parts, and interchangeable as they fit the plastic parts almost perfectly.

Master Model has released three new gun barrel sets for the P-38 Lightning, a plane I love. This one is listed as the late version with 4 x .50 cal Brownings with covered cooling jackets & late 20mm cannon tips. These are mostly seen on J and L versions but pays to check your references.

The detail is beautiful with drilled out barrel ends.

Construction depends on which kit you are using. Many have separate barrels so these are just simple replacements. Other kits (like the Hobby Boss) you will need to cut off the original barrels and drill holes to put the barrels in. Either way the detail on these is much better than any of the kit guns I have.

The instruction sheet shows a few period pictures of P-38 noses and a top view drawing showing the differing barrel lengths for the .50s.

Thanks to Master Model and IPMS/USA for the review kit.