Aires has come out with a nice upgrade for the Hasegawa A6M series of kits with their horizontal control surfaces set. The Aires parts allow you to alter the position of the elevators and provide improved stabilizer to elevator detail. There are no supplied instructions; you simply swap out the kit provided plastic parts with the new Aires replacements.

Aires has molded the stabilizer and elevator perfectly in light grey resin with no apparent bubbles. The Aires stabilizer and elevator are supplied on a single resin sprue with thin resin attachments to the parts that should minimize any cleanup.

Although most paints will adhere to resin alone, I would recommend that you wash the parts to remove any remaining mold release and prime them first. They will need to be installed with your favorite CA (super glue) or epoxy, as the normal plastic glues or solvents will not react with the resin.

Highly recommended!

The Bell P-39 Airacobra is one of the most distinctive looking and interesting aircraft designs to be built in large numbers in the early years of World War II. It was designed by Bell Aircraft Corporation in the late 1930’s as a fighter interceptor with some very innovative features. The large V1710 Alison engine was located behind the cockpit, a 37mm cannon was mounted through the spinner shaft and rather than having a top opening canopy it was designed with car style doors.

This highly anticipated new kit from Kitty Hawk is the first kit of this awesome fighter in 1/32 scale that is not a short run kit. This boxing includes parts to build either the Q or N variants which saw extensive service with the Soviet Union and the Pacific Theater.

Thanks to Piotr at Master models for providing these incredible “Nano-size” static dischargers to improve our models, and thanks to IPMS Reviewer Corps leaders for sending this my way!

What is in the packet: an instruction sheet, and 14 microscopic jewelery-quality Static dischargers used on modern Sukhoi jets (Su-27, Su-30, Su-33, Su-34 and others). These are the newer, shorter versions; longer versions for early Sukhoi aircraft are available from Master under set 48-088.

Background

The Polikarpov I-16 was a Soviet fighter aircraft of revolutionary design; it was the world's first low-wing cantilever monoplane fighter with retractable landing gear to have attained operational status, and as such "introduced a new vogue in fighter design." The I-16 was introduced in the mid-1930s and formed the backbone of the Soviet Air Force at the beginning of World War II. The diminutive fighter, nicknamed "Ishak" or "Ishachok" ("Donkey" or "Burro") by Soviet pilots, prominently featured in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, and the Spanish Civil War. The Type 24 replaced the skid with a tailwheel, and featured the much more powerful 670 kW (900 hp) Shvetsov M-63 engine. The Type 24 also featured four ShKAS guns, proper landing flaps replaced the drooping ailerons, and a second cockpit door was added on the starboard side.

This is another of SAC’s marvelous landing gear replacements for 1/144 scale aircraft. One of the worst things to fix on a finished aircraft is the broken landing gear which occurs from either a move or less than careful handling, usually by a friend of spouse. I was at a display when a spectator started to pick up one of Brian Baker’s planes. I tried to stop him, but he said “I know what I’m doing!!” and then proceeded to remove the antenna, landing gear and rigging in one grab.

The Kit

You get two sets of nicely cast metal gear legs. This is cool, because Eduard has two Spitfires in their 1/144 kits. Well, there IS a single kit, but I haven’t seen that one yet.

I show in the photos below that the SAC parts match the Eduard parts pretty closely. In 1/144, it’d be hard to say exactly. Even with a magnifier, I’m not that good.