Academy has a quality line of 1/72 scale aircraft, and they have recently begun to release several reboxings of these kits with special decals. Their latest special edition covers a USMC F/A-18A+ Hornet from VFMA-232, the Red Devils. The F/A-18A+ Hornet is an A-model that has had an avionics upgrade, primarily consisting of the addition of the AN/APG-73 radar. For the front-line Marine aircraft, so-called “bird slicer” IFF antennas are also found on nose of the A+, forward of the cockpit. Beyond the A+ parts, A-model Hornets also feature prominent reinforcement plates along the inside of each vertical stabilizer.

Down the home stretch! Last time we had just completed the wings, fuselage, nose and wheel-wells, leaving just the final assembly and finish for this last segment of this three-part review. To recall: I chose to display only the starboard wing’s gun bay and starboard engine detail, and to cover up the lower front end encompassing the oil cooler/air intake.

Continuing with Assembly

Before painting commenced I had some loose ends that needed tying off, starting with…

Cockpit and Canopy - (Step 211) There was a prominent sink hole on the top of the small dash board under the rear of the canopy (Part L19) that I filled with Perfect Plastic Putty before painting it Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black.

(Step 205) I painted the trim wheel and bump cushion Vallejo Panzer Aces 312 Leather Belt, and then drybrushed it with Mig P023 Black Smoke. I then drybrushed both internal structures with Uschi 4008 Chrome.

Years ago when I got back into plastic modeling in a serious sort of way, I saw the 1/72 Airfix kit of the Fairey Firefly on a hobby store shelf and was taken by the box art of this big bird. Of course I bought it. I confess after all these years, it’s still on my shelf but with the arrival of this book authored by Paul Bradley, I’ve been inspired to put it on my short list. Along with the other two kits of the aircraft I have.

Teaming up with artist Srecko Bradic, Paul’s put together a 96-page tome covering all the details, variants, and history one could hope for on any one aircraft. Sharp photos---most in color---plus 34 color profiles from Bradic populate the pages. The author also provides a modeler’s section covering three 1/72 Firefly builds, one 1/48 scale one, plus two pages of “Kitography” listing all the available kits as well as aftermarket decal sheets.

I have several of the Modeler’s Datafiles and they are great reference books so I was looking forward to this one on the British Phantoms. I do have to say that some of the Datafile facts do need to be checked as I have found small errors in a few of them but not enough to detract from the benefit of these books from being a great addition to any reference library

As soon as I started to flick through the book I was impressed. This book has all the information a modeler needs to build a British Phantom, including a kit listing, a decal listing and an accessory/conversion listing.

The table of contents is as follows:

Pavla Models has been putting out a lot of nice sets for older kits. I really love this because I’m one of those people that are hooked on the model kits of my childhood. This time they did a conversion for the Monogram B-36 Peacemaker. Another interesting thing about Pavla is their choice of subjects for their conversions. They picked the 20mm cannons and compartment for the front top of the aircraft. Talk about different, every time you see a model of a B-36 they all look the same, but with this conversion you have the top bay open with guns retracted.