Revell’s PBY-5A Catalina has been around for 20 years now and I have seen quite a few built and it looks large and impressive when finished. The kit comes in two styles- the “-5” who has no wheel wells and the “-5A” which does. Eduard has released sets for the PBY-5A which allow improvements to the entire airframe. This set (#48827) addresses exterior details.

The first thing addressed by the photoetched set are the engines which are missing their wiring harnesses. These are well done and easily added but do take some time to get all the wires attached to the cylinders. There is also some grating for the air coolers.

The floats and wing ends get a little more detail with inspection ports on the wings and tie down points on the floats. I am surprised these aren't included in the floats set but that PE fret was packed so there may have been no room.

History

The Eurocopter SA 365/AS365 Dauphin 2 (Dolphin) is a medium-weight multipurpose twin-engine helicopter currently produced by Airbus Helicopters. It was originally developed and manufactured by French firm Aérospatiale, which was merged into the multinational Eurocopter company during the 1990s. Since entering production in 1975, the type has been in continuous production for more than 40 years. The intended successor to the Dauphin is the Airbus Helicopters H160, which is yet to enter operational service as of March 2015.[2]

This is the second sheet printed by Caracal covering the operators of the MQ-9 Reaper UAV. The sheet includes markings for four U.S. Air Force Reapers, and one each from the RAF, the French Air Force, the Italian Air Force, and a civilian version operated by NASA. I liked the French Air Force markings, but as their Reapers are unarmed, and I wanted to load up mine, I opted instead for the RAF Reaper.

While the Reaper is a relatively large UAV, there are not a lot of decals to be applied, regardless of which one you choose to model. The set includes enough of the stencils to decal two Reapers from the sheet, which is good as the Skunkworks kit is a double kit.

The decal sheet includes instructions on the colors to paint the Reaper, and to my surprise, unlike the MQ-1 Predator, the military Reapers are two shades of grey, with the underside painted in a much darker grey than the topside. The sensor turret is a third shade of grey somewhere in between the other two.

If you have never have had the chance to review one of Guidelines Warpaint series, here’s a brief description. First they provide a complete and detailed history of the subject including a complete production list of air frames, squadrons which used the planes along with a list of serial numbers and codes, and a comprehensive specification list covering the technical aspects of the plane. With this they have the historians covered. Secondly, they have 1:72nd scale multiple view plans. Also included are detail pictures, pages of superb color camouflage drawings, and photography in color and black and white. There is also a list of kits, decals, and accessory list. Modelers are covered too.

Thanks again to our prolific IPMS supporter, Ross at SAC, and to IPMS leadership for providing this set for review.

This set simply replaces the main and tail gear on the Airfix 1/48 new release (2014) Spitfire Mk I and Mk V.

BUT wait, there’s more! Included in this set are two different versions of the spine-mounted Radio aerial post, and the underwing Pitot tube. Very nice, and good use of a small set’s versatility, particularly since there is not much to this set as far as metal volume. Might as well amortize costs, and this does it.

Notice on the stock kit that the main gear is in two parts; the upper strut and pivot assembly, along with the uplock arm, which attaches to the trunnion pivot points, and then later in the build, the lower shock strut. Why was this done? So you could install the fragile gear later, while working on the rest of the model, without cleaning off the gear with gorilla hands. Smart engineering.