Caracal Models has built a reputation in the last several years for releasing outstanding decals for new and older kits which have superb artwork and printing. The set here is their second release and a re-release of their popular Air National Guard set, Part 2 for the Monogram 1/48 F-101B Voodoo.
This softcover publication is 80 pages of useful information about the swept-wing F-84F and RF-84F jets from Republic Aircraft. It’s also Warpaint’s 100th book, so they’ve put a flashy block at the top of the front cover with a large 100 to let you know.
The F-84F and its stable mate the reconnaissance RF-84F were supposed to be Republic’s answer to the fact that the earlier F-84s could not compete evenly with the MiG-15s they met in the skies over Korea. Engine development and reliability issues meant the aircraft wasn’t fielded until after the end of the conflict. Even then, the aircraft was somewhat underpowered and required a very long takeoff roll, ensuring the nickname of ‘Hog.’ This also contributed to the aircraft being utilized more as a fighter/bomber than a pure fighter.
SAC produces replacement metal landing gear for many aircraft kits in many different scales. The replacement gear can be a big help in larger, heavier kits that may require lots of weight in the nose area to allow them to sit correctly or for gear that is inherently fragile in its design.
This set is for the newer mold Revell of Germany Panavia Tornado kits (GR.1/IDC/ECR), a great kit by itself, with excellent detail and engineering. The SAC gear, for this application, gives the builder a comparable level of excellent detail (see the side-by-side photo of the assembled and painted parts and try to decide which is kit and which is SAC) and one less step in the assembly process of the main gear legs. The one detractor I found in using the SAC main gear legs is that the attachment block/peg was not properly molded on either gear leg, so proper alignment and location would be left to the Mk. 1 eyeball of the builder.
As with most injection molded kits, the Academy F-4B ejection seats have no lap belts or shoulder harnesses, and are also very basic. The shape of the cushions is also very questionable. Eduard comes to the rescue with their Brassin line of products and gives us some very detailed ejection seats. There are five pieces of resin and a very busy photo etch seat for each of the two seats provided. The seats without any belts or harnesses are impressive. When you add all of the belts, handles, levers and wires to the seats, they are really quite nice.
Osprey Publishing continues to expand the Aircraft of the Aces series with the installment of Polish Spitfire Aces.
This book is well researched and has plenty of black and white pictures, including several images of aircrafts and their pilots.
The book is divided in the following sections
Thank you to Hong Kong Models for providing an innovative and exceptional kit representing a legendary Royal Air Force aircraft, the first kit in a “Mossie, The Wooden Wonder” series. Thank you also to the IPMS Reviewer Corps staff members who do the hard work behind the scenes, getting us kits to review and publishing our work.
The following review is a compilation of the planning, preparation, and subsequent anticipation of a very enjoyable build of a de Havilland Mosquito B Mk.IV Series II aircraft. Please look for a build review soon, where I will report on how well the new molding techniques worked in a large scale kit project.
I had decided in the beginning to finish the model I was building in the markings of Fritz Oppenhorst’s Fokker D.VII 4301/18 (Option D in the kit’s painting guide), so I carefully followed the steps in the instructions to confirm which parts should be used in this build. WNW provides comprehensive information to guide the builder, but there are subtle differences between some of the parts, so it is important to double-check most steps to make certain the correct ones are clipped off the sprues. I found it helpful to remove only those parts I would need from the trees, clean up the attachment points (tagging parts if necessary with a piece of numbered masking tape) and bag everything in a zip-lock bag to avoid using any wrong parts down the road.
My thanks to Eduard for furnishing this photo-etch set for review and IPMS for allowing me to do it.
The Avro Lancaster was arguably the RAF’s most famous bomber of the Second World War. Most of its fame was gained as a night bomber. Of the 7,377 Lancasters built, 3,039 were B.Mk.III bombers with Packard built Merlin engines. Nineteen of the Mk.IIIs were specially modified to use the Barnes Wallis-designed "bouncing bomb" and assigned to No. 617 Squadron. That squadron with its modified Lancaster bombers conducted one of the war’s most famous raids – the night attack on four Ruhr Valley dams trying to cripple Germany’s industry in the region.
In this BRASSIN detail set, Eduard provides modelers with everything needed to build a pair of highly realistic Lewis Mk.II machine gun that will add detail to any 1:32 scale model of a WWI Allied aircraft that carried one or two of these iconic weapons. The set consists of 14 resin and 4 photo-etched brass parts. Each gun is made up of five resin parts and one photo-etched part. The additional resin parts provide a pair of spare ammunition magazines and the additional photo etch parts are extras of the little one that folds up into the gun barrel site (because Eduard expects some of these very small parts will find a way to disappear in the carpet monster…as mine did). The level of detail in each component is impressive.
The Navy FJ-4 was, to many people, the culmination of the basic North American Sabre Jet. This final naval variant featured a more powerful engine which required a larger intake, a shorter, deeper fuselage, a larger tail, larger wing area and a longer nose gear. Its front line service was short, however. By the late ‘50’s, the Fury was being phased out by newer, less expensive fighter and attack aircraft but the FJ-4B was loved by its pilots. They referred to it as the “Cadillac” while its counterpart and eventual replacement, the A4D was referred to as the “Tinkertoy”.
Emhar issued the FJ-4B in 1/72nd scale in 1990 and is a great kit. There are really only two shortfalls of the kit; the first being a rather basic cockpit and the second being a crude, short exhaust/jet pipe. Pavla has recently released resin detail parts for the cockpit and the jet pipe.
