If you ever wish to locate an aircraft in Great Britain that is on display in a museum, in the hands of a private collector, undergoing restoration, or moldering away in a field, this is your go-to reference. Author Ken Ellis has obviously made it his life's work to locate, document, and track the 5000+ aircraft that fall into one or more of these categories within the bounds of the British Isles. Over 700 types – ranging from front line Lightnings to obscure one-of-a-kind homebuilts – are found within, sorted by geographical location. Of course, all the great museums – Duxford, the FAAM in Yeovilton, the RAF Museum in London – are represented, but who knew that a Westland Wasp was being kept in the hands of a private collector in Kirkham (“on the A583 between Blackpool and Preston”, p.94).

Yet again, extreme thanks to Ross at SAC for providing one more of his new metal gear for improving our kits; The IPMS USA reviewer corps appreciates your continuing to provide us review items… Thanks also to the IPMS leadership for sending it my way to review!

Once again, SAC improves an already great kit’s gear; it is essentially a “form/fit/function” replacement, with just a small tweak which shall improve the basic kit parts….Review switch on.

This set is for Trumpeter’s English Electric Lightning kit. The basic aircraft uses the same gear on all marks, F1 through F6, and all the “T” (trainers)… and this is where the SAC gear shines.

I have included a photo of the basic kit landing gear. Out of the box you get plastic gear for the whole aircraft, or you can opt to use metal struts for strength. This is one of Trumpeters’ best kits out of the box…. It can be improved on, but it’s a great kit.

Wow what a fun little kit to build of a modern USMC war machine. The most interesting thing about the model is this kit can be built as a snap/or press tite build. No glue is actually necessary to construct this model.

Tenax 7 was used to cement all the parts and reacted well to the medium density Hasegawa plastic. Bondo 907 was used for the few seams that needed filling and again worked well with the Hasegawa plastic. I used Testors Clear Parts cement to attach the canopy and AV Plastic Putty for final seam fills and touch ups. The Model was painted overall using both Model Master Enamels and Tamiya Acrylics.

Every part was well and fully molded with no sink marks or pin marks visible. The only clean up on the parts was at the sprue attachment points.

HAD Models is based in Budapest, Hungary and has an excellent selection of laser cut wood, photoetch and resin parts. This particular piece is a 1/32nd wheel chock for Russian planes. This is four individual pieces of photoetch. The main part is bent six times to get the main shape. The back piece is bent to shape and fit into its spaces.

I used a Hold and Fold for the majority of the bends and rolled the back piece around a wooden dowel to get the approximate shape. I let the glue dry thoroughly and the started trimming the bent face piece back. When it was close, I sanded the brass parts back until I could putty them smooth. It then primed with Alclad gray primer. The pictures show a nice orange color so I used Italeri international Orange and got it nice and glossy. I added a couple left over decals top represent the numbers shown in the pictures. A quick flat coat followed by some scratches and wear marks and the chocks were done.

Thanks again to Ross at SAC for providing one more of his new metal gear for the new kits; The IPMS USA on the reviewer corps appreciates your continuing to provide us review items… and as usual, thanks to the IPMS leadership for sending it my way to review!

This is an improved version of the kit’s gear; it is essentially a “form/fit/function” replacement, with the exception of the fact the SAC gear greatly improves on the kit parts…. Let’s review!