The wonderful folks at Stevens International Hobby Distributors deserve tremendous thanks for providing this review kit. I appreciate their work to bring new products to the scale modeling community. The IPMS/USA Reviewer Corps also deserves thanks for giving me the kit to review. I am only one member of a large staff in the Reviewer Corps, and I appreciate all the tireless team and individual work that goes into getting the material out to be reviewed and the finished write-ups published.

The Albatross was a common utility amphibian aircraft in the post-WW2 era, carrying a number of designations and operating with the USAF, USN, USCG and many foreign services. The distinctive high-wing, twin-engine plane worked mostly in the search and rescue role, with some examples serving in the unusual triphibian mode with snow-landing capability! Trumpeter provides markings options for two different aircraft, a USAF HU-16A and a Taiwan HU-16A.

In all honesty, I grabbed this little gems to review before even cracking open the box on my new tool Revell Germany Ju 88A-4. Quickboost, yet again have produced replacement parts up to their normal high standards. Packaged in their standard orange plastic bag, you are provided with two pair of exhaust stacks in finely molded grey resin. No instructions are needed as the new parts will drop right into place. Pay close attention to the kit instructions as the exhaust stubs are asymmetric. Both the original kit parts as well as the Quickboost replacements can be installed in the wrong location.

History

As quoted from the introduction in the book "The Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate, known as "Frank" in allied jargon, was one of the best IJAAF (Imperial Japanese Army Air Force) fighters during the final year of the Pacific war. Featuring an enclosed cockpit and retractable landing gear, this all-metal cantilever low-wing monoplane of an elegant body was the successor of the previous Nakajima fighters - Ki-43 Hayabusa and Ki-44 Soki. The Ki-84 proved it's value fighting in China and the Philippines, although the highest number of these machines were lost there, too. When in the hands of an experienced pilot, it was a good match for the best of Allied fighter aircraft. After the war a small number of Ki-84s served with the Chinese air forces, taking part in the civil war of 1945-1949".

We continue to express sincere appreciation to our friends at Aires for providing us more of the prolific output of their company; In this case, Harrier FRS-1 nozzles.

Nothing really to state about this upgrade other than “Buy it”. If you have a 1/72 Harrier of the FRS-1 Sea Harrier series, these are “must have” items. I show these items next to the kit items for clarity. Great external detail, and NO SEAM TO FILL!

A drop-fit incorporation of the first order, 10 of 10, well done to Aires and thanks again to IPMS for the review items!

Another beautifully cast set of resin parts to make our models better from our friends at MMD/Squadron; thanks very much to you for providing IPMS USA this review item!

Another of Monogram’s better kits, the F-101B has been re-released in several different guises. Most recently it was released with a new decal sheet and markings, but it’s still the standby F-101B.

As stated before, these seats really make a bid difference between the standard model seats with their molded-on harness. Although the kit seats were more than adequate, this set from True Details takes the illusion of reality a step further. Cast in Gray resin, the seats have fantastic harness detail (I much prefer these to Photoetch; they just look better to me) and the rest of the seat is also upgraded. Easy to install; paint, remove the casting block, and superglue in place.