SAC’s recent release of their 1/48 Hurricane Mk I Landing Gear for the Italeri/Tamiya kit has been most timely and welcome. With over 40 years of modeling under my belly-eclipsed belt, it’s safe to say I’ve destroyed every set of injection-molded Hurricane landing gear I’ve ever built – and that’s quite a few. I was concerned about that with my latest Hurricane build – until this little set of jewels arrived in the mail.

Although nothing exotic, this set appears to be a recasting of the kit main gear struts and braces in fine white metal, and the tail wheel strut appears to be a net-new part. Detail is comparable to the kit originals, but the real value comes in the struts’ strength. Heading down the stretch during the build and photographing and handling for the review, I had no worries that the gear would hold its own against my oafish pawing – and I was right!

A welcome addition to the slew of aftermarket details for the Italeri/Tamiya Hurricane Mk I is Quickboost’s resin exhaust set.

Crisply and cleanly cast in fine tan resin, the exhausts feature open exhaust ports and fit perfectly to the kit Merlin.

I highly recommend this set for modelers of all skill levels who don’t want the hassle of opening up the exhaust ports.

Thanks to Aires and IPMS/USA for the review sample.

This bimonthly magazine is a must for modelers (and aviation enthusiasts) interested in World War One aircraft. The magazine is published by Albatros Productions Ltd. in the UK, which also publishes the great line of Windsock Datafiles and Specials.

The headline article in this issue covers an in-depth build of the Wingnut Wings kit of the Rumpler C.IV. The author of the article is the editor of the magazine, Ray Rimmel, and he displays an absolute love of the Rumpler C.IV. The article covers 12 pages and includes many little additions, both scratchbuilt and aftermarket, that Ray added to the kit to individualize the model to his preference. Some photos from the article are shown. The basic kit was reviewed in the Vol. 27/6 issue of the magazine which showed how magnificent the basic model can be built.

Thank you to Gary Newman of Squadron Products, for providing a very timely improvement to an excellent recent kit release. Thank you to the IPMS/USA Reviewer Corps for once again allowing me to evaluate a cool new product!

Coming at a time of rapid technical development in the aviation industry as the United States began to ramp up for its entry into the Second World War, the Northrop BT-1 was truly a transitional and transformative aircraft. Dive bombing was seen as the most potent anti-ship weapon in the arsenal of carrier aviation, and the BT-1 gave the U.S. Navy a sleek new dive bomber that held the promise of more potent things to come. It was the direct predecessor of the enormously successful Douglas SBD Dauntless, with a family resemblance so close that, from certain viewpoints, it was difficult to tell the two apart.