Reviews of products for scale aircraft models.

Book Author(s)
Larry Davis
Review Author
Ed Kinney
Published on
August 21, 2011
Company
Squadron Products
MSRP
$16.95

Let me begin by saying that this latest “In Action” series publication is (in my humble opinion) the finest to have gone to press to date. Further, I have had the pleasure of knowing Larry Davis for more than 40 years and I will not hesitate to tell him that this is his best effort yet.

A full 72 pages of black and white, color photos and profiles as well as line detail drawings make this one of the most desirable I’ve seen on the subject. Artwork for the cover is by Dan Greer and line drawings are by Matheu Spragains and are exceptionally well done.

Review Author
Chad Richmond
Published on
August 21, 2011
Company
Twobobs Aviation Graphics
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$14.00

The Centennial celebration of Naval Aviation has brought about some really colorful modern aircraft, emulating their predecessors from the yellow wing days, and, in particular, the distinctive unit markings of World War Two aircraft. They have made for some truly one-of-a-kind aircraft, and Bob Sanchez has managed to capture them for us enthusiasts. This particular sheet takes us back to the early days of aircraft experimentation and weaponry tests. When you first look at the colorful instruction sheet, you see a red, grey and white F/A-18C of VX-31 at China Lake. This aircraft hauls around a lot of weapons and weapon sensors under its wings, doing a lot of experiments. The second is an F/A-18A of VFA-204 out of NAS JRB New Orleans as it was painted during an air show tour at Ft. Worth in February, 2011. This one is Navy blue with orange ID bands. What a neat-looking airplane. When you unfold the sheet and look to see what’s inside, there’s the teaser.

Review Author
Chad Richmond
Published on
August 21, 2011
Company
Werners Wings
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$16.00

For nearly fifty years, the Bell UH-1 Iroquois was the workhorse of the Army, especially during the Vietnam War. It has also served in countless countries, in countless colors and configurations, doing everything imaginable. Now we have Sikorsky’s UH-60 Blackhawk taking over that role in even more configurations and colors worldwide, and performing even more varied missions.

Review Author
Chad Richmond
Published on
August 21, 2011
Company
Twobobs Aviation Graphics
MSRP
$10.00

The Centennial celebration of Naval Aviation has brought about some really colorful modern aircraft, emanating their predecessors from the yellow wing days, and, in particular, the distinctive unit markings of World War Two aircraft. They have made for some truly one-of-a-kind aircraft, and Bob Sanchez has managed to capture them for we enthusiasts. Even if you don’t have the five separate decal sheets that go along with this CD, you will always have a superb reference on hand for F/A-18, and EA-6’s. On the CD label it says there are over 800 photos. I didn’t add up that many, but who cares? These are, however some of the crispest, clear photos that I have ever seen. They are also taken from some places that most of us will never be able to go and without thousands of people around. Now if we only had some cockpit shots, too.

Review Author
Joe Turpen
Published on
November 13, 2020
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$0.00

Well on first look both Eduard kits look really good. One thing about these two detail sets is they give you great opportunities to really detail the 72ndscale Hasegawa Hawkeye. Kit 73 339 has 69 parts and 72 498 has 37 parts.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
August 20, 2011
Company
Aires Hobby Models
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$16.95

Hot on the heels of Eduard's excellent MiG-21 releases, Aires has produced a set of wheel wells for the kit. The set comprises two parts, the main wheel wells and the front wheel well. Parts are cast perfectly with only some small casting blocks to remove. The detail improvement is obvious in the pictures.

Installing the main well is simplicity itself. After removal of the casting block, the part slides into the space for the kit part and the fit is excellent. Some of the kit parts are added to finish it with only one cut needed.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
August 20, 2011
Company
Twobobs Aviation Graphics
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$14.00

As almost everyone is aware, this year is the 100th anniversary of Naval Aviation. Bob Sanchez and TwoBobs have set out to give the modeler everything he would need to replicate all the retro schemes for all the planes that are in service this year. That would be five different sets of decals, a high rez CD of over 800 pictures, and a CONA sticker. You can get all of this in TwoBobs’ excellent platinum set for a 20% savings or, if one the schemes is your fancy you can get them individually for $14.00.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
August 20, 2011
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$19.95

Eduard extends it Brassin range of excellent resin parts with a replacement exhaust for their Mig21MF and SMT kits. This resin and photoetch set is comprised of seven perfectly cast resin parts and one photoetch piece.

There are some minor casting blocks to remove which may take up to 3 minutes to get done. Detail is excellent on all the parts. There are two resin parts which are installed inside the actual exhaust. These fit together and one has a series of 10 arms that stick out from the center hub. This was very difficult to get loose without breaking the resin. In the end I did break three and have to replace with styrene scrap. This part then aligns on top of the other which takes a little patience.

Book Author(s)
Robert Humphreys
Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
August 18, 2011
Company
SAM Publications
MSRP
$24.75

This book answered a question that has nagged me for many years, since Frog first came out with their Spitfire 14 kit back in 1968. Why would Supermarine want to go away from the fabulous Merlin engine and try something new? Well, this book answered that question early on. The answer is 1700 hp for the Griffon vs 1030 hp for the Merlin.

The contents are:
History

  1. Enter the Griffon
  2. Super Spitfire
  3. The Spitfire in Belgium
  4. High Flying Spy
  5. Last of the Spitfires
  6. The First Griffon Seafires
  7. The F Mk 21 at Sea
  8. Spiteful and Seafang, the Last of the Line Modeling
    • Colour Side Views
    • Colour Interior Artwork
  9. The Basics
  10. Understanding the Subject
  11. Detailing
  12. Building the Spitfire and Seafire
  13. Camouflage and Markings

Appendices