Aires has been on the scene for some time now, producing some amazing details in resin and photo etch metal. Among aftermarket aficionados, Aires is the top of the pack for the level of detail and quality of casting. This set for the Monogram Promodeler or Accurate Miniatures 1/48 SB2C Helldiver is no exception.

In the Box

The details for this set come in a small bag stapled to the instructions and card backing. Parts are very finely cast and consist of two resin main gear wells and a smaller tree of parts for gun barrels and actuation rods. The large, one-piece landing gear wells are perfectly cast, and feature more refined detail than what comes in the kit. Instructions are clear and easy to follow.

Installation

To start, you will need the following tools:

Tamiya’s new 1/32nd scale P-51 has created a surge of new decals for that subject, and Lifelike Decals have done their part, as well. This sheet provides markings for four colorful Mustangs, three from the European Theater and one from the Pacific Theater:

This is my fourth egg plane. The first was an F-4 Phantom, probably 20 years ago. Since then I’ve done two F-16s, and now the F-22. The original Phantom was very much an egg with wings and stabilizers added. This “aircraft” looks pretty un-egglike. Either that or it’s a very weird chicken.

The kit is pretty simple and goes together quite nicely. The fuselage is two pieces, separated top and bottom. The vertical stabilizers are separate parts, the landing gear is 7 parts, including the doors, and the canopy finishes the parts inventory.

I put the fuselage halves together without glue. They include the wings and horizontal stabs. Then I painted the whole thing. I used Neutral Gray for the main color, with Euro 1 Gray for the dark patches and Dark Ghost Gray for the leading and trailing edges. This looks very tactical.

History

This is an unusual book in that it covers a relatively unknown but significant event in postwar aviation history. This was a series of air displays held at the Prague-Ruzyne Airport immediately following the end of World War II, during that precious time period when the Czechs enjoyed a brief era of freedom before the Communist regime takeover in 1948 drove them back to the Dark Ages where they would languish until democracy regained control when the Soviet Union disintegrated around 1990.

Osprey Publishing’s 90th book in the Osprey Combat Aircraft series is about the AV-8B Harrier II. It is the first in a 3-part set on USMC Harrier IIs in combat. This book is about the units of Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield. The next 2 volumes will be Operations in Iraq and then Afghanistan.

This is a small book but it is jam-packed with color photographs. A couple of things that I really liked were the 8 pages of color plates of the various units that served in these 2 operations, and the firsthand accounts from the personnel. Particularly interesting to me was the section about VMA-311 from Yuma, Arizona. I’m very interested in the various units that have been based in my home state and I’m trying to build as many kits from them as I can.