[Japanesse] manufacturer Platz has expanded its UAV line to cover several versions of the Predator. This review covers the MQ-1A one, which is the armed one.

The kit is molded in light plastic and two sprues. You get 6 marking options, but there are plenty of extra decals in the sheet, so you can probably find enough markings for almost any predator in service.

Wings are one piece, helping to set the proper dihedral which is critical on an airplane with such a long wingspan relative to the fuselage.

Given that there is no cockpit, assembly is quick and easy. It took me about two hours to prepare the parts and assemble them. I left the landing gear out the kit for ease of painting.

In the post war years of the 1940s The U.S. Navy wanted a new missions aircraft to replace the AF2 and secure a single platform aircraft. The Grumman “iron works” aircraft company always catering to the needs of the Navy introduced the G-89 a twin-engine high wing prototype. The prototype was all navy she featured folding wings, large payload capacity, searchlights and a tail-hook. Also a magnetic anomaly detector boom and a retractable belly search radar. The first prototype ‘XS2F-1’ flew on December 4^th1952. Entering service in 1954 the S-2s were the first single ship aircraft to carry out anti-submarine warfare (ASW) which previously required 2 aircraft. The Trackers and her cousins served faithfully during the cold war keeping track of Russian submarines for many years by 1976 over 1,000 Trackers have been retired from the Navy.

Aerobonus’ latest release is the ‘big’ rocket pod used on a variety of aircraft. For me this rocket pod usually mounted on the Mi-24 Hind helicopter. It was also used on the Mig-21, Mig-23, Mig-27, and Mi-8/17.

Perfectly cast in light grey resin, with no bubbles or imperfections, these rocket pods are beautiful. The tip and the openings are beautiful renderings. The pods are cast in two pieces, the nose cone/center section and the exhaust fairings. Cutting them off and attaching them is easy enough.

Decals are provided for the stencils, alignment marks and the serial number on the side of the pods. The instructions show where they would go.

Painting them is easy, aluminum. Attaching them is easy enough just add pins in the mount lugs and then attach them to the model.

The company, Afterburners Decals, deals with mostly 1/48 decals and has many different sets of which most are of the newer and modern jets, although there are a few sets which contain decals for weapons and missiles. There are only three sets of decals in the 1/32 scale. In the past there weren’t many modelers building in 1/32 scale so the demand for decals in this scale wasn’t large enough to justify the need to produce them. But now, since there are many more modelers building kits in the 1/32 scale range, it stands to reason that the amount of kits sold in that scale are increasing as well, so Afterburner Decals have decided to try supplying the large scale decals again. If this works out, Afterburner will be making more sets for the large scale builders.

Quickboost’s line of after market exhaust options just keeps on growing. The latest addition is for the Academy P-40. It is up to their usual standards; molded in a cream colored resin, smooth, seamless and bubble free. One thing of note is that they are really easy to remove from the mold block with just a few passes of the hobby saw. Another plus is that the exhausts are bored out, which would be a real pain if you tried to do it on the kit part. One thing I’ve noticed about Quickboost is that you’re not able to tell very easily if the after market part is for the kit on the label or a conversion part to change another kit to the one stated on their package. I believe this is the case here.