Almost every scale aircraft modeler will eventually want to move up from just box stock builds into more advanced, more detailed models. Aircraft instrument panels are a key element in upgrading a cockpit in any scale, especially if the canopy is attached in the open position.

Airscale Model Aircraft Enhancements produces a line of instrument dial decals, including its Early Allied Jets set. The 1/48 set includes decals for the instruments that can be found in US and British jet aircraft, such as the F-84, F-86, F-100, F-104, F9F, Meteor, Vampire, and Hunter. Included are airspeed indicator, artificial horizon, gyro magnetic compass, altimeter, and many more.

When you look at any of Master Model’s brass gun barrels, you always marvel at what you see. The detail is remarkable regardless of the scale, and the price is hard to believe because it is so low. One of the things that always bothersed me in German WWI aircraft, almost as much as rigging, was annealing and rolling that stupid cooling jacket on Spandau machine guns. And when I finally get it rolled, I had to join it somehow. Soldering is supposed to be how you do it, but I have yet to be successful. So, I ended up with a very soft brass roll that was barely held together on the bottom by superglue. It was guaranteed, at some time during the build, to get dented or just plain squashed. Master Model comes to the rescue with one-piece, turned and perforated cooling jackets and exquisite muzzle and flash suppressor, plus a gun barrel that cannot be duplicated by stretched sprue or brass rod or plastic rod.

Spoiler alert – if you don’t want to know what I think, go to the next paragraph. This is THE only book you will need to own for reference on the P-39 Airacobra. Printed on high quality gloss paper, this paperback book is printed on A5 size with 160 pages chock full of information. Modelers will love the information included in this book.

The very first thing you will notice upon opening the book is four view drawings of the P-39F and Q in 1/48th scale and the P-39Q in 1/32nd scale. If you build 1/72nd scale, fear not – there are plenty of 72nd scale drawings throughout the book. OK, 1/144th scale guys, there are drawing in the book for you as well.

This book covers Aces of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). It appears that Osprey will be publishing an additional volume or volumes covering naval aces of other countries. When I heard of this book, I assumed that it would probably cover Raymond Collishaw and other Sopwith Triplane pilots of Naval 10. I was pleased to find that, although Naval 10 was well covered, the history of the RNAS in WWI was surprisingly broad. When we think about British aircraft during WWI, we usually think of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). However, we must remember that the Royal Navy was called the Senior Service. Both organizations were formed in 1912 and it appears that they both developed in parallel until they were combined in April of 1918. Seventy nine pilots of the RNAS achieved the status of Ace along with another forty seven RNAS pilots who completed Ace status while flying with the RFC.

#32732 – 1/32nd Tamiya Early P-51D gun bay photoetch set, includes pre-painted ammo belts, door placards, gun placards, plus all the goodies to create a winner should you decide to open the bays. Very well done and engineered. MSRP - $ 33.00.

# 32731 – Prepainted seat belts for the 1/32nd Tamiya P-51D. Not much to be said here that the image doesn’t show, except that Eduard is and has been second to none in this arena. If you haven’t used one of their belt sets, you owe it to yourself to try one. MSRP - $ 23.00.

Most highly recommended. Special thanks to Eduard for supplying the review samples and to IPMS for allowing me to review them.