Reviews of products for scale aircraft models.

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
February 2, 2011
Company
Aires Hobby Models
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$13.00

Designed for the Hasegawa kit this wheel well set is molded in light grey blemish and bubble free resin. The set includes two wheel wells and the six landing gear doors. Not included is the tail wheel well. The detail inside of the wheel wells is remarkable and suitably impressive. The hydraulic plumbing is very well represented. The actuators are represented and the modeler will have to use a wire to show the moveable part but that is very easy for any modeler.

Although designed for the Hasegawa kit this set should fit the Academy F4U-5 as well. I’m not familiar with any significant differences in the wheel wells. With careful painting the detail included should be quite noticeable.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Aires and IPMS/USA for the review copy

Review Author
Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Published on
February 2, 2011
Company
Aires Hobby Models
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$20.00

Molded in light grey and cream colored resin, the cockpit set consists of eight resin pieces, a fret of PE and a clear acetate sheet. The level of detail is exquisite. How they molded the control stick to the floor I will never know. These guys are incredible.

The parts breakdown is very logical. The instrument panel is a three piece affair incorporating a resin background, clear acetate film and a PE front. This makes for quite a nice looking cockpit. The rest of the cockpit builds up pretty conventionally, however the detail is anything but conventional. It is superb.

The cockpit will add dramatically to your Corsair. With a little bit of work I’m sure you can use this set in other kits as well.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Aires and IPMS/USA for the review copy

Book Author(s)
Tony Holmes, Cover Art by Gareth Hector
Review Author
Perry Downen
Published on
March 4, 2022
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$17.95

In the early months of WWII much of the air war in Western Europe and Southern England was carried on between Spitfires, Hurricanes and Bf 109s. Having gained a degree of success over Poland, Norway and France, German introduced its “heavy fighter,” the Bf 110 Zerstörr, into the fray. The story of how the Hurricane in particular bested the highly touted twin-engine fighter is covered in this book.

This soft bound 7-1/4” X 9-3/4” book consists of 80 pages.

The book contains numerous black and white period photographs. Each photograph is accompanied by a block of text explaining the action or activity seen. Artist Jim Laurier has provided full-color three-view, cockpit drawings and armament views of the two planes. The quality of this artwork is excellent. The cockpit drawings have each instrument, handle, lever, and switch numbered and identified.

The table of contents contains:

Book Author(s)
Jim Sullivan
Review Author
Ed Kinney
Published on
February 10, 2020
Company
Squadron Products
MSRP
$16.95

This, being the third release (all written by Jim Sullivan) of the “Corsair in Action” series, I was curious and pulled the previous releases for comparison purposes. Not surprisingly, the quality level became better with each book marketed. The first one (1029) consisted of 50 pages, the second one (1145) offered 58 pages and aside from front and rear covers and the center spread, there was no color within. The latest offering contains 64 pages, and is loaded with both color photos and profiles, artwork by Dan Greer. I find the format similar to the “walk around” series also from Squadron Signal.

The text is well written and begins with the early “bent wing birds” during the golden age of aviation, proceeds through the “Birdcage” versions and each later mark and dash number is portrayed. Not only military aircraft (U.S. and other), but the Air Racers are covered along with other survivors.

Review Author
Dan Mackay
Published on
February 1, 2011
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$3.37

The later Ju 88Gs and Ju 188 have always been favorites of mine, causing me to collect anything and everything about these aircraft. Surprising these latest editions from Hasegawa are not always easy to obtain here in North America this could be due to the timing of their releases as it happened during the distribution transition from Dragon USA to Hobbico. Nevertheless, now that Hobbico is established with the Hasegawa lines, these late war Ju 88/Ju 188’s should get easier to obtain. So it was with great excitement that I was able to review these engine intakes from Quickboost.

Book Author(s)
Ray Rimell & Harry Woodman
Review Author
David Goudie
Published on
January 31, 2011
Company
Albatros Productions, Ltd.
MSRP
$28.95

For those of you interested in World War One aviation you are probably familiar with Windsock Worldwide, a publication of Albatros Publications, Ltd. out of the U.K. If you are a modeler of World War One aviation and not familiar then you might check them out at your soonest. In addition to their bi-monthly Windsock magazine, Windsock publishes “Data Files” dealing, in detail, with specific single subjects. The bi-monthly Windsock magazine deals with more than one WW-I aircraft subject and always includes at least one highly competent and detailed review and build article. As a modelling publication and reference series on WW-I aviation subjects they are second to none, unequivocally.

Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
January 31, 2011
Company
Minicraft Model Kits
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$27.99

The Aircraft

The Boeing 737 was developed in the 1960s as a low-cost development of the 707 and 727. It’s the only Boeing “narrow body” airliner still in production. There are 9 versions, ranging from 85 to 215 passengers. While not approaching the Bf-109 in numbers, the 737 is the best-selling jet airliner in history, with 6638 delivered, with 2186 more on order as of December 31, 2010 (Editor: Boeing source).

The 737 in this kit is the -400 version, with CFM-56 engines. Because of the low wing and large diameter of the engines, the lower side of the nacelle is flattened, giving a distinctive “hamster pouch” look. The -300 and -500 versions differ from the -400 in fuselage length, with the -400 being 10 feet longer than the -300 and the -500 is 8 feet shorter than the -300.

Review Author
Tim Hortman
Published on
January 31, 2011
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$5.50

The folks at Quickboost continue to add superb detail sets to their growing catalog of items. For this review I will be looking at the exhaust detail set for the 1/72 Hasegawa G8N1 Renzan.

The Hasegawa 1/72 G8N1 Renzan has been on the market for many years, in several different boxings. The molds for each issue of the kit are the same, so this exhaust upgrade set will work with any of the G8N1 kits you may have in your collection.

The Japanese WWII G8N1 Renzan Bomber was a late war Japanese WWII found-engine Bomber project. The initial prototype was completed late in 1944, and several test flights were made before the war ended. Perhaps the most recognized image of a Renzan is the photo in orange paint scheme in captured US Markings.

Review Author
Tim Hortman
Published on
January 31, 2011
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$5.00

Master Model was a new name for me. I had not heard of them before nor had I seen any of their product lines. After this review sample arrived I can safely say I am more than impressed with the quality of their work! This new group from Poland has quite a line of brass detail parts on the market. Here I will be looking at one of their new sets: 1/72 WWII Japanese Type 99 20mm Mark 2 Cannon Barrels (set of 4).

Packaged in a small plastic bag, with a cardboard backing & header were four of the nicest brass parts I have seen. Master Model’s brass parts are very finely turned brass parts that look like the real thing – only much, much smaller! All I can say when I looked at these parts was “WOW – How did they do that?!?”

Book Author(s)
Stephen Ransom & Hans-Hermann Cammann
Review Author
Pablo Bauleo
Published on
January 29, 2011
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$25.95

The Me-163 Komet is the only rocket-powered aircraft ever seeing combat. The whole combat history of this unique point-defense interceptor is covered by this book of the Aviation Elite Series as it only served with JG400.

The book is structured in five chapters, the first one covering the Me-163 development and the following four covering the operational service of 1.Staffel, 2.Staffel, I.Gruppe, and II.Gruppe respectively. It also has a series of appendixes covering unit organization, selected biographies, operational flight logs for each Me-163 and a very interesting appendix regarding the armament, including the use of SG 500 Jägerfaust, a recoilless mortar-style weapon which was fired vertically.