When Hasegawa finally followed up their excellent 1:48 A-4 series with a TA-4J, many modelers were thrilled, including me. Of course shortly after its release, aftermarket companies soon had various releases to detail the kit even further. Eduard produced several new photo-etched sets for the TA-4J, a couple of which are applicable to other A-4 variants.

First we will look at the airbrake set. A single fret of etch is included along with one page of instructions in the usual Eduard style. The final assemblies completely replace the kits flaps, plus provide parts for the upper spoilers seen on the TA-4J, TA-4F, A-4F, and A-4M. Also one advantage the etched parts have is there is no ejector pin marks as seen on the kit parts.

Specific Instrument Panels

New from Squadron/Signal Books USA is the B-25 Mitchell in Action by David Doyle. Very possibly the most significant twin engine bomber of WWII is beautifully showcased in this new “in action” series book.

72 pages with artwork by Don Greer, this publication contains more than 200 photos (80 of them in full color), most of them original period photographs. This aircraft is covered in detail by taking it from the North American Aviation Prototype (NA 40) to the final production run of the B-25J, in use for some time after the close of the war. USN and USMC versions (PBJ series) are also well covered within, as are B-25’s in Foreign Service used by Allied Air Forces at that time. Also contained are several color profiles of the B-25.

THE KIT

I’ve built a couple of 1/72 scale Zvezda kits, and they’ve always been quite complex, with lots of parts. The Stuka is a complete departure from that norm. It’s very simple, with only a few parts, and there’s not much detail on the kit. The explanation comes from the Dragon website. Zvezda not only makes scale models, they also make table-top games. This is intended as an add-on/expansion for the game “Barbarossa 1941”. There’s a reference card for the Stuka’s part in the game included in the kit. There are other aircraft available, Bf-109, La-7 and Il-2 Sturmovik, plus 1/72 ground units.

Having done my share of “cardboard squares on a map” gaming, as well as some miniatures, I know that the more complex the miniature, the more likely it is that you’ll ruin it while playing. So simplicity and low price are virtues for this kit.

The kit is a single dark green sprue with the single-piece canopy in the plastic bag with the decals.

I have heard wonderful things about the Wingnut Wings models but I didn’t realize that they were this good. When John Noack posted that he had one of their models for review, I practically begged him to give it to me. I wasn’t disappointed.

Upon opening the very substantial box, I was greeted with many sprues consisting of 265 plastic parts and 11 photoetched parts. I opened the instructions and I really cannot call them mere instructions as it was a 30 page book in color. They were the most complete instructions I have ever seen and they even had photographs of the real aircraft in several places to help locating where various parts were to be placed.