Aires continues to add to its line of resin detail sets for 1/32 aircraft kits. One of the latest is a resin and P/E detail set for detailing the cockpit of Trumpeter’s new Bf109F kits. Aires’ product name, Bf109GF-2/F-4 indicates that some of the parts also can be used to detail the cockpit of a Trumpeter Bf109G. The detail in the resin components is crisp, delicate and busy enough to make the cockpit quite convincing. No clean up is required and, as usual, with Aires resin there are no pinholes to worry about. The resin is not brittle, but reasonable care should be exercised when removing the small parts from the casting block. A #11 blade or razor saw can be used to remove most parts, and a swipe with a sanding stick will work to smooth the cut edges.

In the 1950’s the American trend saw greater use of the pickup trucks as second vehicles, Due to good marketing Chevrolet set records in the production of trucks with a market share of almost 37%. The 1950 3100 had a 6 cylinder Thriftmaster motor that utilized a GM Model ‘B’ downdraft carburetor with a concentric fuel bowl and a centrally located discharge nozzle. This carb had an improved fast-idle/choke mechanism that helped cold weather starts. The deluxe cab had optional Nu-Vue windows with chrome trim, a wooden floor in the cargo box and optional chrome grille and bumpers. This AMT kit comes with optional parts to make a stock 3100 pickup or a road service vehicle for a Texaco service station truck. The kit also comes with a color pre cut placard with the box top art work suitable for framing.

First let me start off by saying if you have never bought/used a set of TwoBobs decals, you are missing out! Twobobs Aviation Graphics are the makers of some of the best, and arguably most interesting, decals sets. They like to tackle the rarer paint schemes and the new Florida Makos set is no exception.

The set includes marking/choices for 4 aircraft of the 482nd Fighter Wing out of Homestead, Florida [otherwise known as the Florida Makos]. Not only do you get three standard aircraft, but they have also included the Commanding Officer’s plane. The set allows you to mark up two full aircraft, so you can easily do the CO plane and one other. The markings are beautifully done, with very little film around the edges, and bright colorful printing. The artwork features the signature Mako sharks in some of the best printing I’ve seen in decals. TwoBobs has also gone the extra mile to include weapons decals and alternate decals for the different F-16 kits available.

I don't know how many models I have snapped pitot tubes off of – dozens? They seem to always be in the way. Put them on early to make sure they fit and risk breaking them completely, or put them on late and they don't seem to blend in well.

One trend lately is for manufacturers and the aftermarket companies to make these fragile parts out of metal – either turned brass or aluminum. For this set, the pitot tube is aluminum and the AOA probe is brass. Both are exquisite in their detail when compared to the kit parts.

Once installed, they will resist breaking for a long period of time.

For those of us with growing collections or having moved several times, parts like this are a godsend as they prevent breaking.

The parts are accurate, well made, very reasonably priced, and a snap to use. Recommended with no reservations!

My thanks to IPMS/USA and the fine people at Master-Models.

This is the third Hasegawa Egg Plane I’ve built, and Twobobs is certainly right in their decal description. Everyone probably has one of these in their stash, and finally someone has come out with interesting aftermarket markings for the Lawn Dart. They also describe the kit as whimsical (yep) and one to be built just for the fun of it, as no one has a good photo of the original aircraft.

I built the RNethAF F-16 for that review because I worked with them in Italy. So the markings I chose for this review were one of Aviano’s Falcons. This was probably not the most interesting choice, as there are so many good sets of markings on the sheet. The instruction sheet is 4 pages long, so here are half of them.

The kit is really simple, so after a quick paint job and a coat of Future, it’s ready to decal.

Also reviewed are:

As an armor builder I wanted to review this kit partly as a challenge to see how well I could build a car. Mainly I wanted to review this kit because I love Ferrari’s. The kit is molded mostly in white, with a sprue of chrome parts and some rubber tires. The decals are nicely done, but a few items required an aftermarket set to enhance the model. At first glance the kit looks very nice except for a few minor details that are an easy fix.

The Ferrari 458 comes in several colors, and I found pictures on the internet of one I liked that is white with black rims and an all black interior.

You begin by building the engine, which is cool, except for the fact that the majority of this work is hidden by the engine bay and cover. I painted the engine even though on my curbside edition you really won’t see much detail once the body is on.

As almost everyone is aware, this year is the 100th anniversary of Naval Aviation. Bob Sanchez and TwoBobs have set out to give the modeler everything he would need to replicate all the retro schemes for all the planes that are in service this year. That would be five different sets of decals, a high rez CD of over 800 pictures, and a CONA sticker. You can get all of this in TwoBobs’ excellent platinum set for a 20% savings or, if one the schemes is your fancy you can get them individually for $14.00.

Short History

The HMMWV was designed primarily for personnel and light cargo transport behind front lines, not as a front line fighting vehicle. Like the previous Jeep, the basic HMMWV has no armor or protection against nuclear, biological, and chemical threats. Nevertheless, losses were relatively low in conventional operations, such as the Gulf War. Vehicles and crews suffered considerable damage and losses during the Battle of Mogadishu due to the nature of the urban engagement; however, the chassis survivability allowed the majority of those crews to return to safety, though the HMMWV was never designed to offer protection against intense small arms fire, much less machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. However, with the rise of asymmetric warfare and low intensity conflicts, the HMMWV has been pressed into service in urban combat roles for which it was not originally intended.

The Centennial celebration of Naval Aviation has brought about some really colorful modern aircraft, emanating their predecessors from the yellow wing days, and, in particular, the distinctive unit markings of World War Two aircraft. They have made for some truly one-of-a-kind aircraft, and Bob Sanchez has managed to capture them for we enthusiasts. Even if you don’t have the five separate decal sheets that go along with this CD, you will always have a superb reference on hand for F/A-18, and EA-6’s. On the CD label it says there are over 800 photos. I didn’t add up that many, but who cares? These are, however some of the crispest, clear photos that I have ever seen. They are also taken from some places that most of us will never be able to go and without thousands of people around. Now if we only had some cockpit shots, too.

The Centennial celebration of Naval Aviation has brought about some really colorful modern aircraft, emulating their predecessors from the yellow wing days, and, in particular, the distinctive unit markings of World War Two aircraft. They have made for some truly one-of-a-kind aircraft, and Bob Sanchez has managed to capture them for us enthusiasts. This particular sheet takes us back to the early days of aircraft experimentation and weaponry tests. When you first look at the colorful instruction sheet, you see a red, grey and white F/A-18C of VX-31 at China Lake. This aircraft hauls around a lot of weapons and weapon sensors under its wings, doing a lot of experiments. The second is an F/A-18A of VFA-204 out of NAS JRB New Orleans as it was painted during an air show tour at Ft. Worth in February, 2011. This one is Navy blue with orange ID bands. What a neat-looking airplane. When you unfold the sheet and look to see what’s inside, there’s the teaser.

All new from Osprey comes number 89 in their Combat Aircraft Series, authored jointly by Peter E. Davies and well known “Hun” expert Dave Menard. As in the past, this book comes in soft cover with 96 pages, including a plethora of color photos, black and white shots and several pages that include 27 profiles in full color of a collection of F-100s. In all, very nicely presented.



The text begins with “Hun” development, goes on to describe the aircraft as a warhorse, and continues with mission identification. It also covers not only the Wild Weasel Huns but also the Misty FACs as well. I found this to be a most interesting read and a welcome addition to my aviation library. Many thanks to Sara Batkie for the review sample. For more information, contact her by phone at 718-433-4402 or email sara.batkie@ospreypublishing.com.

Format

This publication is offered in an 8” by 9 ½” size soft cover, with full color images on almost all pages, with a few black-and-white images interspersed. All of the images are of fine, clear quality. There are 84 pages in all, each filled with informational narrative or images of the Crusader. The text has been translated from French which has resulted In a few interesting misspellings.

This newly offered Special Product just goes to prove the age old adage “you can never have too much information”.

This 30 page monograph clearly shows the reader everything they ever wanted to know about these weapons and I must admit, it was a most interesting read. It comes in an 8.5x11 format with a stiff cover and contains a plethora of detail information in the form of black and white line drawings and text on several of these weapons.

It is well done and worth having if you have an interest in the subject. You might wish to take advantage of the member price and join IPMS/Canada when you order. Also, please check out the other Special Products on their website. Many thanks to Randy Lutz for the review sample.

This is the third of four volumes of perhaps the most exhaustive and comprehensive study of British amour color and markings of the 20^thCentury ever published. It’s been researched and compiled by Dick Taylor, a serving British officer who knows his subject up close and personal, who is also a modeler of the highest standing on the other side of the pond (the Atlantic). This volume is heavily illustrated with drawings of insignia, color side views and photos throughout. The three major sections are:

The actual box art image does not do the kit justice - it is a great little diorama accessory. There are 186 plastic parts, 54 of which are extra. There are also 25 photo-etched parts and two vinyl tracks. I’ve built 6 or 8 of these little Dragon 1/72^nd armored kits and have accumulated a massive spare parts box.

I’ve built one of these Jagdpanzer VI’s before, though without the crane, and basic construction is very simple. The suspension (Picture 1) goes together in about 15 minutes, and another 10 can be spent on adding the parts for the rear armor plate. I added everything to it prior to painting. I found the photo-etched shields difficult to bend in this scale, and not a good fit. They are optional depending upon the vehicle you wish to depict, and although I got them to go on, I left them off the final product.

The Author

This book is the English translation from the French by Jennifer Meyniel and the author. I have to say that it is a very good translation, as the text is very readable. I finished this book in one evening, during the commercial breaks in a couple of favorite Tuesday evening TV shows.

Mr. Carbonel has taken the time and trouble to track down many of the players in the Matchbox plastic model division, done interviews and has done pretty extensive research on this subject. I had never heard of him, but apparently he is a respected author and aviation authority in France.

The Book

There are four sections:

1. 1973 – The Range
2. The AMT-Matchbox Era
3. The Twilight Period
4. Under German Control

Each section is divided into chapters covering one year, although some years are skipped late in the book, as not much happened after 1997.

OK, what does an airplane guy know about tanks? Well, let’s see – they make great targets and make a mess of a training area. Truth be told, I did win a trophy at the Nats for a tank. Surprised? So was I. As an airplane guy I always wanted to build some tanks, in particular German tanks, but for the longest time it was the zimmerit that prevented me from buying them. Then it was all the aftermarket stuff to make the kit “correct.” Thankfully, Dragon has started retooling their kits to make them more accurate, and they contain aftermarket stuff right in the box. On top of that, they priced their new kits, with all the aftermarket, at the same price as their previous releases. Then they added zimmerit on the appropriate kits. I couldn’t think of any more reasons to not buy these kits. Of the last 20 kits I’ve bought, no less than 12 have been Dragon tanks. I feel so dirty.

When this model set became available in the Reviewer Corps back in March 2009, I got all excited, and I thought I had reason to be. This seemed to be a project made for me, as a long time ago I was a Doctor Who fan and knew the Daleks probably better than your average IPMS/USA dude. But now, I look back at this project and wish I had never taken it. Frankly, I was going to get cute and throw in all sorts of in-jokes and trivia in this review, sort of like I did with the Lamborghini Jota review I did a few years back. This kit does NOT deserve it.

Nor does it deserve a "slam job".

With a title like this and John writing that the text was in French, I assumed this book was going to be all about French Infantry Fighting Vehicles. Yep, I was wrong! As I started thumbing through the book and scanning over the included vehicles, I realized that this was a nice collection book about Infantry Fighting Vehicles all over the world. This is very neat “recognition handbook”. A slight word of warning….This is not a definitive collection of infantry Fighting vehicles by any means. Though a great book, it needs to be more defined by the title.

Mark Stille is a retired Commander of the US Navy and has written a succession of books for Osprey Publishing on naval topics. He continues as an intelligence analyst at the Pentagon. New Vanguard 182 covers Italian battleships of World War Two, an obscure topic. Like other Osprey books, an in-depth treatment is not given, but an excellent synopsis of design, characteristics and history of each ship is presented.

“Speed is Armor”

Moebius Models continues their run of hits with the brand-spanking new Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. For those of you not around for the last 20 years, Elvira is a character played by Cassandra Peterson who is a valley girl-talking, smart-mouthed movie host for those awful yet loveable horror movies. I love her style and panache and when the kit came out, who could not want to review it?

The kit was sculpted by Adam Dougherty. Actually, kit is an understatement, as it is a complete diorama. The kit consists of over 60 parts, including a carpet (with the carpet monster peaking out from underneath the corner), a full sofa, Elvira herself, and her dog Gonk, along with a rat, skull, and skeletal hand. I built the kit in parts and will cover the review the same way.

Eduard is planning to release a pre-painted injected plastic PSP base. The base has a copyright of 1999 in the back, so I think it is the “old” PSP base which now gets a pre-painted treatment.

What about the pre-painting? It is great. Deep browns and grey shades, with a touch of lighter spots and rusty shades. This is not just pre-painted, it is weathered, too!! Now, be aware that the sides of the base are left in bare plastic (white). You might want to consider painting the sides to match the colors of the top and maybe to apply a wash to the overall base to bring out detail.

What is the quality and detail of the plastic? It is outstanding as we became used from Eduard. No flash or molding flaws. Clean and crisp details. The dimensions are 164 mm x 234 mm. It will fit a P-51 just fine, but it might be a bit tight for a P-47, as it is shown in the pictures.

Background

I'll not spend much time here. Google for "Jane Russell", when you're done reading that, click any link to "Howard Hughes", and when done with that click the link to the "Hughes H-4 Hercules" to find out all you need to know about this aircraft.

I will add that SWMBO and I had a trip planned that would allow her to go to a big quilt show in Sisters, OR, and allow me to stop off in McMinnville and see the 'Spruce Goose' -- it didn't happen but is still in the back of our minds. Unfortunately, we'll never hear the sound of 8 R-4360's cranking over and running -- that's 224 cylinders generating 28,000 h.p. …. and 448 spark plugs to change ….