Northrop's YF-22 was the direct competitor to the F-22 Raptor that the Air Force elected to purchase. Two prototypes were built- one in gray and the other in black. Hobbyboss has released the first quarter scale kit and it is a beauty. The kit is 94 parts with the upper and lower fuselage being one large piece each. Engraving is good. Most of the parts go toward the landing gear bays and landing gear. There is a clear canopy and windscreen. No option for opening it is available. There is a small decal sheet and full color paint guide in the kit representing the gray prototype only.

Hasegawa continues its releases of the F/A-18 Super Hornet series with a limited edition set for VFA-27 the "Royal Maces 2013", who are part of CVW-5 aboard the USS George Washington. The basic kit components have remained the same since 2006 when this series was released and IPMS/USA has been lucky enough to review the kit several times. That being said, this is a superb kit that makes an excellent representation of the Navy's newest workhorse. I did add one thing to it - TwoMikes resin intakes. I know TwoMikes is on a hiatus at the moment but their intakes are mandatory for this kit. They are white, fit perfectly and they are visible.

The kit includes nine sprues of perfect gray plastic, two sprues of clear parts and one sprue of poly caps. The kit has the option for folding the wings and includes drop tanks but no weapons for the pylons. An ATFLIR pod is included but nothing for the 11 hard points.

This is a great kit that Dragon has produced and it’s a joy to assemble!

Background

The Opel Blitz Maultier (“Mule”) platform was developed in 1942 to deal with the lack of paved roads on the Eastern Front in Russia, and was produced until 1944. An Opel Blitz wheeled truck chassis was modified by replacing the rear drive wheels with caterpillar tracks. The Maultier half-track Sd. Kfz.3 chassis was used with a cargo truck bed, antiaircraft gun mount, and truck bodies used for offices, workshops, & the Maultier ambulance.

Dragon has produced a previous Sd.Kfz.3a Maultier Half-Track kit, #6761 with a cargo truck body. Testors, Revell, and Italeri have also produced kits of the Opel Maultier with a cargo body in 1:35 scale.

Review

The Battle of Britain has been documented many times over. However there are not as many references related to the Luftwaffe air campaign after the peak of September 1940 battles. This book is devoted to fill that gap.

The book is logically split in the following chapters

A cousin of mine had a Pacer X back in the late 1970s and I thought it was a pretty cool little car, so I thought I’d give the MPC kit a review. I was greatly disappointed in the kit.

Engine

The kit engine is pretty well detailed and the parts fit properly as long as you can get past all the flash. I decided to go to the wild side and installed a small block Chevy engine.

Chassis

The chassis in the kit I received was warped. Even soaking it in hot water wasn’t enough to bring it all the way back. All the running gear is molded as one big piece with very poor engraving.

Interior

The interior matched the chassis for being warped and poorly engraved. Keeping with the different motif, I left out the back seat and covered it with popsicle sticks. I painted the body in HOK limegold kandy or a silver and a gold basecoat.