Model Art Modeling Magazine is a Japanese publication that is released monthly. The text is mainly in Japanese with some English subtitles throughout. The magazines’ striking feature is the high quality of the photographs showing the models used.

This issue has two feature articles instead of just one, as normal. The first article covers the Pz.Kpfw. IV. They use models of an Ausf. D by Tamiya, Ausf. F2(G) by Dragon, Ausf. H early by Tamiya, and an Ausf. J late production. These are all 1/35th scale. Within the article, they go over how to improve these models, along with a breakdown of German gray between three different paint manufacturers (Mr. Color, Tamiya enamels, and Vallejo). The last part of the article consists of photos of a Pz. IV Ausf. J. in a museum, along with line drawings of some of the differences between versions.

Here’s another fine replacement landing gear set from SAC, this time for the new Kinetic Goshawk. The white metal parts are a spot-on match for the kit gear. In situations where the weight of the model could lead to overstressed and broken gear, these sets are a lifesaver (the life of the model, that is). All relevant parts are there, including both the compressed and extended nose gear struts.

A few of the smaller, thinner pieces in the package I received were slightly bent, but were easily returned to their proper shape. That just shows that care must be taken when handling some of those more delicate thin pieces, but unlike plastic, they are more easily reshaped when necessary before they reach the breaking point.

All told, another very worthy effort from Scale Aircraft Conversions. Thanks to SAC and IPMS for the review sample.

Academy continues to re-release the Accurate Miniatures series, which in my opinion is a very good thing. Despite their age, Accurate Miniature molds have very good surface detail and they have held up pretty well. There is virtually no flash at all. I only had to clean up two parts for a bit of flash.

Originally, Accurate Miniature released the B-25G as a conversion set for their early mark B-25. This particular re-release brings you all the parts needed to assemble a B-25G in a single box, plus decals from Cartograf. As a plus, you get plenty of spare parts from the early mark (B/C/D) B-25s.

In their third release of the Science World series of kits, Hasegawa has reproduced the Japanese manned research submersible Shinkai 6500 in 1/72 scale with upgraded thrusters that were added in 2012. The company previously released the original version of the submersible as SW01 (54001), and parts for that version are contained in this box as well. The kit builds up nicely, with many of the items fitting snugly enough that you might almost consider not applying glue. With the exception of just a few small parts, model builders of any age can complete a very respectable looking model from this kit, and more experienced builders should enjoy the level of detail provided by Hasegawa.

Thank you to David Lajer of Aires / Quickboost and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for the privilege of reviewing this delightful aftermarket resin set. The Hobbyboss F8F kit is wonderful in its own right, but replacement of the kit wheel wells with the Aires parts and the other pieces in the set allows a much cleaner and more detailed presentation.

OK, it’s a 1/144 B-17G. I have 1/144 B-17Gs in the stash from Crown, Revell, and Academy/Minicraft. Nevertheless, I’ve never gotten around to building any of these, so this one is the first of several B-17Gs I’ll be doing as I get around to it.

First reason to like this kit – they’ve completely redone the clear parts. Trust me, this mold has been around the block a few times, and these clear parts are much better.

Second reason – the decals. Cartograf makes excellent decals, and Minicraft gives you markings for two pretty interesting B-17Gs.

The Aircraft I Built

This B-17G is not done with the kit decals. Just before I started this project, I attended IPMS Las Vegas “Best of the West” contest at Henderson, NV. I picked up a set of Kits-World decals for the B-17. The provided decals would have been just fine, except one of the aircraft on the sheet has a personal connection.

Intended for the Kinetic 1/32 scale Hawk 100 trainer kit, this SAC replacement gear set includes a nose gear, right and left mains, and the two main retract struts. The 5 metal landing gear pieces are finely cast and are made of a soft white metal which cleaned up in quick order with a file and a Flex-I-File. They’re the same length as the kit’s gear, but are slightly thinner in diameter. You’ll need to use the kit’s plastic part # D-38 to complete the nose gear. There are no instructions, so I just followed the kit's instructions.

The kit’s nose gear has two halves in order to get the nose
wheel in place, but the SAC metal one is in one piece. To get the wheel in, I bent the nose fork open, snapped in the wheel, then squeezed the fork back together. The main wheels fit fine on the struts and everything fits the airplane's mounting points.

Quickbost has produced a replacement gun barrel for any 1/32 F-16 kit. The resin replacements are a simple drop-in for the kit’s plastic parts. The supplied items include two replacement muzzles. The only modification required will be the removal of the end of the kit part’s barrels beyond the second sleeve.

A side-by-side evaluation (see photos) indicates a replacement of superior detail that will provide a more accurate view of a true dogfighter’s weapon of choice.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Quickboost and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for the opportunity to review this item.

I was quite excited to see Trumpeter start releasing some of the more modern Soviet armored vehicles. Not only are the kits nicely detailed, but they tend to go together quite well. Also, Trumpeter has no problem releasing several variants, unlike some other manufactures that release one base type and leave us modelers scrambling for aftermarket resin to do other variations. So, needless to say, after years of resisting the urge to purchase some resin “updates” to the old Skif T-64 kits, I was delighted to have a state-of-the-art tooling in my hands.

Box Stats

Within the box you get 566 parts in all.

I was given Minicraft’s B-17G for a review. Just as I was about to start the project, I was at IPMS Las Vegas “Best of the West” contest, and found a set of 1/144 decals for the B-17G. The decals included in the kit were perfectly OK, but the subject matter of this sheet made me drag out my wallet and buy it.

The first plane on the sheet is “American Beauty”, 2S*G. A friend and co-worker of my father was the top turret gunner and flight engineer on this aircraft. So it has a personal connection to me.

THE DECAL

The decal sheet itself is very good. When you finish cutting out the decals for one aircraft, you still have a solid sheet, not something that looks like a lace doily. Good planning on their part, and I appreciate that.

The subject matter of the other three planes is also very interesting – “Little Miss Mischief” of the 91st Bomb Group, “My Devotion” (an F model) of the 351st BG, and the famous “A Bit o’ Lace” from the 427th BG.

Inside the Ersatzteiliste (parts manual) for the Bf-109E is a special tools section. Before now, if you wanted to add this to your diorama, you were limited to scratchbuilding it, and then you still had to find the tools to fit. Eduard has made this a lot easier.

Contained on a single brass fret is a roll of tools, a special tool kit, and all the tools for both. The first assembly sequence is a tool roll which can be looped over the wing. There is a second one that is all folded up. These are both perfectly formed and textured to give that canvas look. The tools fit along a canvas strap. It might be easier to add this strap from tape, but the PE part is quite adequate. As a personal aside, my thought is to use the Eduard PE part as a template to cut the “canvas” roll out of masking tape, both for scale thickness and that more realistic canvas texture that masking tape suggests.

Airscale provides some excellent aircraft instrument dials, but until now you had to cut them out and add them to kit instrument panels. Well, now you can build your own instrument panels with the aid of their new bezels.

There are 46 distinct shapes, but that doesn’t mean there are only 46 pieces on the single brass fret. There are multiple bezels, allowing you to do anything you need to do when scratchbuilding an instrument panel. Don’t think that it stops there. While marketed for the instrument panel, they can be used for numerous other things. The sky is the limit.

There are US, German, RAF, and WWI instruments represented on the fret. The parts are arranged in 9 rows with each style of bezel labeled with a letter on the instructions. The instructions are printed in full color on card stock to protect the fret. The instructions indicate what each bezel is designed to represent. Some are multi-layered, so do your research.

Eagle Editions’ series Wings of the Black Cross is now in its tenth edition. The latest edition is a softbound book with 36 high gloss pages. Inside the front cover is an addendum and errata sheet from the previous volumes. This is a professional approach, as new information is constantly being discovered by other researchers.

The highlight of all of these books is the photos, and this volume contains 62 black and white photos of the highest resolution. They are clearly printed and quite useable. Most of the photos have never before been seen. There are some that I’ve seen elsewhere but these reproductions are superior in clarity.