In the mid 1930’s, the nation of Czechoslovakia had one of the most sophisticated military arms manufacturing industries in Europe. Upon the German annexation of the Czech territories known as the Sudetenland in 1938, and the occupation of the entire country in 1939, the Czech armament factories fell into the hands of German forces. Two main tanks originated from these factories, known as the Panzer 35(t) and Panzer 38(t) to the Germans (“t” is short for the German word for Czechoslovakia, “Tschechoslowakei”). The Panzer 38(t) chassis soldiered on throughout World War Two as the basis for a number of tank destroyers and self propelled flak guns, while the Panzer 35(t) had a shorter career.

History

The Tupolev Tu-2 has a rather interesting origin, being designed by a team of engineers who had run afoul of Stalin’s paranoia. They had been placed in a political prison as “enemies of the state,” and the design work for this aircraft began while the designers were incarcerated. The airplane was designed as a high speed bomber, capable of both level and diving attacks. Originally powered by liquid cooled AM-37 engines, these were later required for the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik program, so Shvetsov Ash-82 radials of 1,850 hp. were used, giving the plane a maximum speed of well over 300 mph. A crew of four was carried, including a pilot, navigator gunner, and two additional gunners. The first flight of the aircraft was in January, 1941, and the type entered service in 1942. Many variants of the Tu-2 appeared, and total numbers exceeded 3,000 before production ended in 1950.

This one falls in the "that's an odd duck" category. This was a Japanese attempt – and a successful one, at that – to create a truly amphibious tank. The IJN developed the Type 2 Ka-Mi tank for invading Pacific islands that did not have adequate port facilities to handle regular tanks. The tank had removable pontoons fore and aft for flotation and to avoid shipping any water; they added a trunk for the air intake and a tower over the commander's turret hatch. It could do around 10 km/hr in the water, being driven by two propellers at the rear, and had a range of 150 km. These were probably test results in a bay or on a lake. I could find no information on its performance on the open seas, so I'd take that range and speed with a grain of salt. The vehicle was never used operationally in its amphibious mode, serving mostly as a dug-in pillbox on various Pacific islands.

The Bf-109E instrument panel is the second instrument panel released by Eduard, the first being the Bf-110 panel. The kit consists of eighty five plastic parts on two grey-colored sprues, one clear sprue, two photo etch frets (one colored), and one decal sheet.

The construction sequence starts off with the Revi C/12D gunsight. Let me tell you, this is a kit in itself. The build is pretty straightforward. You just have to pay attention to the instructions. I put one PE piece on upside down and had to remove it and reattach it.

One of the criticisms I've read about the 1/72 scale Airfix Spitfire Mk.22 is the cannons are not quite the right shape or length. Apart from this deficiency, the Airfix Spitfire is an excellent kit and a great value for your money.

If you want to improve this model's looks and accuracy, however, Quickboost has a remedy. Their replacement resin cannons are drop-ins for the original kit pieces. Based on photos I saw, they capture the shape and size of the real thing. The kit's outboard cannons are too short, both barrels seem too bulbous, and both have an out of scale extension on the tip. Also, the resin replacements have no seam lines to eliminate – a definite plus, since the kit parts have large sprue gates. Smoothing out these sprue attachment points presents the possibility of deforming the circular barrels. Overall, the Quickboost cannon barrels look more refined and in scale. Check out the photos to see what I mean.

Many, many thanks to Mr. Hideyuki Shigeta for honoring me with the privilege of building the Super Wing Series He-219 Uhu (Eagle Owl) model kit for public review as an IPMS Reviewer Corps representative. I am deeply appreciative of the trust and confidence shown in me by both Mr. Shigeta and the IPMS Reviewer staff.

The Heinkel 219 Uhu was a highly effective but under-used Luftwaffe night fighter with a variety of innovations including obliquely firing guns and the first operational ejection seats. An excellent summary of the Uhu’s history may be found on the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s webpage, along with restoration photographs of the Uhu in the Museum’s collection.

Each issue of SAM follows a basic design and format. There are usually two Feature Articles, an Aviation in Profile piece, and a series of Compact Build Reviews. In this issue, the first Feature Article is by Marco Preto, who builds and reviews Meng’s Me-410B-2/U4 in 1/48th scale. This article is a must-read for anyone who is going to tackle the Meng kit, a kit that Mr. Preto highly recommends. Along with an outstanding set of images showing Marco’s kit in progress (and completed), he also provides a list of paints and weathering supplies that he used to the outstanding results one sees in the article.

The second Feature Article, on the Supermarine Attacker, was written by Assistant Editor Karl Robinson. Karl’s article highlights the paint selections he made to produce this tail dragger. Karl also indicates that the incredible results he obtained on the panel lines and seams were accomplished with MIG Productions Neutral Wash.

Albatros Productions publications, particularly their Winsdsock Worldwide and Datafiles, are indispensable reference materials for any serious modeler of World War One aircraft, and also for anyone with a deep interest in the history of aviation history.

The May/June 2013 (Vol.29, No.3) issue is their latest release of the Windsock Datafile line. The magazine consists of thirty-four pages (including covers) in medium thickness glossy paper. Other than the back cover and inside back cover, there is no advertising. The rest is all wonderful content. Production quality is excellent.

The cover shows pictures that hints towards the content inside; TVAL’s beautiful new Albatros D.II, a screen shot from the flight simulator Rise of Flight, an image of a 1/24 LVG C.VI, and a newly released resin figure.

Contents include:

Background

The recent new release by Airfix of the North American P-51D Mustang is a great detail addition to the modeling community for this iconic aircraft.

The Product

This latest release from Quickboost features a complete set of resin Exhaust-Type II exhausts for the P-51D Mustang from the Airfix new mold series of P-51D/K and Mustang Mk.VI kits. The quality of the resin casting is flawless and bubble-free. The tips of the exhaust pipes are hollowed out.

Assembly

These are simple drop-in parts that replace your kits parts. The locating stubs are replicated exactly where the kit’s parts are. Since these parts are made of resin, the modeler will need to use a cyanoacrylate adhesives (CA) super glue. If building with minors, exercise caution.

Background

The recent new mold release by Airfix of the North American P-51D Mustang is a great addition of this iconic aircraft to the modeling community. It is a fine model that that is equal in detail and features to any Pacific Rim company equivalent. With that said, the level of detail is matched with the frailty of some of the parts, namely the landing gear, which poses the difficult situation of thick sprue gates with delicate kits parts for the modeler.

The Product

To the rescue comes mighty Scale Aircraft Conversions! This release from SAC features white metal landing gear for the P-51D Mustang from the Airfix new mold kits. Please note that this landing gear will work on the entire series of new mold Mustangs, both the P-51D/K and Mustang Mk.VI kits.

Plusmodel was established in 1990 in the Czech Republic. Their product range is primarily made up of 1/35th scale resin kits, conversion sets, and accessories which are vacuum cast from polyurethane resin. Their products may be purchased on line through https://www.modelchoice.net .

A new addition to their line is a set of replacement cowlings for the Academy 1/72 PV-1 Ventura kit. The resin cowlings are a two-piece, cut and glue in-place replacement of the kit’s plastic parts. The supplied items include a two-piece main cowling and engine nacelle, and tiny intake covers for each.

Quickboost continues its aftermarket parts for the 1/48 Kinetic S-2F Tracker family with a part labeled as the Tracker’s radar. First and foremost, this isn't part of the radar. It is really the MAD (Magnetic Anomaly Detector) boom which extends from the back of the plane as it looks for submarines. A good picture of the boom extended is: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:S-3A_VS-32_1982.JPEG#/media/Fil….

In looking through internet pics, it looks like the boom was always retracted while on the ground.

Many, many thanks to Mr. Hideyuki Shigeta for honoring me with the privilege of building the Super Wing Series He 219 Uhu (Eagle Owl) model kit for public review as an IPMS Reviewer Corps representative. I am deeply appreciative of the trust and confidence shown in me by both Mr. Shigeta and the IPMS Reviewer staff. I am delighted to report on the next stage of construction: the motors.

Motors

As described in my first review of the SWS Uhu, the construction is staged over 7 groups, or chapters. The first part of the instruction chapter concerns preparation of a pair of Daimler-Benz inverted V-12 motor look-alikes for later installation in the wings. As I expected, the part fit was excellent throughout. All parts runners were washed per modeling good practices, filling all my drying hangers, racks, and other available spaces in my laundry room. There was no perceptible mold release on the parts or on the plastic bags holding the part runners.