Although too late for World War 2, the de Havilland Vampire served in front-line RAF squadrons until 1953 and in training squadrons until 1966. The Vampire was the RAF’s second jet-powered aircraft, after the Gloster Meteor. Over 3200 copies were manufactured in numerous variants. The FB.5 was a single-seat fighter-bomber, of which over 1000 were built. It was powered by a de Havilland Goblin II turbojet, and it could reach a maximum speed of 550 mph.

Cyber Hobby’s new Vampire comes shortly after their Meteor, Sea Venom, and Sea Vixen, as they continue to build on their line of post-war aircraft. As a new tooling, the kit makes extensive use of slide-molding. The kit comes in the standard Dragon/Cyber Hobby top-opening box, with images on both the box top and bottom. Forty-five parts are included on three sprues, including one in clear, and are molded in light gray. The sprues are individually sealed in clear cellophane.

Quickboost makes another addition to its sets for the Kinetic 1/48th EA-6B Prowler with a replacement set of air scoops. There are 10 different scoops cast perfectly in the expected gray resin.

There are three different varieties of scoops:

• Part 1 replaces kit parts (two scoops) C15+C17/C17+C18
• Part 2 replaces kit part C11 in six scoops
• Part 3 replaces kit part C21 in two scoops

Using the set is simple – cut from the casting block, make sure the bottom edge is good, and glue in place and paint. The Quickboost parts have good depth to the openings, which is not the case with all the kit parts. Also, the kit’s two large scoops have to be glued together and sanded, which is not done with the Quickboost set.

Overall, a good upgrade for the kit parts. Simple and easy to execute, reasonably priced, and also an improvement in accuracy. Recommended to all fans of the Prowler and those wanting that extra detail.

Dragon's latest Stug III release is marketed as a December ‘44 production time frame version. If you follow the instructions, you won't build a vehicle from the Dec 44 production run, but a somewhat jumbled mix with early, mid, and late production features. Fortunately, if you know what you are looking for, the kit includes the parts to build what is commonly accepted as a late ‘44/early 45 vehicle. With some exceptions.

The parts are molded in light gray styrene with crisp details and no noticeable flash. There are some very fine details like the fender tread pattern, hull weld beads, and rough texture on the cast mantle (Topfblende). This release is a bit of a mix-and-match from their earlier StuG III releases (notably the CH May ‘44 Mid-Late Production) with a few additional sprues from their StuG IV kits. A good portion of these parts won't be used and are blued out on the front instruction sheet. But don't be too hasty, you'll need some of those pieces.

The Aircraft

The B-52 has been flying longer than a lot of IPMS members have been building. It entered USAF service in 1955, and 85 of them are still in active inventory, with 9 in reserve. The combat-ready B-52Hs left are at Minot AFB in North Dakota and Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.

The Scale Aircraft Conversions set

The SAC set for the B-52 consists of 4 identical main gear sets and two outrigger wheels and struts for the wings, all in white metal. The outriggers are cast with a protective sprue, which is a great idea since they’d be a little fragile.

The main gear uses the kit wheels.

Painting

This was pretty simple. The main gear and the outriggers are painted white. I used Floquil Reefer White, which goes on nicely from the airbrush and sticks wonderfully to the metal parts. I then brush-painted the wheels on the outriggers with Floquil Grimy Black.

History Brief

The Cylon Raider is a space superiority fighter. This modern Raider is the CGI version designed by Eric Chu used in the re-imagined television series. Called Sparrow by the Colonial pilots, these were first encountered 40 years after the first Cylon War. This thing is a living biomechanical being, spacecraft and pilot rolled into one; truly a strange nemesis.

The Product

It’s a prebuilt and fully finished kit ready to display. It’s packaged in a colorful box that’s representative of space flight. The model is accurate, nicely done, and looks pretty decent for a pre-built. It has a very nice old-school 2-piece display stand that needs assembly. However, I found this type of display stand to be unbalanced and wobbly for this application.

The Bottom Line

My wife, who is a huge BSG fan, loves this thing. Two thumbs up. Thanks to Moebius and IPMS/USA for the review opportunity.

History Brief

The Pegasus is either a Mercury class Battlestar or a Pegasus class Battlestar, depending on where you source your information; she is newer, larger, and more powerful than Galactica. In the re-imagined series, the Beast, as she known by her crew, is a survivor unexpectedly found by Galactica in the 10^th episode of the 2nd season. She’s almost twice the size of Galactica but only needs about half the support crew, relying on more advanced automation systems. Utilizing these automation systems, the Pegasus could manufacture her own Vipers and Raptors, plus replenish stocks for the Galactica.

Her Captain, Admiral Helena Cain, and her crew were battle-tested and wanted payback after escaping the Cylon invasion. They were entirely motivated by bloodthirsty revenge and didn’t want to be tied up aiding the Colonial survivors, and, yes, this made great television entertainment. Sadly, the Pegasus was destroyed a few episodes later… or was she?

Scale Aircraft Conversions makes various landing gear sets from lead-free white metal. Some come with the wheels attached, if needed. Others might have the wheel bay included to help with added weight, but most only come with the new landing gear struts.

The detail of the metal parts is much crisper and looks flawless. The advantage to these parts is their strength, and that they won’t warp under the kit’s weight over time. They will also hold up well while you work with them – no accidentally snapping them apart. To attach the new landing gear, you will need to use CA glue. On SAC’s website, they recommend a gap-filling CA glue so the gear can be positioned the way you want it, and then using an accelerator to bond the parts instantly.

Trumpeter’s 1/32 scale MiG-3 kit is quite nice and needs only a few changes to improve it. Some kit reviews have pointed out that number one on the list is enhancing cockpit details, and the seat is the most conspicuous item noted. Quickboost has now addressed that issue by offering a two-piece resin replacement that includes a high level of detail and nicely molded safety belts (the photos below show the level of detail on the front and back of each part). The two-piece seat is designed to fit in place of the kit’s three-piece seat parts. In the comparison photo below, the Quickboost seat (on the right) exhibits superior detail and avoids the ejector pin repair issue found in the kit’s seat back (on the left).

Quickboost now offers a resin 1/48 scale three-piece resin ejection seat to replace the injection molded seat found in the various F-86F kits marketed by Hasegawa (also should fit Academy kits). The Quickboost seat offers a more correctly proportioned seat with superior detail than provided in the kits, plus it includes nicely molded safety belts (the photos below show the level of delicate detail molded into the parts). See the comparison photo below to determine the difference in the Quickboost seat (on the right) to the Hasegawa kit’s rather basic seat part (on the left).

Although the He-111 was designed supposedly as a civil transport prototype capable of carrying 10 passengers and mail, its main purpose was of a military nature. It first flew in 1935. Several modifications were made to improve performance. A major change was replacing the two 660-hp BMW engines with the 1,000 hp Daimler Benz DB 600A engines, which significantly improved performance. The He-111 cut its fighting teeth in the Spanish Civil War, serving with the Condor Legion where it was very successful. That success continued in the early days of World War II. Germany overran several countries with its Blitzkrieg tactics, staring the Ju-87 and the He-111. Its success faded with the onset of the Battle of Britain when the lightly armed He 111 encountered the fast Spitfires and Hurricanes. By the time Hitler lost this battle, he was already planning Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. The He 111 again found success on the Russian Front.

Osprey Publishing has a series known as “General Military” which has one-off books on different topics. This one is dedicated to the Tiger tank, although reading the book also provides a good insight on armored vehicle operations, as it includes descriptions of how the Tiger tanks worked together with Panzer III and half-track armored carrier personnel.

The book is divided into nine chapters. The first three chapters (Development, Organization, Mobility) basically evaluate the tank’s performance as a vehicle and how it was used in combination with other AFV. The following three chapters (Firepower, Armor, Combat), cover the combat experience of the tank, with specifics sections for combat in each front (Western, Eastern, and Africa), while the final three (Maintenance, Under Fire, Conclusions) cover different aspects from the recovery of those vehicles to how they performed in the last years of the war, facing upgraded allied armor vehicles.

The Saab 37 Viggen was designed to a Swedish air force requirement for an integrated weapon system with high performance, great versatility, and STOL capability. It was intended to replace the Saab 32 Lansen attack plane and the Saab 35 Draken fighter. To meet the requirements of a multi-roll aircraft, Saab came up with a radical configuration for the day. The design used a conventional low-set delta wing extending from mid-fuselage to tail pipe, with small clipped canard wings mounted forward of the main wings and above the intakes. This single-seat aircraft was powered by a single license-built version of the Pratt & Whitney JT8D engine equipped with a thrust-reverser. This innovative design package created a plane capable of Mach 2 at high altitude and Mach 1 at low altitude while maintaining short-field takeoff and landing capabilities. A total of 329 Viggens were built, and from 1970 to 1990 they were the backbone of Sweden's air defense.

History

So much has already been written about the Focke Wulf Fw-190 that I needn’t add much to the history of the type. The BMW-powered Fw-190A series was produced in numbers approaching 20,000, and served as the backbone of the Luftwaffe’s fighter and ground attack forces during World War II. Easier to fly than the Bf-109, the wide track undercarriage of the Fw-190 resulted in fewer accidents, and the heavier armament variations were used for special purposes, such as anti-bomber operations and close support.