Many ship modelers have been puzzled as to precisely why this World War 2 era heavy cruiser has never seen plastic. Belfast currently resides in London, permanently berthed as a museum and memorial. Her status as intact leaves a few decisions Trumpeter made with this kit rather puzzling.

This kit comes packaged as many Trumpeter kits these days, with foam protecting styrene particularly vulnerable to damage. I saw no flash and injection points are all well hidden. Molding is extremely crisp, and many details will not need photo etch replacements. The hatches are WWII era British, which is a nice detail. Both her AA and pom poms are good, especially for plastic. The PE set that covers some fine details is also nice, though I wish a manufacturer would include some railings.

History

Entering RAF squadron service in 1960, the Lightning represented a quantum leap in capability and performance over the RAF’s previous interceptor jets, offering Mach 2+ performance as well as a phenomenal rate of climb. Until its retirement in the 1980s, the Lightning had few rivals for outright speed and climbing ability, however it did have some shortcomings, most notably its lack of range as well as its limited armament of just two air to air missiles. The F3 Lightning introduced an enlarged ventral tank with later versions being equipped with over wing tanks, improving the range of the lightning further. These versions deleted the nose guns of the earlier variants, thus reducing the ability of the Lightning pilots to get in close with their opponents. They also did nothing to overcome its missile deficiency, with the Lightning still having to rely on just two missiles.

History

This book gives an extensive history of the BE2 biplanes acquired by the British military beginning in 1912. By the standards of the day, the BE2 was a very modern type, with wing warp lateral control, conventional biplane structure, and enough power provided by a 70 hp. Renault water cooled V-8 engine swinging a large wooden propeller. Unlike other contemporary types, the BE2 had an impressive performance, with a maximum speed of about 70 mph and a stalling speed of 32 mph., while most other types seemed to be only capable of full power flight at minimum speeds.

Ultracast has released a series of four highly detailed resin seats for early P-40s.

This seat (#48255) correctly represents the early style curved back seat that was installed in both pre-war and early-war USAAF Curtiss P-40 B/C fighters (as well as D and early E models). It comes packaged in a zip-lock bag stapled to Ultracast’s familiar folded card. The seat is cast in a light tan color resin and comes on a small casting block with a minimum amount of casting flash that is easily removed with a sharp #11 blade.

The review sample was first airbrushed with Mr. Color Interior Green and details were hand brushed with Vallejo acrylics. As the photo below shows, the finely details cast into this seat come alive when painted.

This seat is a fast and cost effective way to add detail to the cockpit of any current 1/48 scale P-40B/C kit on the market. My thanks to Ultracast for providing the review sample and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review it.

Master – Reality in Miniature is a scale model metal detailing parts manufacturer located in Poland. Their lines include exquisitely detailed photo-etched and white metal replacement parts for aircraft and ships in the most commonly produced scales.

Master has produced a replacement gun tip and nose pitot for 1/72 A-10 Thunderbolt II (that’s the “Warthog”, for those not in tune with “official” USAF nicknames) kits. This goodie is intended to dress up and/or supplement the plastic kit parts. The easily assembled gun nose and turned metal pitot are clean plug-in replacements for the kit plastic parts.