SAC must have one heck of a new kit stash; they seem to have metal gear for every aircraft out there! We at IPMS USA on the reviewer corps appreciate your continuing to provide us review items… and thanks to the IPMS leadership for sending it my way to review!

This is yet another “drop fit and direct replacement” metal gear for your models. This set is for the Gallery Ch-34 in 1/48. Note: This is for the two-part torque gear version like the Wessex, not the “A” frame on earlier H-34’s. That set is SAC #48216. They also have a set for the Italeri Wessex, #48196, which has the torque tube and shock strut cast as one piece.

A note on the various CH-34 landing gear out there; My dad flew H-34’s out of Danang with the South Vietnamese as an advisor, and stated they had both “A” frame and Torque tube landing gear in their “cast off from the US Army and Marine front line” aircraft. The usual admonition to “check your sources” is advised…

Thank you to the ever supportive folks at Eduard Model Accessories for providing a yet another great finishing tool. Thank you to the IPMS Reviewer Corp for letting me evaluate one of Eduard’s products. I always enjoy working with Eduard’s offerings and this mask set is no exception.

Kitty Hawk Models recently released a newly tooled 1:48 model of the SH-2F Sea Sprite, a common USN helicopter for a good part of the later 20^th century. The design of the helicopter provides excellent visibility for the aviator, which for the modeler means there are lots of clear parts to protect. The masking set reviewed here allows the modeler to easily protect those clear parts during painting.

Introduction

When the space station Deep Space 9 got caught up in the conflict with the Dominion over control of a stable wormhole, one of Starfleet’s responses was to provide support in the shape of the USS Defiant. The Defiant was a new ship design for Starfleet and incorporated new, powerful weapon systems and even a cloaking device. Once the bugs were worked out of the new design, the defiant proved to be a powerful weapon in the fight against the Dominion.

Almost 20 years ago, AMT first released their model kit of the Defiant during the run of TV’s Deep Space 9 series. In January 2014, Round2 rerelease the Defiant under the AMT name. Round2’s re-released Defiant kit, like all those kits from the Star Trek series, are delivered in a sturdy box with colorful new artwork.

I would like to thank Round2/AMT for providing this re-release of Deep Space 9’s, USS Defiant to IPMS USA for review.

SAC … getting to be a household name among aircraft modellers by now.. IPMS USA and the reviewer corps appreciate your continuing to provide us review items… thanks also to the IPMS leadership for sending it my way to review.

This set is comprised of 9 parts to replace the plastic parts provided in Sword’s excellent 1/72 Lightning T4/5 kit. On their website they don’t’ show it, but the scissors links are included. Sword’s kit is the two-seat “tub” version, and the metal gear provides not only strength but peace of mind… and improvement on the kit parts.

Particular note: The nose gear. The kit would have you install the wheel/tire on the partial nose gear fork, and then glue/cement the other side of the fork to the wheel. Not SAC! You get a complete, sturdy fork assembly. Spread it slightly, install the wheel/tire, and you are done.

Run 1/16 in the search bar on eBay and you end up with like 122,221 returns. Click on the Toys and Hobbies sub-category and there are 29, 317 results. I actually used this feature to see how many armor kits were available for use with the 1/16 scale Nuts and Bolts set from True Details. As this is a resin aftermarket set, it has more applications than just for the armor model builder, including the many die-cast farm equipment items, as well as older large-scale automotive models. Many of the die-cast items were listed as collectibles and carried a hefty price tag. Almost all of the listed items could definitely be improved with some or all of the items included in this new release.