Many thanks to Mr. Ross MacMillan of Scale Aircraft Conversions and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to try this neat conversion and replacement set for the Minicraft PBM-5A. I am delighted to report on another sweet add-on.
The AN-2 “"Annushka" (NATO designation “Colt”) bi-plane is brutish, rugged airplane – a throwback from a very earlier age. Central to this appearance is the large Shvetsov Ash-62 9 cylinder radial engine (a development from the Wright R-1820 Cyclone) at the end of a short nose.. Overall, Hobby Boss captures the lines of the “Colt”, except the Shvetsov ASh-62 engine, which as molded looks like an anemic Clerget from WWI. Even with the close cowl and the large four bladed prop the engine does not look right. Thankfully Quickboost now offers a replacement engine.
Master X, an eastern European company, has released a high quality resin beaching trolley/trailer for the excellent and affordable Revell 1/32nd scale Arado Ar 196 float plane. The combination of the two provides a nice solution to the tricky question of how to display Revell’s masterpiece if you don’t want to purchase a $90 resin catapult by HPH, or leave it sitting unrealistically on the tarmac.
The box contains 17 resin pieces, and a half-sheet of paper with drawings of parts with lines showing where each goes.
The parts include the frame and deck of the trailer, the main wheels and guide wheels, and the “fenders”, presumably for preventing rocks from being kicked up into the underbelly of the aircraft.
Perhaps the best four-engined bomber of WWII, the Avro Lancaster has earned its place in history as well as in the hearts of the English people. It was instantly recognized that this was no normal aircraft and the time between design, prototype and production was minimized. However, the Lancaster was competing with the Spitfire and Mosquito for the Rolls Royce Merlin engines it needed and it was feared that a shortage might develop. Instead of shifting Merlin production to the Lancaster, it was decided to develop another version of the aircraft, the Mark II of this kit, using Bristol Hercules radial engines instead. The adaptation was easily made, but performance slipped. The Mk II climbed faster and the radial Hercules engines could absorb more punishment and still run, but the over all ceiling of the aircraft was reduced and the Hercules consumed more fuel, so range and/or bomb load fell as well.
Thanks very much to Ross at SAC for doing the hard work for us on this gear. We at IPMS USA sincerely appreciate your contributions for review!
If you have not built the new (2013) release of the BF-109G, may I recommend you try one. The detail is great, fit as well, and the engineering shows much concern for the modeler. This is not the original 1967-vintage model many of us remember.
One weak area of the kit is the landing gear; Revell DE’s plastic is a bit softer than other companies, and this contributes to the lower cost but also means things like landing gear can bow or break over time. In the case of this model, the gear is also made up of three main parts, cemented together. It makes the fidelity to life that much better, but at the same time can contribute to some difficulty in assembly. It’s also a failure point.
