Eduard's latest release in their Hellcat series is a F6F-5 late in the Profipack set which contains lots of photoetch, resin wheels, a masking set and the sprues needed to make a late version. The set also comes with five olive sprues and one clear sprue which have wonderful panels lines and the lapped seams in the fuselage. The photoetch has one brass fret and one colorized one with lots of cockpit parts including a wonderful dozen for the instrument panel alone. The kit also has an excellent decal sheet with markings for four planes:

• VF-12 (or VBF-12), USS Randolph, May 1945
• LCDR T. Hugh Winters, VF-19, USS Lexington, October 1944
• VF-29, USS Cabot, January to March 1945
• White 115, "Death and Destruction", Multiple Pilots, VF-83, USS Essex, May 5th 1945

There's also all the needed stencils. There also options for open/closed canopy, bombs or rockets and extended or retracted tail hook.

Brengun offers model builders a way to spend a few enjoyable hours assembling a pair of miniature examples of a German WWII secret weapons that never was…well, not beyond a single prototype to be accurate. Kit BRL 72013 provides two small sprues of 16 grey plastic parts, a pair of clear canopies, a very small photo-etched fret of 20 parts and a little wisp of a decal sheet that provide enough components to build a pair of Zeppelin Rammers…one more than the Germans actually had.

The Rammer (German: Rammjäger) was one of the projects for a German 'secret weapon' by Luftschiffbau Zeppelin. It was designed primarily for aerial ramming against the allied bomber fleets that by 1944 were effectively leveling cities throughout Nazi Germany…and, maybe bringing the pilot back to earth breathing.

Scale Aircraft Conversions, or SAC, make replacement landing gear for a wide variety of aircraft, in all the major scales. They are cast in white metal, which is stronger than the kit’s plastic pieces. To quote the company’s website, “Some sets consist of the main gear only while others include the nose gear, tail gear and/or adjacent related components. Some inaccuracies in the original kit gear have been corrected but the mounting points remain identical to the factory parts.”

This set is made to replace the parts for Tamiya’s F-16CJ. They seem to be direct replacements for the kit parts, providing more strength and should withstand more handling during construction than the kit parts might. They’ll definitely help add to the beefy look of the later F-16 landing gear.

These are well-made parts that should be drop-in replacements. Thanks to SAC for providing the set for review and to IPMS/USA for allowing me to review it.

Scale Aircraft Conversions, or SAC, make replacement landing gear for a wide variety of aircraft, in all the major scales. They are cast in white metal, which is stronger than the kit’s plastic pieces. To quote the company’s website, “Some sets consist of the main gear only while others include the nose gear, tail gear and/or adjacent related components. Some inaccuracies in the original kit gear have been corrected but the mounting points remain identical to the factory parts.”

Thanks to Brengun for providing this most excellent upgrade set for the Special Hobby AH-1G cobra; and to IPMS USA for sending it to me to review!

If you are interested in the “Snake”, the Special Hobby 1/72 kit is well worth acquiring. Y etc…turbine exhaust is a first in ANY scale, and two types of tail rotor mounts, one port side, one Starboard side based on the version you are building. And you get a set of not only 2.75” rocket pods, but minigun pods as well if you don’t use them. I purchased the M-35 kit, which has the externally mounted .20MM Vulcan short-barreled cannon, and the associated saddle magazine set for it. I hope they pantograph this one up to 1/48 or even 1/35, as it’s that good… and it’s appropriate for the Vietnam-era builders out there like me. The old 1/32 Revell kit is a bit long in the tooth…