Thank you to Squadron Products for providing a new modeling product for field testing. Thank you to the IPMS Reviewer Corps for giving me the opportunity to run the tests. The product performed very well, and I was pleasantly surprised by the glue bottle design.

Squadron has recently added to the new products lines with a set of cyanoacrylate adhesives. I tested a bundled set of three 0.705 fluid ounce bottles in extra-thin, medium, and extra-thick viscosities. I did not play with chemistry, tensile-strength, shear strength and all of that sort of stuff, largely because cyanaoacrylate is a pretty proven product. I stuck with performance-based opinions in my tests.

While at this year's National Contest and Convention, Jeff Johnston of MMD-Squadron was kind enough to provide several sample sizes of this new product. As implied in the name, the thinner is designed to work with all brands and types of enamel paints. While my paint collection isn't extensive enough to prove this, I did try the product with several brands of paint (Testor's traditional ¼ oz bottle, their 1 oz Model Master, and an old Humbrol tin). The instructions state to mix a 3 part paint/2 part thinner ratio for gloss colors, and 3/1 for flats. I tried these ratios for airbrushing and found them to work great. I typically use Testor's Lacquer Thinner (black can) for much of my enamel and lacquer spraying. The Squadron product dries a little slower, which may help to level out the paint layers a bit more – or the airbrush gods were smiling on me the day I tried it out. Who can say <grin>.

This is a Level 2 kit and contains 87 pieces. The kit is molded in white, chrome, clear, and clear red plastic. The instruction manual is typical Revell with drawings and pointers.

This kit looks a lot like the Monogram kit I built on my grandmothers back porch in the 70’s. Some web snooping has led to this being linked to the 1976 Monogram release but I couldn’t tell you for sure. What I can tell you is that this kit goes together really well with no real vices. The window fit could be better but I got around that issue with a bit of pressure and strategic gluing. Unfortunately the glue gave up its hold during final assembly. Next time I would cut off the door windows. The engine is only a few pieces but detailed enough to look good. A more accurate and detailed painting guide for the engine would have been nice though. The interior is well done with multiple pieces and decals for the individual instruments. The chassis is basic with few parts just like the real thing.

The Kit

The SAAB J 32B Lansen was the fighter variant of the initial A 32 Lansen. The Lansen ‘Sport’ featured a more powerful engine with afterburner and upgraded armament, including four 30 mm ADEN guns vs. the four 20 mm Bofors guns on the A 32A Lansen. Two features quickly identify the A 32A from the J 32B: The J 32B sported an afterburner exhaust and open gun ports. The A32A featured electrically operated doors covering its 20 mm guns. The larger 30 mm guns in the J 32B provide a distinct profile bulge in the lower nose area along the nose gear, but it is a feature that is not always as easily seen. As opposed to the A 32A production run of 287 aircraft, the J 32B totaled only 120 aircraft which served from 1958 through 1973. The J 32B airframe was modified into six J 32D target tugs and fourteen J 32E ECM aircraft that both served into 1997.

This sheet is the first of three limited edition sheets produced by Lifelike Decals for the Hasegawa 1/72 Ki-27 Fighter (codenamed “Nate” by the Allies). The sheet provides markings for seven different aircraft, six from the Japanese Army, and one from the Manchurian Air Force. The set includes color side views of all seven aircraft illustrating the left side markings, and overhead views showing the wing markings.

All of the aircraft are overall light grey with very interesting and colorful markings for aircraft from a wide variety of units. Inside the directions Lifelike provides a summary description of each aircraft, including any particular pilot that the aircraft was associated with. The descriptions also include references to published photographs of the aircraft and there is a summary listing of the references used at the end of the descriptions. A nice touch for some of the special markings is an explanation of what the markings meant to the Japanese pilots.