Right on the heels of Eduard’s release of the 1/72^nd scale Fw 190A-8 was their Fw 190A-5. When you open the box, you wonder just what kit the parts are for. You see three trees of light gray parts, one clear tree with four canopies on it a great decal sheet, a photo etch sheet and a mask. Of course, many of the parts are for the A-8 and for future variants of the A-8. And, with all of these extra parts, you have to read the instruction sheet for the correct parts number to ensure you don’t go wrong and start building something other than an A-5. Of course you have to decide which of the markings you are going to build, because there are some differences between them.

In 2010 Ford introduced a restyled Mustang known internally as the S-197 platform. The fifth generation of the iconic pony car featured design cues from the 1960s fastback including a body shape with hard edges, scalloped side panels and hooded headlights for a more aggressive look. As it turned out, this generation would mark the return of the Mustang muscle car. In 2011 the GT version featured the return of a much improved 5.0 Liter Coyote V-8. This dual overhead cam 32 valve power plant made over 400hp in its normally aspirated form. The S-197 platform was also the basis for the return of the infamous Boss 302 (2012-2013). This kit represents the last year of S-197 body style that was replaced by the current S-550 body style in 2015. In the last few years I’ve reviewed a number of Mustang models on this site so it’s no secret that this is my all-time favorite car. The only thing that’s changed since then is that after a 30 year hiatus I have one in my garage.

Background

Prior to the start of World War Two, the armed forces of the Soviet Union were lacking in any sort of self propelled artillery. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union by German forces in 1941, Soviet forces suffered massive loses of military material. Hand in hand with these losses came the forced uprooting of many of their key military production plants eastwards, away from the advancing German armies. But these plants were soon up and running again, and with heroic efforts on the part of the workers and plant managers, were soon churning out replacement vehicles in an attempt to cover the initial losses.

The Kit

The kit contains four sprues for the wagon, plus sprues for two horses, and three soldiers molded in light grey plastic. The four tires for the wagon are molded in black plastic. Not sure why the separate color for the tires since they are hard plastic and the entire kit would be painted anyway. The kit also contains a metal chain, two frets of photo etch parts, nylon string for the tow cables and a decal sheet which includes markings for the vehicle and uniform patches for the figures. The parts had some minor flash, but not troubles with sink holes or ejector pin marks. The only exception is on the wagon sides above the seat for the drivers and the floor of the machinegun cart. There are some unavoidable ejector pin marks, but they are hidden by the seated figures so I chose not to fill them. The crispness of the detail on the parts could be sharper, but is still pretty good.

A while back I built Dragon’s 1/144 F-14D Tomcat for a review. Master Models of Poland has come out with a replacement “alfa probe” for the Tomcat. I still think of it as a pitot tube, but I’m pretty 20th Century.

In doing a little research, I found that there are two other 1/144 F-14s available, Revell and Trumpeter. In looking at the “in box” reviews, both of these kits do have alfa probes. The Dragon kit I built doesn’t have one. OK. But I have built more than one model where the pitot tube has been broken, bent or deformed to where it really needs replacement. In the past, a cut off straight pin worked pretty well. Now we have a much better looking part.

The instructions are pretty basic, but so is the procedure. We’re not doing knee replacement here.

Cut off the existing probe. In this case, I just had to use a sanding stick to get a flat spot for the drill.