The Eduard Bf-108 has been around for some time and recently re-released. This little gem of a kit is a fun build and a very nice model.

There are limitations to things that you can do in plastic. In this instance the fine trailing edge of the prop blade can’t get be thinned enough. Well resin allows you to do a lot of things that plastic won’t. That is where this resin prop from Brassin comes in.

Packaged in a vacuformed container this set contains two pieces of resin. The resin is cast in light grey resin with no defects noted. The parts are the actual propeller blade and the nose cap. The key is the way Eduard casts their parts. I’ve found it to be very easy to remove and clean up.

There is also a sheet of decals for the prop blade logos.

The set is simple to add just drill a 2mm hole in the kit back plate and add the prop by threading the nose cap through the prop.

The F-14 has no shortage of kits in 1/48^th scale and with the impending release coming from Tamiya the Tomcat will likely become a more popular model on the tables. The Tomcat is not a stranger to colorful markings. Furball Aero-Design has released another great sheet for the Tomcat.

The Air Wing All-Stars Part One has options for seven F-14As, all of them colorful. Typical of Furball decals the decals are sealed in a large ziplock bag. Inside the bag are the instructions printed in full color on three sheets of 8.5x11 high quality print stock. These instructions are easy enough to follow with no issues noted. All the aircraft have profile views of the left side and where there are differences between sides this is noted. Plan views are included on a side to themselves. The final sheet is designed just for the stencils and will be a great reference for the modeler.

The latest offering from Quickboost provides a one-piece supercharger intake. Packaged in a self-sealing package with a card stock support, this light grey resin intake is perfectly formed. The kit would have you build up the intake from two pieces meaning you’d have to fill the seam and then lose the raised welded detail Quickboost takes care of that for you. The inlet is deep enough to be convincing.

This time saver is worth the small price charged. The shape is accurate and all the detail is there with very little work. It is a drop in replacement for the kit parts. Simple, inexpensive, minimal work and accurate, all the hallmarks of the Quickboost line. This is another winner from them.

Highly recommended

Sometime back in 2015 it was announced that ICM was going to produce a new 1/48 Ju-88 series kit. I was rather intrigued as the Ju-88 is one of my favorite aircraft of WWII and that the last time I actually built a Ju-88 was an old Hobbycraft kit back in the late 1980’s. Then sometime in the early 1990’s a new model company DML, later Dragon, came onto the market with a whole series of the Ju-88 family. At the time these were top notch kits but some of the engineering in order to produce a wide variety of variants made things slightly complicated for some, myself included. So with this announcement of a new Ju-88 kit coming out I was excited but at the same time very reluctant as my past experience with ICM not being favorable.

Thanks to Ross at SAC for yet another outstanding metal gear set. IPMS USA continues to appreciate the support! In this case, I purchased the gear, because I really needed it.

This set is, again, a simple drop-in replacement gear for the new 1/32 Italeri F-104C. This is the logical follow-on kit to the previously released F-104G/S, and this kit is great. A bit expensive, but the decal sheets are huge Cartograf items with several options. The basic plastic and the few add-ons like the gear was worth my money.

The SAC set contains the entire main gear beam strut area as one unitary item, and a nose gear. Both are perfectly cast and directly upgrade the kit parts.

Installation is easy. Use superglue and press the SAC gear in place. They fit perfectly, and impress with strength and “peace of mind” when attaching wheels/tires to the axles.

Sincere appreciation to Eduard for providing IPMS USA yet another review item, and to the IPMS reviewer corps leaders for sending it to me!

This set is part of Eduard’s expanding range of aftermarket accessories to use on various aircraft. In this case, you receive four missile bodies with aft fins already cast in place, a set of forward fins (16 total), and four clear resin seeker heads. Also included is a set of resin ground-protective end caps which can be placed over the seeker heads, and a decal sheet to handle all four missiles. There is also a brass etched set of missile nozzles.

A word on the detail: FANTASTIC! These are the first AIM-9’s I’ve noted that have all three rail mounts in place between the fins; the rollerons are extremely well done, and the rest of the missile looks the part.

I am very appreciative of Acrylicos Vallejo for sending new products for review, and I am equally appreciative of all the Review Corps crew members who take care of all of the legwork to get materials to reviewers and the completed reviews published for the modeling community. It is a privilege to be part of this manufacturer-modeler group effort.

Eduard has released a series of WWII-era seatbelts in the “steel” series. I think that Eduard Models call this product line “Steelbelts”.

This review covers the following items:

This is the first Yellow-Wings product I have had the pleasure of reviewing, and my initial reactions were very positive.

The focus of this company is on USN, USMC and USAAC subjects from the 1930-42 era, and this one falls right in line. This particular set provides markings for one specific aircraft, SBD-2 Dauntless #2106, during 5 phases of its lifetime. The standard ziplock bag contents consist of a stiff cardboard, full-color “title board”, 5 double-sided instruction pages (printed in black & white and color), and 2 full pages of decal sheets printed by Microscale. This is the 1/48^th scale set, and there is also one available in 1/32.

The five different schemes for Dauntless #2106 provided are:

The newest in Osprey's Combat Aircraft series is authored by Peter E. Davies. A noted author with over twenty-six aviation books published, Peter E. Davis' focus has been on Vietnam War era aircraft. He has had a long relationship with Osprey and has authored 13 titles and co-authored another two.

Illustrator Jim Laurier, a native of New England, provides the color profiles. Jim has been drawing since he could hold a pencil and throughout his life he has worked in many mediums creating artwork on a variety of subjects. He has worked on the Osprey Aviation list since 2000, and has been featured in hundreds of aviation books.

Gareth Hector is a digital artist of international standing as well as an aviation history enthusiast. Gareth Hector provides the cover artwork of pilot Lt. Grover Erickson and RIO Lt John Perry in their F-4B attacking Bach Long Vi island on the night of October 26, 1965.

Steve Ginter’s Martin PBM Mariner is one of more recent in his Naval Fighters series and was actually initiated after hearing that Minicraft was really, really, really going to finally put out their 1/72 PBM-5A kit. This edition is in their standard 8.5” x 11” format softbound publication that is 256 pages (excluding covers). I counted 760 photographs (5 in color) along with 61 drawings.

Author Steve Ginter is a noted military historian who publishes the Naval Fighter series that was founded in 1980. After graduating from California State University-Northridge, Steve Ginter became a US Navy pilot, serving from 1966 to 1972. Upon leaving the US Navy, Steve Ginter held a series of management positions within the Thrifty Drug chain for the next twenty-one years. In 1996 in became the CEO of Sentai Distributors where he directed company operations until 2011. The Air Force Legends series was initiated in 1998 with the publication of ‘The Martin XB-51’.

Sometimes considered as the most effective variant, the Model 52 was developed to again shorten the wings to increase speed and dispense with the folding wing mechanism. In addition, ailerons, aileron trim tab and flaps were revised. Produced first by Mitsubishi, most Model 52s were made by Nakajima. The prototype was made in June 1943 by modifying an A6M3 and was first flown in August 1943. The first Model 52 is said in the handling manual to have 製造番号 (seizō bangō, or production number) 3904, which apparently refers to the prototype.

Research by Mr. Bunzo Komine published by Mr. Kenji Miyazaki states that aircraft 3904 through 4103 had the same exhaust system and cowl flaps as on the Model 22. This is partially corroborated by two wrecks researched by Mr. Stan Gajda and Mr. L. G. Halls, production number 4007 and 4043, respectively. (The upper cowling was slightly redesigned from that of the Model 22.)

Add On Parts, from Belgium, produces diorama accessories in many different scales. They also have some upgrade sets for armor and offer various model building tools and books.

This set is comprised of one sheet of photo etched buckets, in two different styles, along with the bucket bottoms and handles.