This complete die-cut adhesive mask set is "just what the doctor ordered" to cure the masking blues. Especially if you’re building the Revell/Monogram AC-47 Gunship. This must have set includes: wheel mask, landing light mask, observation dome mask, windscreen panel mask, and exterior cabin window mask. The masking media used for this set is the typical high-quality product we’ve seen and used for years (very similar to Tamiya tape). The die-cut patterns fit perfectly to their respective proper location. They’re easily peeled away from the backing paper, and repositioning is just as easy. Preparation before painting is key to a nice looking model and masking plays a vital role in this preparation. The clean sharp edges of perfectly-fitting masking are hard to beat. After placement of the mask, I lightly burnish them with a rounded toothpick to prevent any leakage.

Hauler is an accessory company based in the Czech Republic that produces high quality photo-etched sets for AFVs, airplanes, cars, railway vehicles, and resin accessories for dioramas and resin kits.

Before we go into the product here is a brief explanation of what “Dragons teeth” are. Dragon's teeth are square-pyramidal fortifications of reinforced concrete first used during the Second World War to impede the movement of tanks and mechanized infantry. The idea was to slow down and channel tanks into killing zones where they could easily be disposed of by anti-tank weapons.

In practice, the use of combat engineers and specialist clearance vehicles enabled them to be disposed of relatively quickly, and they proved far less of an obstacle than many had expected. The obstacles could also simply be buried using bulldozers and dump trucks.

Masking sets started to show up 10-15 years ago and the first sets were cut vinyl, which worked well on certain things but had difficulty bending around corners and staying in place. Eduard solved this problem a while back by going to low tack yellow tape that is sticky enough to fit into corners and stay put while painting is going on but still leaves no residue. There are precut and usually fit a specific kit.

This set fits HobbyBoss 1/48 A-6E TRAM kit and allows masking of several different parts. First, solid masks are included for the two large front windows. The small sides to the front and the main canopy have parts that provide a sharp out frame. The instructions say to mask with liquid masking and this works but I have also used Tamiya tape and that works also.

Scale Aircraft Conversions has released a nice set of replacement landing gear for the Pilot Replicas 1/48 Saab J 29F Tunnan. The nice part about Ross McMillan’s set is that it will fit any J 29 Tunnan from Pilot Replicas, and they have designed their kit to be able to issue all versions of the Saab Tunnan. The eight parts supplied include the nose gear strut, nose gear mud guard, nose gear torque arms, main gear stuts, and main gear retraction arms. A side by side evaluation of all the SAC parts shows the similarity with the kit parts. There are no supplied instructions; you simply swap out the kit provided plastic parts with the new white metal items. The SAC landing gear may need to be slightly adjusted to be straight (a benefit of using metal is that you can bend it slightly). Smooth jaw needle nose pliers work wonderfully.

If you needed to tow a really big rig – you would need a really big wrecker! This replica kit does the real thing justice and it’s got pretty good quality for an older mold.

Scale Aircraft Conversions has released a nice set of replacement landing gear for the Trumpeter 1/48 Sukhoi Su-11 Fishpot. The seven parts supplied include the nose gear, main gear, and gear retraction arms. A side by side evaluation of all the SAC parts shows the similarity with the kit parts. There are no supplied instructions; you simply swap out the kit provided plastic parts with the new white metal items. The SAC landing gear may need to be slightly adjusted to be straight (a benefit of using metal is that you can bend it slightly). Smooth jaw needle nose pliers work wonderfully.

The newest in Osprey’s Aircraft of the Aces series is authored by Yasuho Izawa, an ophthalmic optician in Tokyo. His past literary works include co-authoring Japanese Army Air Force Fighter Units and their Aces 1931-45 (with Ikuhiko Hata), Japanese Naval Air Force Fighter Units and their Aces 1932-45(with Ikuhiko Hata), Japanese Naval Aces and Fighter Units in World War II (with Ikuhiko Hata), and Bloody Shambles Volumes 1 and 2 (with Christopher Shores and Brian Cull). Tony Holmes has been the Osprey Aviation Editor since 1989 and is responsible for devising the Aircraft of the Aces, Combat Aircraft, Elite Units, and Duel series of books for Osprey. In his 26 year career, Tony Holmes has authored, or co-authored, more than thirty aviation books. 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.

Ampersand’s website:

Noted military truck historian David Doyle has created an extensive and vivid portrait of these unique trucks. He begins with a detailed description of the truck platforms and designs, giving the reader a basic primer of the trucks prior to modification. This is followed by a lengthy illustrated description of the many weapons systems used, from small arms to the .50-caliber quad. Coverage of the trucks in action follows and is composed of many never before seen photos, many of which are full page in size and in color.

The first section describes military transport vehicles from the 1/4 ton M151, 2 1/2 ton 6 x 6, the 5 ton 6 x 6, and the M37. Each of the vehicle types is described in two or three pages with overall views and detailed photos of the engines. The photos are ‘proving ground’ type shots and in-action photos.

The AMK L-29 is a superb kit with great detail and options for display. One option is to pose open the nitrogen bay in the nose with a forward opening cover as was seen during pre-flight servicing. While the kit nose base is detailed, Aires offers additional detail cast into these resin replacement pieces for the bay and the cover. I have included pictures of the resin parts and a comparison with the kit pieces (darker gray). Neither the kit nor the Aires set provides the prop for the cover.

I am have here today a set of resin exhaust stacks from Quickboost and anyone who has used their products know you are getting the absolute best bang for your buck in awesome engineering and accurate fit to go with a very affordable price which is extremely important in today’s economy and greatly affects the decision making for a lot of modelers when it comes to selecting aftermarket details.

The exhaust stack have 3 small sets mounted to 1 pour stub with the exhaust ports already bored out, and are designed to replace about 4 parts total from the Eduard 1/72nd scale Fw 190 and these can be used for either the A-5 or A-8 which are currently the only released kits in this scale from Eduard.

Kit Parts replaced are as followed

The Italeri kit this release is based on was first issued in 1988, and I not only bought it then but built it up into one of my all-time favorite dioramas. As with a lot of Italeri kits released at the time, there were a few spots of oversimplification, but it was a quick and fun build and certainly looked the part when complete.

Tamiya has done something interesting here, in that they have re-released this almost thirty year old kit along with their equally venerable U.S. Command figure set. Since I have built these figures numerous times over the intervening years, I will forgo the pleasure of repeating myself here.

Whether you are interested in German paper projects of World War 2, a fan of Luftwaffe ’46 planes, or just a builder of unique aircraft, allow me to direct your attention to this recent release from Bronco Models. The relatively low parts count (57 in all) allows for a quick build for modelers with only limited experience. The only challenge may be a few small items, but these are not too daunting with a good pair of tweezers. The beauty of a kit like this is that you cannot go wrong with any paint scheme or markings that you choose, as no one will ever have a photo of the real thing to prove you wrong.

Annual Subscription (4 issues): £ 27.00 ($39.10) plus shipping

The latest journal of Cross & Cockade International - Spring 2016, features a water-color painting of two Short Admiralty Type 166 Seaplanes on the cover. The rear cover shows a photograph of Captain Eric John Stephens and his 41 Squadron SE5a along with a photo of Captain Frank Ormond Soden and his captured Fokker D VII of Ltn Adolph Auer (Jasta 40). If you check out the web site link above, you can get additional sample pics of the current issue.

Cross & Cockade International is a non-profit UK based group known as the First World War Aviation Historical Society that publishes their journal four times a year. They also provide a free newsletter (sign up on their website) and occasionally publish WWI themed books like the Sopwith Dolphin monograph I reviewed earlier for IPMS USA. This Journal is the sister of the US Journal, Over The Front.