Sometimes experienced modelers get so bogged down with the extensive projects we are working on, we forget to lift our over-taxed heads from the work bench, remove glasses and opti-visors, and smell the sweet success of a quick, easy build. So, while browsing the IPMS review list one day, I came upon this kit and “snapped” it up. My thought was to have my wife build it, but she took off in our (real) ’65 rag top Mustang instead, and left me to it.

The Revell Snap-Tite 2018 Mustang GT is a nice representation of the styling changes being made to the existing 2017 Mustang. The car will soon to be released this Fall. The main omission on the Snap-Tite model are the rear vision door mirrors.

Masking canopies, even 109 canopies, is a pain in the butt to me. Thank God that Eduard sees fit to make canopy masking sets. This latest one is designed for their Bf-109F-2.

Cut out of Kabuki tape, the masks are able to conform to the curves of the canopy. There are masks for the inside framework on the aft canopy, like the real thing, as well as, the external framework. This set also contains masks for the wheels and the wing tip lights.

All is not perfect though. The center canopy framing should be a single piece instead of the two piece per facet. It is easy to add the center piece of the canopy so it still saves you time. Eduard insists that there should be framework on the center canopy but that is not on the Friedrich. Strangely Eduard provides masks for painting the wingtip lights. These should be clear pieces but Eduard has molded them with the wing in grey plastic. You are supposed to paint them silver and then with the appropriate clear green and red.

Jared Zichek continues his in depth look at the US Navy Convoy Fighter competition of 1950 with this in depth look at the Lockheed Model L-200. As a bit of background, the US at the time was nervous about protecting convoys between the US and its allies after the rough go that convoys had early in WWII. The proposal was a request for a high-performance turboprop fighter to be based on those convoys and to protect them. Five companies participated including Convair, Goodyear, Martin, and Northrop as well as Lockheed. The most famous of this group was the Convair Pogo but thankfully Mr. Zichek has dug in to review the remaining one s and with that, this book focuses on Lockheed’s efforts.

The set provides eight resin replacement wheels and tires, molded as one piece, for the Russian BTR-60 APC. The tires are slightly wider than the Trumpeter rubber tires. The Hauler wheels are a different style and much smaller than the Trumpeter wheels. The Hauler tires have a crisper tread pattern than the Trumpeter tires and are molded without a center seam. They do not have a flattened portion for the weight of the vehicle.

Each of the wheels is molded with their own casting block. The mounting hole for the wheel is much larger than the Trumpeter axle so it needs to be drilled out. Mounted on the vehicle, it becomes apparent that the Hauler wheels are smaller and the tires have a larger profile.

The profile and size of the Hauler wheels provide a good option to the Trumpeter kit wheels. The tire tread is much crisper, even at this small scale.

Thanks to Hauler for continuing to produce these nice add-on parts and providing review samples to IPMS.

History

The Avia B.534 was one of the major achievements of the Czech aircraft industry during the late thirties, and their biplane fighter was as advanced as any European fighter during the middle thirties. Numerous variations were produced, and Eduard has seen fit to produce kits of just about all of them. I have written several reviews of earlier issues of this kit over the past several years, and I refer you to these for a detailed historical account.

The BK.534 variant differed from previous production models in that it was armed with an Oerlikon 20 mm cannon firing through the crankshaft and mounted between the cylinder banks of the Hispano Suiza 12Ycrs. Engine. Two of the fuselage mounted machine guns were removed to save weight. The installation did not prove successful, and later the aircraft were modified by replacing the cannon with another machine gun. Otherwise, the aircraft was nearly identical to the production B.534 Series IV.

Want an easy upgrade to the new 1/48 Airfix Curtiss P-40B? Step right up to the new Quickboost P-40B exhausst set that provides a beautiful replacement to what is supplied in the kit. The parts are packaged in the standard Quickboost re-closable packaging with a paper stiffener along with the description card. Although these parts are specific to fit the 1/48 Airfix P-40B injected plastic kit, they might be able to be modified so that they would also work for older 1/48 P-40B/C kits (Monogram/Hasegawa/Revell [1964], Academy / Hobbycraft [1996], Bronco [2016], Pegasus, Trumpeter [2004].

Many or maybe even most know of the Mk.82 bomb- it’s been used for many years as the primary unguided, general purpose low drag bomb. It is convertible to precision guided with a seeker head and fins (which can make it a GBU-12 Paveway II or a GBU-38 JDAM) and this has seen use for many years. To make the bomb available for use at low level bomb runs and not have the plane hit by bomb fragments, the Mk.82 can be fitted with a special tail unit (the Mk. 15) which opens in a cruciform shape and slows the descent enough to allow the plane to be gone when the bomb explodes. This bomb is the Mk.82 with Mk.15 tail unit but it is commonly called the Mk. 82 Snake Eye. And that is what this review is about.

The Danton Class represented six pre-dreadnought battleships of the French Navy, built in France between 1907 and 1911. Outclassed before they were completed, and obsolete by the end of World War One, the five surviving ships were relegated to second-line roles by 1920. The ships included the Danton (sunk by U-64 in 1917), Condorcet (Scrapped 1949), Diderot (Scrapped 1937), Mirabeau (Scrapped 1921), Vergniaud (Scrapped 1928), and Voltaire (Scuttled 1938, scraped 1950). The main battery consisted of four 305mm/45 Modèle 1906 guns in two twin gun turrets. The secondary battery consisted of twelve 240mm/50 Modèle 1902 guns in six twin gun turrets. Torpedo boat defense was supplied by sixteen 75mm (3.0”) Modèle 1908 Schneider guns and ten 47mm (1.9”) Hotchkiss guns.

The American Civil War was a time of transition, both materially and tactically. On the material side of the equation, metallurgy and weaponry were seeing huge advances. The tactical side struggled to keep pace. When war first broke in 1861 commanders saw the battlefield as a linear environment. That is; long lines of men advancing toward each other to get close enough for the smoothbore weapons of the day to reach maximum efficiency. Technology moved forward with rifled weapons that were more accurate at longer ranges. And coupled with advances in sighting and powder, the ability to reach out and touch your foe at longer ranges meant linear battlefield tactics were becoming obsolete in a deadly way.

This is Michael Rinaldi’s third book in this series, the first being on the Industria Mechanika 1/35 FichtenFoo's Fantastical Fish-shaped Submersible resin kit with the second being the Trumpeter 1/35 Stalinetz S.65 Russian Army tractor kit. This issue focuses on the Bandai 1/100 Sazabi Gundam Mecha that has been customized. The Single Model (SM) series represents a focus on a specific kit and as such is a limited edition (i.e. Only One Print Run!). This singular focus permits Michael Rinaldi to tackle topics outside of his successful TankArt series and allows him to address finishes that he has not attempted before. A core premise of the new book series is to explore and redefine artistic and creative finishes for each subject.

Want an easy upgrade to your 1/48 Sukhoi Su-11? Step right up to the new Quickboost Su-11 landing lights set that provide a beautiful replacement to what is supplied in the kit. The supplied instructions identify where new the Quickboost replacements go. The parts are packaged in the standard Quickboost re-closable packaging with a paper stiffener along with the instructions. These parts will fit the Trumpeter 2015 release of Sukhoi Su-11 (02898; Su-11 Fishpot).

The landing gear assemblies on WWI aircraft are notoriously fragile and spindly, and the Pfalz D.XII is no exception. SAC has provided us with four white metal parts that should solve that problem. Being white metal, they will require some careful polishing of the surface to get them smooth, and gap filling CA glue must be used for assembly. The parts come in the typical SAC clear plastic bubble card.

The SAC parts represent kit parts A9, A11, A25 and B8. The only drawback, if you can call it that, was that both of the struts were somewhat bent. Sometimes straightening thin white metal parts can be a little tedious, but it can be done. Having white metal at the attachment points is definitely an advantage provided by this set.

My thanks to Scale Aircraft Conversions and IPMS for the review sample.

The IRIS-T (infra-red imaging system - tail / thrust vector controlled) is a heat seeking missile developed by a consortium of European countries as a replacement for the AIM-9 Sidewinder. The program was led by Germany, but included other NATO countries such as Greece, Italy, Norway, Sweden and Spain and the IRIS-T has been exported to several countries such as Austria, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Thailand. The IRIS-T became operational in 2005 and is carried on the Eurofighter Typhoon, F-16 Falcon, F/A-18 Hornet, Tornado and the Gripen.

Want an easy upgrade to any 1/48 Boulton Paul Defiant? Step right up to the new Quickboost Defiant Mk.I pitot tube and ventral antenna Masts set that provides a beautiful replacement to those supplied in the kit. The parts are packaged in the standard Quickboost re-closable packaging with a paper stiffener along with the description card. There are no instructions. These parts are specific to fit the Airfix accurate and highly detailed 1/48 Boulton Paul Defiant Mk.I injected plastic kit. They will also work for the older limited run Classic Airframes kits (471, 481, and 482) that were introduced in 1995.

This book covers the Northrop YF-23 which was in competition with the F-22 for the ATF contract. The book is written by the chief test pilot of the Yf-23 program and the in-depth knowledge of the author really shows in the book. While the F-22 was chosen many, including myself consider the YF-23 the more aesthetically pleasing of the two designs.

Ginter books are well known in both the modeling and aviation community for their in-depth photo coverage and history of the title subject. This book, number 220 in the Air Force legend series lives up to the sterling reputation established by all of the previous volumes. Being a more modern subject, the book is overflowing with color photos.

The Aires Hobby Models website lists not only the Aires product line of resin replacement accessories but also Quickboost, Wheelliant, and Aerobonus. I have used products from all four lines and have never been disappointed. Collectively the product lines offer a broad choice of replacement parts for aircraft models in several scales.

I plan to use this set on the Kinetic Super Etendard Kit Number K48061.

The resin parts come in a sealed clear package with a small "instruction" sheet enclosed therein. The instructions are limited to a profile of the parts with the portions of the resin to be removed shaded grey. The parts are surrounded on two sides by resin "legs" to protect the parts.

To assist in training pilots to fly the MiG-29, the Mikoyan OKB developed a two seat trainer of the aircraft. In order to minimize differences in the handling characteristics between the single seat and two seat aircraft, Mikoyan modified the front fuselage by deleting the fire control radar and modified the nose to accommodate the second cockpit. The MiG-29UB retains much of the MiG-29A’s combat capabilities, including its impressive maneuverability, but its air-to-air weapons are limited to heat-seeking missiles and cannon fire. The MiG-29UB is operated by most air forces that fly the MiG-29.

Master Model is a Polish company. The owner is Piotr Czerkasow who is a mechanical engineer by trade. Piotr is also a scale modeler. Master model has a broad range of accessories for aircraft, military vehicles and ships in several of the popular scales. In addition they also offer a blackening agent under their Tools and Supplies tab.

I will use this set of turned brass gun barrels and pitot tube on a Hasegawa P-40N. The Hasegawa P-40 series are modular kits that have interchangeable components that allow the building of several variants, depending on what kit is purchased. Many of the same sprues are issued with the various P-40 variants. The wing armament is provided as separate parts that are fixed into the leading edges of each wing. The kit's gun barrels are molded with the gun barrels open, and generally look the part of the real weapons. However, if you wish to carry the build to the next level brass gun barrels are the way to go.

Extreme gratitude from IPMS USA and this reviewer to Hobbico for providing us this kit… it’s been a while off the radar and we’re pleased it’s back!

This kit was originally released around 1997 or so, if I remember correctly. At the time it was (and still is) the best of the 1/48 kits of this famous British fighter, and was considered to be the “UK Sabre” of its day with maneuverability, speed, and overall “it looks right” appearance.

This kit continues Italeri’s current trend of releasing warfighting aircraft with specialized color schemes. In the box you get the Hunter F.6 and FGA.9, with two different lower nose cannon covers, and the different size/shape exhaust area required for each version based on the engine installation. The F-6 was designed as an air-to- air fighter, whereas the FGA.9 incorporated ground attack capabilities with rockets and bomb delivery capability.

The Beechcraft 17 Staggerwing and later D17 was a versatile family of aircraft that ended up serving in for more roles than originally envisioned by Beech. Renowned for its attractive lines and good performance, it was designed to be an executive aircraft. But it soon found a role as a racer, liaison, and a utility aircraft in both military and civilian livery. In the US Army Air Force it was the UC-43, in the US Navy the GB-1 and 2. In addition, it flew with 15 other air f orces.

Roden answered the call of many modelers to release a nice kit of the Staggerwing, finally supplanting the old AMT kit which is still available through Round 2. The AMT kit was a specific post war variant however, and required modification to backdate it. The Roden kit represents the most common D17S variant and while Roden provides different liveries/markings in its multiple releases, there were many more schemes not covered; plus Roden decals can be a challenge.

Thank you to Andrea Lindell of Specialty Press for providing a review copy of their new release, Vought F-8 Crusader, Development of the Navy’s First Supersonic Jet Fighter, by William D. Spidle. Specialty Press has sweetened the debut of this new book by providing an author-signed limited-edition of the book directly on their website or by calling 1-800-895-4385. As always, I appreciate all those in the IPMS Reviewer Corps, whose work is critical to sharing new and exciting modeling products with the world.

This tome appears to be Piotr Witkowski’s second book in English and it’s a follow up to Volume one of his Operational Market Garden Paratroopers that focused on uniforms, equipment and personal use items. The positive feedback he received from Volume 1 encouraged him to move fast on this volume to get it published. You can find the review on Volume I at the IPMS USA Review website. I’ve found two prior books in Polish: Polskie jednostki powietrzno-desantowe na zachodzie (Bellona, 2009) and a second edition of this book titled: Spadochroniarze Sosabowskiego : Dzieje polskich jednostekpowietrznodesantowych 1939-1945 (Bellona, 2012). Volume 3 is in preparation by Piotr Witkowski and will focus on Transports used in Operation Market Garden.

Hauler has been making photoetched sets in multiple scales including my favorite, 1/72^nd. This set is about as easy of a PE set as you can get. It contains 6 grills (4 of one style and 2 of another) and 15 manhole covers (5 each of 3 styles one of these is square). They literally are just cut from the fret and add to your diorama.

As such no instructions are needed but there actually was a set included with mine. Turns out it is for one of their Typhoon sets. Whoops.

I have been unable to track down what countries the manhole covers are from but pretty sure they are from Europe and should look good in a WWII setting. If anyone can find a location that fits please post the info.

All in all, a nice and easy to use accessory that will liven up that street scene.

Thanks to Hauler and IPMS/USA for the review kit.

Master Model of Poland produces small brass parts for detailing models, be they aircraft or ships. They have parts for aircraft in 1/32, 1/35, 1/48, 1/72, and 1/144, mostly pitot tubes, refueling probes and gun barrels.

These are 4 20mm gun barrels for Japanese WW2 fighters. I had a 1/144 Platz N1K2 “George” on the shelf, which I built for a review about 4 years ago. I selected it for the upgrade.

Removal and Replacement

Removal was a simple job. I used sprue cutters and cut the guns off the wing, as close as I could to the leading edge. The kit has fairings at the base of each gun, but I fixed that later. Once I got the plastic guns removed, I used a sanding stick to flatten the base of the kit fairings. This gave me a clean surface to drill into. The instructions call for a .4mm drill. Looking at my .4mm drill and the guns, I downgraded the drill to a .25mm. The hole was still just a little large, but .25mm is about the smallest drill I’ve got.

History

The Spitfire is perhaps one of the most famous fighters to emerge from World War II, combining performance, development potential, versatility, and beauty in one airframe. I cannot imagine a modeler who does not know the basic history of the type, so I won’t repeat it here. The Mk. VIII represented by this kit was an upgrade from earlier models, which gave improved performance. Developed from the Mk. VII, the Mk. VIII featured a 1710 HP Merlin 63 or 66 engine, and all were fitted with the Vokes tropical filter. While most had the standard elliptical wingtips, some had the extended wingtips for high altitude use. A few were also equipped with “bubble” canopies. Most Mk. VIIIs were used in the Middle East or with the RAAF in the Far East against the Japanese, where they were superior to every Japanese fighter encountered.