The Mil Mi Hind is an awesome and feared gunship/attack/transport helicopter. Its first flight was in September 1969 and introduced into service in 1972. It is still operating today.

Master Models is a Polish company that specializes in producing some of the finest turned brass and resin aftermarket parts I have seen!

This resin/brass set can be used on any 1/72 scale Hind D/E, but I have the Hasegawa kit to compare it to. While the gun and DUAS probe straight from the kit is very good, the detail on the Master Model set has to be seen to be believed! In this 1/72 scale, I needed a magnifier to fully appreciate the work that has gone into making these parts.

The CBU-87 was developed on behalf of the US Air Force and became operational in the mid-1980’s replacing earlier cluster bomb munitions. The CBU-87 is designed to be a multi-purpose weapon effective against armor, soft-skinned vehicles and troops.

Eduard’s set consists of twelve resin parts, 6 canister bodies and 6 tail units. The hardest part of the whole build is cutting the parts from the casting blocks. Despite my best efforts, only about half of my cuts were straight, resulting in the need for some careful aligning of canisters and tail units in order to keep them properly lined up and then filling the resulting gaps with filler or Mr. Surfacer, depending on the size of the gaps.

Thankfully the units are overall Olive Drab, which as a dark color helps to hide some of the seams and miss-cuts.

Twobobs always makes great decals and when this scheme popped up on the review list and included and arctic scheme aggressor, I knew I wanted to review it and build and F-16 in those colors. Inside the package are markings for two 1/48th scale F-16’s from 57th Wing at Nellis AFB. This group continues making aggressor schemes to mimic the newest schemes from our potential adversaries. In this case, the two schemes involved are the Arctic scheme with light gray/medium gray/very dark gray in bands around the jet for the first scheme and the second is the splinter scheme in blues and gray. Both jets are really nice looking but I wanted to focus on the Arctic bandit scheme.

With the recent releases of the special edition F-104 kits from Eduard in 1/48 using Hasegawa plastic, Eduard has released the F-104 C2 ejection seat as a separate kit. The Lockheed C2 ejection seat was the most commonly used ejection seat for the F-104 in US service. It is a downward firing rocket propelled ejection seat.

This seat set is very simple. It contains the main seat frame, two seat options, rails, a small photoetch set and a small decal set. As this is a drop in replacement seat for the kit seat the assembly is very straight forward. Everything in the kit replaces the equivalently parts in the F-104 kit. The first step in the assembly is to remove the three large resin parts from the casting blocks, using a razor saw for this step. If you are careful minimal clean up will be needed. After clean up, wash the parts to remove the mold release agent that is often on resin parts.

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.

The pitot part is a very fine piece of brass. The piece is much finer than the kit part.

I didn’t have a 1/144 Hunter on the shelf, so this review required that I build the Revell Hunter. As long as I’m building it, I may as well do it as part of my “Suez 1956” project. That’s why the Hunter has those red and yellow stripes, negating any camouflage effect.

Pitot Installation

Once the kit was almost finished, I got out the Master Model pitot and took the pictures. It was an easy installation. Revell gives you a little notch at the wing tip, and the CA provides a bit of filler. I then painted the pitot silver. No drilling, just a bit of CA and accelerator.

Overall Evaluation

Highly recommended.

Eduard has released a full line of Hellcats in 1/48 scale, covering from the early -3, to the late -5, including night fighter versions and even Royal Navy service markings. This particular boxing is the Weekend edition of the -5(N), with neither mask nor photoetch, but with two options for decals and a small number of resin parts to make the conversion to “night fighter”.

When I opened the box I found a total of 5 sprues (one clear) and 3 small resin casting for details like radio-altimeter, exhausts, radar housing for the starboard wing and cannons with nicely casted flash dampers. FYI: the nightfighter version of the Hellcat was capable of carrying a 20 mm cannon.

A note on the sprues: one of them –the fuselage one- was molded in tan, while the rest of the sprues were molded in blue-gray. And there were two full engine cowlings, but no indication of the second cowling in the instructions. I was a bit puzzled by the different plastic colors and two cowlings.

The Falanga 9M17P Flite (NATO reporting name of AT-2 Swatter) is a radio controlled anti-tank missile developed by the Soviet Union. It was one of the standard weapons fit of the Hind A and Hind D helicopter gunships used in the Soviet Union, many Eastern Europe countries and others that operated the Hind A and Hind D helicopters. The missiles were normally mounted in pairs on each side of the helicopter. The launch rails usually mounted at bottom of the end plates on the Hind’s stub wings. The missiles were also mounted on several types of armored personnel carrier of the BRDM series.

This is a photoetch Interior set to for the Hong Kong Models B-17 E/F Kit number 01E04a. This set with two photoetch sheets one is colored and adds a lot of needed detail to the Nose compartment of the B-17. These parts really add some great additional details to an great kit.

In the packet is:

• 1 colored photoetch sheet
• 1 photoetch sheet
• 1 instruction sheet

Summary

This is a fantastic set for the set for a kit that is great to begin with, these parts are an awesome addition.

I did find a few minor issues with the set and also with the main kit instructions;

Thank you to the Eduard Company for sending this masking accessory for review, it is always a pleasure to see what your new innovations bring to the scale modeling world. Thank you also to the IPMS Reviewer Corps staff members who do the hard work in getting us modeling products to review, the reviews posted, and the news spread to the world.

The 3 x 2.5 inch masking sheet arrived in excellent shape in a sealed plastic package with the distinctive Eduard knight logo. The yellow paper masking material is 3 mils thick with perfectly-cut mask outlines. The backing was not cut through at all, and none of the backing came up with the masks. A color instruction sheet is included in the package, and Eduard also has the same instruction sheet available for download on the product page. I really appreciate having the electronic PDF format to mark up on my computer, not to mention the ability to easily enlarge for my aging eyeballs.

Thank you to the Eduard Company for sending this detail set for review, it is always a pleasure to see what your new products bring to the scale modeling world. Thank you also to the IPMS Reviewer Corps staff members who do the hard work in getting us modeling products to review, the reviews posted, and the news spread to the world.

The photoetch fret arrived in excellent shape in a sealed plastic package with the distinctive Eduard knight logo. The fret is 1 3/8 x 7/8 inches (34 x 23 mm) on polished metal with color-etched laminated details. Lap and shoulder belts are included, along with pads and buckle latches. A red “time-to-go” face curtain handle is provided to top off the seat. Eduard shaded the colors very nicely on the parts, giving them a sense of depth and wear. The PE metal folds well.

Thanks to Ross at SAC for sending us improved metal landing gear for the new 1/72 Airfix Victor, and thanks also to IPMS USA leadership for sending it to me….

Another of SAC’s expansive line of white metal upgrades to the basic kit plastic! The set consists of 17 parts: Two duplicate sets of main struts and nose gear, and bomb bay door actuators. The bomb bay actuators were not used in this build but may come in handy if they ever release this kit with the free-falling “dumb” bomb load to show off in the cavernous bomb bay.

This set is another of Eduard’s new “Steel” seatbelt line. The set is advertised as being for World War II Luftwaffe fighters, but the fret is etched “Bf 109” and “Fw 190”, so it appears the set is intended for just these two aircraft. However, in looking at photographs of belts in other Luftwaffe fighters, I think they could be used for other aircraft as well.

The set includes four sets of lap-belts and shoulder harnesses, two for the Bf 109 and two for the FW 190. In looking at the belts closely, about the only difference I can see is the upper attachment point for the shoulder harnesses. As I did not have either a Bf 109 or a Fw 190 underway, I installed the Bf 109 set in a Hasegawa Me 262 and the Fw 190 in a Ta 152H that have been in the bench queens pile for a while.

PJ Production is a Belgian firm that specializes in the creation and production of resin scale models and accessories aimed at modelers of military aircraft kits and aviation-related dioramas in 1/72nd, 1/48th and 1/32nd scale. Their lines include fine and accurately detailed cast resin replacement and supplemental parts for model kits in the most commonly produced scales.

PJ Productions has produced a resin JL 100R rocket launcher for use with aircraft armed with such types. An out-of-box evaluation (see photos) indicates two reproductions of the French-manufactured weapons that provide a realistic scale-detailed assembly fro mounting to your kit’s pylons. The panel detailing is extremely fine, with fore and end caps cast separately.

The amazing Tamiya Tomcat has yet another aftermarket item to dress it up: Early wheels fro Eduard.

The Eduard Brassin set for the F-14A Tomcat includes 8 resin parts and a sheet of paint masks.

The instructions are simple enough, as this is a fairly easy set to build (and illustrate). The 4 tires are molded onto pour plugs which make painting the wheels easy. The first step is to paint the nose gear and main hubs white. After a bit, one can mask off the nose gear hubs with the masks provided. The mask sheet gives you 8 masks for the wheels, but only the 4 for the nose gear are to be used. If you save them, you can reuse them on the kit gear and have masks for the main gear.

Once the masks are in place, then use your favorite tire color to paint the tires blacks.

PJ Production is a Belgian firm that specializes in the creation and production of resin scale models and accessories aimed at modelers of military aircraft kits and aviation-related dioramas in 1/72nd, 1/48th and 1/32nd scale. Their lines include fine and accurately detailed cast resin replacement and supplemental parts for model kits in the most commonly produced scales.

PJ Productions has produced a resin set of two (2) LAU-32 rocket launchers for use with aircraft armed with such types. An out-of-box evaluation (see photos) indicates two reproductions of the French-manufactured weapons and options for either CES 3 or ADP 2 pylons that provide a realistic scale-detailed assembly for mounting to your kit. The panel detailing is extremely fine, with fore and end caps cast separately.

Andy Evans is currently the Group Editor for the SAM magazines Scale Military Modeller International and Model Aircraft Monthly. Andy has authored at least 12 books, including Crowood’s Bae/McDonnell Douglas Harrier (1998), Crowood’s Panavia Tornado (1999), Cassell’s Combat Search & Rescue (1999)Warpaint Books’ Sepecat Jaguar (2006), SAM’s The British Aerospace Sea Harrier (2007), SAM’s The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II Part 1 (2007), Dalrymple & Verdun’s The Nimrod (2007), SAM’s The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II Part 2 (2008), SAM’s The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II Part 3 (2008), SAM’s The Grumman F-14 Tomcat (2008), SAM’s The Bae (Hawker Siddeley) RAF Harrier (2010).

Thank you to the Hauler Brengun Company for sending this detail set for review, it is always a pleasure to see what your new products bring to the scale modeling world. Thank you also to the IPMS Reviewer Corps staff members who do the hard work in getting us modeling products to review, the reviews posted, and the news spread to the world.

This set provides a highly detailed resin and photoetch radiator to replace the standard kit part in Eduard's newly released SE.5a Wolsey Viper aircraft kit. The radiator is a beautiful little assembly that looks fantastic on the aircraft model!

The Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5a was an improved version of the SE.5 and was one of the fastest fighters of WWI. The SE.5a aircraft was originally produced with a 200 HP Hispano-Suiza 8B engine that proved unreliable, and was quickly replaced with the 200 HP Wolsely Viper engine.

This Eduard Brassin set includes resin and photoetch parts to replace the kit supplied radiator in the Eduard Wolsey Viper version of the SE.5a.

The basic Mk.82 500 pound bomb has been used in numerous applications, ranging from a simple “iron” bomb, up to “smart” bombs. This resin set from Eduard is a version of the Mk. 82 bomb called a “snake eye” that used fins that opened like petals to slow the speed of the bomb dramatically.

The kit comes with six basic Mk. 82 bomb shapes (what is known as the bomb core), six inert nosepieces, six fuse nosepieces, and six extended nosepieces, also known as “daisy cutters”. Another option is to not use any fuse nose, representing a bomb that has yet to be fused.

There are 30 resin parts to make up these well-detailed bombs. After gluing together the body and the fins (parts R8 and R10), you select which fuse to use on the bombs (if any). I chose to use the extended fuse (parts R3) as it gives a unique look to the bomb.

Product provided by: Piotr, of Master details

To the Master Model metalworker of Poland, Piotr; Thanks again for sending IPMS USA another of your line of turned metal Pitot tubes, and thanks also to IPMS USA leadership for sending it on to me to review.

This is a much improved upgrade to the kit plastic. Consisting of 2 metal parts directly replacing the kit pitot probe, this is an easy addition to improve the longevity of your kits’ appearance, and it has a GREAT instruction sheet!

The Churchill Mk. IV infantry tank was the most produced version of the Churchill. It was used as a basis for a number of special models including the Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE), a combat engineer vehicle designed for destroying enemy fortifications. After the failure of the Dieppe landings, it was realized that there needed to be a way to effectively handle enemy defensive fortifications during an amphibious landing. The AVRE was developed by the Canadians and saw its first action supporting the landings on D-Day. The normal gun on the Mk. IV was replaced with a Petard 290mm spigot mortar that fired a 40lb round. A team of five combat engineers crewed the vehicle with a driver selected from the Armoured corps. The vehicle was very successful and was used until the end of the war.

PlusModel was established in 1990 in the Czech Republic. Their product range is primarily made up of 1/35th scale resin kits, conversion sets, and accessories which are vacuum cast from polyurethane resin.

A new addition to their line is a set of resin FFAR Rockets for any 1/72 Hawker Hurricane kit. The rocket assembly is a two-piece assembly of individual rockets and launch rails which, when assembled, attach to the supplied mounting plate, or to the kits’ underwing mounting points if appropriate.

The pictorial PlusModel instructions are straight forward. Remove the parts from their resin sprues. Use care with the rocket fins, as they are fragile. Clean up any flash or casting seam lines. I suggest painting before assembly. Once painted to match your references, use CA glue to attach the rockets to the rails. There is a groove on the underside to assist you in lining things up. When set, glue to the supplied plate, or or to the underside of the kit wing.

The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-Royce Avon turbojet engine and the swept wing, and was the first jet-powered aircraft produced by Hawker to be procured by the RAF. On 7 September 1953, the modified first prototype broke the world air speed record for jet-powered aircraft, achieving a speed of 727.63 mph (1,171.01 km/h; 632.29 kn).

Fly Models is quickly making a name for itself in the 1/32 world by making high quality, short run kits. Their new Hawker Hurricane series continues this trend. The version I am reviewing is the Mk.1 with Tropical Modifications. This kit is a “multimedia” kit as it has resin and photo etch parts. Both of which are top notch.

One of the latest releases from the folks at Hasegawa is a re-release of the waterline Type VIIC and IXC U-Boats in a limited edition form that includes photoetch parts and decals for the markings of four “Aces”. The kit includes four submarines in all, two of each type, as well as the bow and stern sections of two sinking merchant ships. Basic assembly is quick and easy, but installation of the photoetch railings requires removing the kit’s plastic representations and forming the metal replacement parts, which could challenge less experienced modelers. I would still highly recommend this kit to those interested in adding some small U-Boats to their collection.