PJ Productions 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) LRF 4 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.

Specialty Press’ biography : “Col. Doug Barbier grew up to the sound of F-106s flying out of Selfridge AFB, MI, where a visit on Armed Forces Day 1962 began a lifelong interest in the jet. A U.S. Air Force Command Pilot with more than 3,500 flight hours, he flew the Lockheed T-33, the supersonic Northrop T-38, and logged more than 1,000 hours in the McDonnell F-4 Phantom II. Barbier finished his military career flying the F-16, spending many hours sitting Air Defense alert, and making three intercepts of Soviet Tu-95 Bears along the way. After retiring from the Air Force, he flew for a major airline for twenty years.

The Opel “Blitz” truck was produced from 1930 to 1975. It was used as a commercial vehicle, and when the Wehrmacht needed a reliable and fast truck, the Blitz was chosen. In 1937, the Nazis had Opel build a factory at Brandenburg, which turned out over 130,000 Blitzes, until the RAF stopped production in 1944 by bombing the plant.

This kit is the ambulance version of the Opel Blitz. The ambulance had a transportation box on the back to handle casualties.

The Kit

There are two sprues, along with a clear sheet for windows, and a decal sheet. One sprue is for the chassis and cab, the other is the ambulance box. No PE, no resin, no problem.

The model is fairly straightforward to build. There’s a frame section, the cab, the ambulance box, the wheels, and some detail parts. The kit is a reissue of the ESCI ambulance from the 1970s. The molds have been reworked, as there ‘s no flash, and the parts are pretty well molded.

Background

For the past couple of years, MiniArt has been producing some exquisite, super detailed kits of Soviet/Red Army armored vehicles from the Second World War and immediate post-war period. The company has decided to take various components of these kits, and repackage them as “Up Grade” sets for the kits of other model companies. In the case of the set under review, MiniArt has taken the running gear (road wheels, idler and drive wheel, plus tracks) from their T-44 tank kit, and reboxed them as T-34/85 Late Type components.

The L-29 Delfin was a jet-powered trainer airplane that was designed by the Aero Company of Czechoslovakia. An excellent kit of the Delfin has recently been released in 1/72 scale by AMK. Although this kit, in my opinion, is very good, our friends at Aires/Quickboost have found some areas where the accuracy of various parts can be improved.

This book is a condensed history of the Avro Lancaster. What would come to be the mainstay of Bomber Command has its lineage traced from the beginnings of the failed Manchester design into the most famous of Britain’s WWII bombers.

The book is broken down into five chapters plus an introduction. The chronology section lasts three pages and lists all important dates from the Air Ministry specification of July 1936 that lead to the Lancaster’s development through to the 1956 retirement of the Lanc and the 1963 retirement of its follow-on the Lincoln.

The design and development chapter begins not just with the Manchester but also discusses how the development of long range bombers had been held back since the Handley Page Heyford in favor of medium ranged twins. This section takes you through how its life started slowly and disappointingly with the Manchester to being a legend for the RAF.

The U.S.S. Excelsior has been a Star Trek favorite for quite some time now – one of the most elegant designs ever made for the Star Trek universe. I didn’t notice this at first, but the designer was strongly influenced by the 1930s Art Deco Streamline Modern style, which features rounded shapes with straight fluting – quite a retro look when you stop and think about it. I remember a friend of mine, upon first seeing the Excelsior in detail, quipped “This model isn’t so much a spaceship as a fashion statement.” When you look at the extensive use of piping and other fine details, it’s hard not to see his point.

AMT released a model of this lovely ship quite some time ago – almost 20 years, if recollection does not betray me. As a hard-core Star Trek fan and modeler I built this kit when it first came out, and still have it in my collection today.

I've always had a fascination for the Russian T-54/T-55 series and have been building models of it all my life, beginning with the ancient Tamiya T-55 from the 1960's. As each new incarnation came out, I leapt on it eagerly, including the Lindberg kit, the AMT/ERTL kit all the way to the latest Takom offering.

MiniArt has been expanding its armor stable dramatically lately, with the release of a number of kits on these ubiquitous vehicles, both with and without full interiors. The T54-1 marks the transition of Russian armor development from the the T-34 through the T-44 and rather looks like a transition, with a number of aspects shared with its predecessors.

Trumpeter continues to produce a wide range of interesting and wide ranging Russian subjects. While the box says that this is the Russian AT-S Tractor, in fact, this is a two-in-one kit. Also included with the prime mover is the Soviet ML-20 152 mm howitzer Mod 1937. As with most Trumpeter kits, the box is sturdy and the sprues are individually packaged and the more fragile parts are wrapped in foam. For the prime mover there are twelve sprues, including four for the individual track links, one sprue of transparent parts and a small PE fret. There are markings for three vehicles, Russian, Finnish, and the German Democratic Republic. For this build, I chose the Finnish markings. For the artillery piece, there are nine sprues, two PE frets, a set of rubber tires and a metal gun barrel. As with most recent Trumpeter models, the parts are well molded in grey plastic, though there is some fine flash and mold lines present on the parts which take some time to clean up.

This is a re-issue by Round2 of a kit first released a few years ago by AMT.

This is a kit of the BatBoat from the movie Batman Returns, and featured in the movie climax.

In the box is:

• 1 chrome sprue
• 3 x wing parts
• 1 black sprue
• 1 upper hull section
• 1 lower hull section
• 1 cardboard fold out backdrop (based on scene from the movie)
• 1 instruction booklet

All of the 18 parts are well molded and great detail, the only issue is the large number of ejector pin marks on the rear and side wing parts. The instruction booklet is easy to follow and well-illustrated.

Construction

Stage 1, 2 and 3 is the construction of the Batboat interior and installing it into the lower hull. The interior parts were painted and some shading/weathering added to make it look sharp. This was the only painting needed on this kit.

This is a nice resin & photoetch set that replaces the Vickers and Lewis machine guns in Eduard’s new SE.5a kit. The resin has better detail than the kit plastic parts and the Vickers gun is easier to install. Some of the resin and photoetch pieces are extremely small.

Background

The Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5a was armed with a single synchronized .303-inch Vickers machine gun mounted in the fuselage in front of the cockpit. Many versions also had an upper wing-mounted Lewis gun fitted on a Foster Mounting to allow the pilot to fire at overhead aircraft. Eduard’s newly released SE.5a kit includes both guns, which are replaced by the parts in this add-on package.

SE.5a Wolsely Viper

This is an excellent newly tooled kit from Edward, who continue to set the standard for the finest in model kits. This kit will appeal to less experienced modelers, who may not want to use the photoetch or install the plane’s rigging. More advanced modelers will be able to enjoy the detail provided by the photoetch and rigging. Either way, this builds into a beautiful model.

History

The Bf109G-5 and -6 fighters were produced in parallel and were pressurized and non-pressurized versions of the same fighter. The G-6 was most widely produced variant and remained in service till the end of the war. Erich Hartmann was probably the most famous pilot to fly the Bf 109 and is the highest scoring ace in the Luftwaffe.

The kit: Hasegawa has released versions of the G-6 or -14 at least 12 times and nothing has changed with this boxing other than the decals. The parts are crisply molded in grey with recessed detail and little to no flash. The clear parts typical Hasegawa quality and look nice. The resin figure is very nice but has a mold seam line down the middle of his face and back of his head…this will be a pain to clean up.

Dragon has recently released the Befehls (Command) version of the Panther Aufs. G. This kit is a fairly extensively equipped with many parts trees, clear, photoetch, and wire cables. Though externally identifiable at distance as a Panther, there are subtle details closeup that identify this as a special version of the venerable combat variant. Germany has a history of command versions of many of their combat vehicles, primarily equipped with extra radios and operators for long range and multi-command and control networks. This kit brings into the fold another variant of one of those vehicles.

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) offers an extensive range of replacement landing gear parts for a wide variety of kits. I have some experience using SAC items to replace kit parts and I’ve found that the SAC items add strength to the model without sacrificing any of the detail found on the original parts.

I tend to be a rather heavy-handed modeler and I have a history with WWI models which is self-made and not a reflection on the quality of the original kit. I’ve snapped wing struts, tail skids, and I’m especially rough on the undercarriage support structures. Knowing that I’ve “got a problem”, I have found that SAC gear replacement parts are a positive addition to my modeling effort.

This Side-by-Side review compares the original kit parts found in the WNW Sopwith Pup kit to the SAC #3211 replacement parts for that kit.

The Defiant is an interesting aircraft and until recently, a largely overlooked subject compared to the popular “mainstream” aircraft from WWII. It has been offered by various model companies like Classic Airframes and Airfix in 1/48 and 172 scale.

This British aircraft was originally intended as a day fighter, with the rear turret harking back to WWI designs that were quite successful in their day. During the early days of the Battle of Britain, the Defiant proved to be vulnerable to head on attacks after BF 109 pilots figured our it had no forward firing, wing mounted guns. The turret had limits to its travel and could not aim the guns low enough while firing forward. The aircraft was also hampered by the significant weight added by the four gun, powered turret, resulting in a less maneuverable platform. It was soon relegated to night fighting duties, where it excelled against the Luftwaffe attempts to bomb Britain at night.

DavidDoyleBooks.com (Schiffer Publishing) out of Memphis TN, is back again with another Legends of Warfare (Ground) book entitled Panzerkampfwagen IV – The Backbone of Germany’s WWII Tank Forces, by popular author David Doyle. Anyone familiar with armor modeling literature and research will recognize this authoritative combination, and like usual, this latest release won’t disappoint.

Looking across my personal bookshelf of maybe 200 titles, I can spot several of Mr. Doyle’s books, including Panzer II, 251 Halftrack Visual History and Tiger I In Action, and, of course, my beaten-to-death copy of German Military Vehicles, among others. If you’ve been building armor models for any length of time, you’re probably familiar with his work as well.

David Doyle’s latest book continues to expand on Squadron Signal’s long standing In Action series that initiated back in 1971. This is a completely updated and expanded edition over Squadron’s earlier Aircraft In Action number 75, a 50-pager on the Bell UH-1 Huey by Wayne Mutza that was published in 1986.

The North American Company’s P-51 is well – known for the massive aerial dogfights with the Luftwaffe during World War II. A lesser-known use of the P-51 was a strafing aircraft, shooting up targets of opportunity. This model depicts one of the many armament loads that P-51s used for strafing.

The kit comes with 125 pieces, with most molded from polystyrene. There are three parts molded in metal, and another 10 parts molded in a resin. Decals are included for two aircraft, one based in India, and the second based on Iwo Jima.

Overall, the fit of the basic P-51 kit parts is good. There are some deviations from the kit instructions that I would highly recommend, and the first is in Step 3. Hold off gluing part C34 (the headrest) until the exterior is finished and all antennas and other external details are installed, to include decals. Mine broke off while I was putting the decals on, and it had been getting in the way prior to my accidentally breaking it off.

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) continues to be the prolific leader in producing replacement landing gear in white metal. These products are convenient for many multiple reasons:

• Replace inherently weak landing gear (Pro-Modeler F-84G)
• Add strength to a model that has a lot of resin aftermarket
• Replace lost or damaged landing gear

While often their parts are just metal copies of the kit parts, SAC has also made alterations to improve the accuracy of their parts without compromising fit.

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

In the packet is:

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

Summary

This is a fantastic 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.

The part 32 handle needs something behind it to make it sit correctly on the door. There is some additional detail removal needed from kit part Aa17 on the top left corner to allow the PE to fit properly. You will also need to remove some details form the top sides of the fuselage to allow the installation of parts 38 and 43.

The sit of the Bf-109 places a lot of stress on the landing gear legs on the real airplane.

Eduard has released a set of brass landing gear in their Brassin range of aftermarket items. This simple set is packaged in a blister pack with foam protecting the four parts inside. There are two brass landing gear legs and two resin gear covers.

The brass legs are perfectly formed with just a little pour nub on the top of the strut that will need to be sanded down ever so slightly. The rest is beautiful detail. The purist of 109 freaks will say that this is only the earliest style of 109 landing gear strut, used on the F and Gs, or the Gustav up to the early versions of the G-6. If you are that much of a stickler for landing gear struts more power to you. You can use this set on any of the models that Eduard has released so far.

Packaged in the typical Brassin blister pack are seven pieces of perfect light grey resin and a single fret of photo etch.Instructions are included that show all the parts and how they are to be added.

The rudder, elevators, and ailerons with their mass weights are the resin pieces. The flight controls feature some stitching detail that is nicely done.

The modeler has to add the photo etch trim tabs to the control surfaces. Interestingly, the rudder and elevators have the trim tabs molded on so if you decide not to use the molded on trim tabs you have to remove them. The instructions are pretty straight-forward. The control surfaces are direct replacements for the kit parts.

If you want to articulate the surfaces, like I wanted to do, you will have to remove the molded on tabs and flush mount the control surfaces.

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 Lawrence of Arabia book I reviewed earlier for IPMS USA. This Journal is the sister of the US Journal, Over The Front.

This is a photoetch waist section set to for the Hong Kong Models B-17 E/F Kit number 01E04a. This set with two photoetch sheets one of which is colored. These sheets add a lot of detail to the waist gunner’s area of the fuselage in the B-17. These parts really add some great additional details to a great kit.

In the packet is:

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

Summary

This is another wonderful set for a kit that is great to begin with; these parts are an great details.

I did find one minor issue with the set - the parts 40, 8a, 8b, 11 and 66 show them being a symmetrical assembly but in fact there is only one location.

Please note that the gun barrels shown are from another aftermarket set I had.