The Armstong Whitworth Whiley was a British twin-engined bomber that was in service at the start of WW2 and was the first to drop bombs on a German-held territory. Although it was slow and could only reach 15,000 feet loaded, it was a significant contributor at the beginning of the war.

The kit comes molded in a light gray plastic that is somewhat soft, but has a sturdy box. Looking into the box one sees that the elevators and rudders come as separate pieces, but the ailerons are molded to the wing. The tires have the flattened look and there are some sink marks in the bomb bay doors. Not knowing much about this plane, I followed directions and found that part D.32 did not fit well. It needed to be cut in half to allow it to fit in place.

This is a wonderful kit that I enjoyed building. The model has nice detail, great fit of the parts, and makes a fantastic little model of a unique military vehicle. It’s very small, with some finely cast prices, so experience with small parts will be helpful. Thunder Model is a new Chinese model maker and this is their first release. The kit was released in September 2016, and will be followed by a loader version of the same tractor.

During World War II the Case tractor company produced more than 1.3 million howitzer shells, 200 sets of bomber aircraft wings, and 20,000 specialized war tractors and engines. From 1941 to 1945 the factory built over 15,000 special military tractors in roughly 40 variants, and over 4,000 tractor engines for the U.S. Army and the Allies were produced. The VA series of tractors was introduced in 1942 and continued in civilian production through 1956.

To those who model Soviet era and modern Russian aircraft there has been a welcome proliferation of weapons which have emerged on the market, so we have something to hang on aircraft models other than rocket launchers and dumb bombs. Unlike the west, the Soviet and now Russian military is not known for the use of smart ordnance; rare were the pictures of them fitted. But a wide range of smart weapons exist in the Russian inventory for specialized missions and the pictures coming from Syria show smart weapons being used.

A new manufacturer from Russia has come on the scene to offer perhaps the widest range of munitions than we have seen so far on the market – Advanced Modeling (AM). These are multi-media kits cleanly cast in gray, durable resin; the detail is superb.

Tamiya has long offered a wide range of acrylic paints and acrylic thinners. Recently I experimented with Tamiya’s Lacquer Thinner, item # 87077. As a rule, I tend to use the paint thinner produced by the same company that produced the paint being used.

I found that the Tamiya lacquer thinner worked very well, indeed, although its use is different than the acrylic thinner I’m used to using. Do not let the fact that it is a Lacquer thinner dissuade you from using it with your standard Tamiya acrylics. It works just fine.

The lacquer thinner is noticeably “stronger” than the acrylic thinner, both in how it interacts with Tamiya acrylics and how it smells. And it should be said here that if you can smell the paint you are airbrushing then you should wear a mask. Also, users are strongly advised not to have an open flame nearby as lacquer is combustible.

Recently I was given the opportunity by IPMS USA to review Aires Focke Wulf Fw 190F-8 Gun Cover for the 1/32 Revell Focke Wulf Fw 190F-8 kit. One of the first things to notice with this product is the excellent presentation of the packaging with the sealed flap on the back of package to allow for easy access to parts.

Upon removal of the resin gun cover you will notice the great detail that we have come to expect from Aires QB products. The molding on the gun cover is excellent and it comes off of the resin block with little effort along with the help of a razor saw.

Even though there is a separate gun cover in the kit, this cover is an addition to this kit, when looking at the side by side comparison you will notice that the Aires offering has a lot more underside detail and more defined lines and rivet detail on the top surface. If you are going to take the extra time to detail and open up the gun bay for display you will want this cover.