If you want to make life a little easier when masking and painting canopies and wheels, you may want to check out the line of masks produced by Eduard. This particular set is made for the Hobby Boss A-4E (kit 81764), and provides masks for the windscreen, canopy, and wheels/tires. The precut masks are easy to use, so modelers with a little experience placing items in exact locations will have no issues with this set.

After seeing the decals provided at the IPMS Nationals last year, I decided that I needed to add an A-4E Skyhawk to my stash, and being a relatively small plane, 1/48 scale seemed appropriate. Hobby Boss had recently released their kit of the E model, so it was an easy decision when I saw one on the Squadron table. My late father in law was a Naval Aviator, and he flew some A-4 missions in Vietnam, including Iron Hand, so this will a bit of a tribute to him once built.

The B-24 was produced in greater quantities than any other aircraft in WWII. The B-24D was the early version of the B-24 having served in all theaters of operation. The United States Navy, United States Army Air Force, and many allied air forces units employed the B-24D worldwide.

This B-24 kit from Minicraft features a new 'D' fuselage and greenhouse nose with high quality Cartograf decals. The markings are for two 8th Air Force aircraft that served with the U.S. Army Air Corp.

When you open the box you'll find thirty-eight light gray plastic bits with fourteen clear plastic parts. You won't be using all of them but you can build the model either in-flight or on the ground. If you choose to do the in-flight version (blade-less spinners and retracted landing gear) you'll need to supply your own stand or you can get one from Minicraft for that express purpose.

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) produces white metal replacement gear for a variety of popular model kits from a variety of manufacturers. The white metal replacements are normally a one-for-one replacement with the plastic parts provided with the kit. Some landing gear sets consist of the main gear only while others include the nose gear, tail gear and wheels. In some cases, inaccuracies in the original kit gear are corrected, but the mounting points remain identical to the factory parts to ensure ease of use. The quality of the parts is normally spot on, or even better than the kit parts, and since the replacement parts are made of white metal, they provide the additional benefit of improved strength.

Robert Forsyth, born in Berkshire, England, has studied the history and operations of the Luftwaffe since his school days. Based in East Sussex with his wife, he runs an aviation and military publishing business full-time. He has written articles for the magazines Aeroplane , Aviation News, FlyPast, and The Aviation Historian, and is a member of the Editorial Board of the latter publication. He is the author of several hard bound books, including: JV 44 – The Galland Circus (1996), Battle over Bavaria – The B-26 versus the German Jets (Classic, 1998), Mistel – German Composite Aircraft and Operations 1942-1945 (Classic, 2001), Messerschmitt Me 264 Amerikabomber (Classic, 2006, with Eddie Creek); He 162 Volksjäger (Classic, 2009, with Eddie Creek); Heinkel He 111 (Crecy, 2014); Junkers Ju 52 (Specialty Press. 2015, with Eddie Creek).

After having published someone else’s review on a Mikro Mir 1/350 submarine kit I was intrigued to build one for myself. After a quick review of the available models, I opted for the Whiskey III kit. I can say I’m very happy to have built my first ship model in over 40 years. The Whiskey Class of submarine was conceived in the late 1940’s with a design heavily influenced by the Russian analysis of a captured Type XXI U-Boat. During the 1950’s approximately 220 – 240 Whiskey class boats were built (Class I through V). Wikipedia reports that by the end of the cold war, all Whiskey class boats have been retired by the Soviet Navy.