Kagero has released books of various aircraft in the past. This is their 12th edition of the Mongraph Specials and focuses on the FW-190 short nosed variants. The beautifully hard bound book has over 250 pages of high quality paper. It has all the hallmarks of Kagero’s other books.

There are plenty of clear, large pictures throughout the book. There are also some exquisite color profiles that are an inspiration to any would be modeler or historian. On top of that there are some first rate line drawings in the book as well as separate 1/48 and 1/32nd scale fold out drawings for the FW-190A5 and A-8 that are absolutely gorgeous. There are 1/72nd scale drawings included in the book. Now that all sounds great, so lets see if the contents match the highlights.

SMS Seydlitz was a battlecruiser of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), built in Hamburg. She was ordered in 1910 and commissioned in May 1913, the fourth battlecruiser built for the High Seas Fleet. She was named after Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, a Prussian general during the reign of King Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' War. Seydlitz represented the culmination of the first generation of German battlecruisers, which had started with the Von der Tann in 1906 and continued with the pair of Moltke-class battlecruisers ordered in 1907 and 1908. Seydlitz featured several incremental improvements over the preceding designs, including a redesigned propulsion system and an improved armor layout. As with the rest of the German battlecruisers that survived the war, the ship was interned in Scapa Flow in 1918. The ship, along with the rest of the High Seas Fleet, was scuttled in June 1919, to prevent her seizure by the British Royal Navy.

Thank you to Phil and Bill for all that you do managing and providing review opportunities!

Recommended kit: Any 1/35 Academy AH-1Z

Reviewer’s Comments

This landing skid set from SAC is a direct replacement for the kit parts. The white metal casting is superb as is usual for SAC. The kit consists of five parts: two main skids, one tail skid, and two skid braces.

Instructions are not provided, but they are not required since the parts are intended to be direct replacements for the kit parts. The parts are very nicely detailed, and clean. There are no mold seams visible, and no sanding or filing was required.

Prior to painting it is recommended to wash the parts with a mild detergent solution to remove any remaining mold release. I would recommend using a gel-type of CA adhesive to bond the parts together.

The Tamiya Mosquito is a beautiful kit but it does have one drawback, it can’t be built into a two-stage version. The Airfix kit is the only way to get a two-stage Mosquito out of the box, but they are hard to find and not as easy to build as the Tamiya kit. A few other conversions have been done but they are long out of production. So if you want the build one of the high altitude variants, such as the FB Mk. IX, Mk. XVI, NF XV, or PR Mk.34 or any of the later variants you’ll need this resin set.

Packaged in a sturdy cardboard box with eight resin pieces, two upper engine nacelles, two lower nacelles and four exhaust stacks. Also included is a fret of photo etch to make the intake screens. The parts are protected in a resealable bag. The resin is light grey and absolutely flawless. Test fitting the resin upper and lower cowling proved that the fit was perfect. And that is without even removing the pour blocks.

The new engine was added to the F-16 beginning with the Block 30. This engine was the General Electric F110-GE engine. Two versions were used on the F-16, the GE-100 on the Block 30 and 40. The Block 50 fitted the GE-129 model. They are virtually identical externally. This is set for the Tamiya F-16 kit, in particular the Aggressor and CJ kit,

Packaged in a sturdy cardboard box are three high quality grey resin pieces which in themselves are packaged in a resealable plastic bag. There is a small instruction sheet that tells you what you need to replace. There are no blemishes anywhere on any of the resin pieces. The detail is phenomenal throughout.