Two Bobs Aviation Graphics is one of leaders in aviation decals with an impressive variety in 1/32, 1/48 and 1/72 scale. This latest release has very interesting subject of privately owned company that offers airborne adversary support (dissimilar aircraft) known as “Red Air”. With a fleet of over 50 aircraft, eleven airframes are McDonnel Douglas A-4 Skyhawks and the other six aircraft types range from a single Beech Baron to twenty seven MIG-21’s. This sheet, from my count, will allow you to make two of ten different aircraft.

Somewhat of a trend in the hobby industry of late has been certain manufacturers releasing detailed, stand alone models of ship components. Fujimi has a 1/200th scale kit of a main gun turret from the Yamato battleship, Meng released two 1/35th scale kits of Russian Naval vessel armaments: a 130mm gun turret and the Kastean Close-In Weapons System. While Naval armaments are fine, what if your modeling interests are aircraft? Fear not gentle reader, HK Models has come to the rescue.

HK Models is releasing a complete kit of the nose section from their 1/32nd scale Avro Lancaster. This 'Nose Art' kit features all the bits from the full-size model, leaving you with a detailed, standalone replica of the Lancaster's pilot, bomb aimer/forward gunner, flight engineer, navigator, and radio operator positions. (The other two crew members sat in the mid and aft sections of the fuselage.)

The Women’s Airforce Service Pilots organization was a unit during World War 2 in which women became trained pilots in order to test or ferry aircraft to war zones, the whole intent being to free more male pilots for combat roles. Formed from the Women’s Flying Training Detachment and the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, the WASPs merged these two into a single unit in 1942 and carried out their various duties until 1944. Despite their service, WASPs were accorded no military standing and did not receive any of the benefits accorded male members of the Army Air Corps. Thirty-eight members of the unit died while transporting military aircraft or cargo, towing targets for live anti-aircraft training, or performing any of a number of other high-risk training missions in the service of their country. In 1977, thirty-three years afterwards, the survivors were finally granted veteran status.

This 50-page reference document presents a nice pictorial history of the P-38H in the Pacific theater of WWII. While all but two of the photographs are black & white, this shouldn’t be a problem for modelers trying to duplicate the color scheme since all those shown were olive drab over gray.

This e-document allows a reader to navigate from a thumbnail list at the front or scroll through full-size photographs. The photos reveal the irregularities of the camo painting, the painted-on number designations, and general weather-beaten condition of the Lightnings in the Pacific. While the author admits the variable quality of the photos due to wartime limitations, there are some sharp, up-close ground and mid-air shots of the plane from various angles.

Aircraft and History

The F-35B is a single engine, single crew multi role fighter/attack aircraft that has stealth capabilities, supersonic speeds and the ability to land vertically. The F-35B is the first operational aircraft that is Short takeoff & vertical landing (STOVL capabilities. In 1993, a request to develop a new fighter/strike aircraft for the USAF, Navy, Marines and multi national air forces under the term of Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The JSF competition battle was between the Boeing X-32 and Martin X-35. In 2001, Lockheed Martin was the winner with the X-35 which will become the F-35 Lightning II. The F-35B became operational with the USMC 31 July 2015.