Here’s another nifty little “add on” or “fix-it” for your 1/144th Spitfire. The envelope contains 18 main wheels for Spitfires. I had to look closely, but there are 3 different types of tires in the envelope. There are 6 with no tread, 6 with a tread that runs around the tire, and 6 with a diamond tread. When I said I looked closely, I had to use the headband magnifier to see the tread. But they are there.

As far as using these wheels, they’re slightly better in quality than the wheels in the newer Spitfire kits such as Eduard or Mark 1 so you may want to replace the kit items. But if you’re looking at one of the “older” kits (Crown/Revell/Academy), the Brengun wheels are far superior. And then there’s another need for wheels. The wheels are sometimes knocked off the landing gear, or they just get lost. These are the wheels you need.

Caracal Models is one of the leaders in aviation decals offered in 1/32, 1/48, 1/72 and 1/144 scale with many unique subjects never offered before now. The KC-10 is not a new subject, however it has been a long time since this subject has been available. With that being noted, older decals may not be reliable and the quality of printing is also in question.

David Doyle's latest book is one of the latest entries in the 'Legends of Warfare' series with entries in Ground, Naval, and Aviation. The first Ground book focused on the Panzerkampfwagen IV, the first Naval book was on the USS Yorktown (CV-5), and the first two Aviation books were are on the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk (#4) and Douglas TBD Devastator (#3). This tome is the ninth release in the Legends of Warfare - Ground series.

When I was around 10-11 years old, I got into a small-scale armor kick. The local shop carried Airfix kits and I built a lot of their kits at the time. The first time I built the M3 Half Track it was an MPC release in their Battle of the Bulge Historama kit.

Fast forward 45, cough, years later and Airfix is rereleasing many of their kits under their Vintage Classics range. The kit appears to be the exact same plastic first released in 1966 including the 1 Ton Trailer. The kit includes 54 parts molded in an OD plastic. There is a bit of flash but what would you expect from a set of molds almost older than me. The kit includes some nice detail, a driver and one of the nicest small scale .50 caliber machine guns. Decals are included for a M3A1 during Operation Overlord. More about them later. The color scheme is shown in full color in the instructions. Other than that change, the instructions look like they did when I first built it.

The Hawker Tempest Mk V was a follow-on fighter from the Typhoon. It proved to be a superb mid to low level fighter and ground attack aeroplane.

This is Eduard’s brand new mold of the Tempest and effectively puts their older (but still very acceptable) model, Cat 1169, out to pasture.

This is the ProfiPACK which includes color photo etch, masks for the canopy, wheels, lights and walkways, as well as a nice in register decal sheet and a high quality paper instruction book. The ProfiPACK provides the modeler with just about everything needed to build a very nice model out of the box. For this build review, I also used Eduard’s resin wheels, exhaust pipes, “Look” instrument panel, steel seat belts and gun bays.