Dariusz Karnas is a skilled modeller and amateur aviation historian. He lives in Przemyśl, Poland. He has authored or contributed colour plates and / or scale drawings for over one hundred publications. These include MMP’s Polish Wings, Scale Plans, and Inside series as well as books in the MMP Yellow series: Fieseler 156 Storch 1938-1945 (2012) and Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-15 (2004). You can find Dariusz Karnas on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/people/Dariusz-Karnas/100008987326348 .

This is the third volume of the “Inside” series of books featuring the instrument panels of various Polish WWII aircraft. MMP Books previously released Vol 1 which covered the Bf-109F-4, Bf-110E, Fi-156 Storch, Fw-190A-3, Hs-123, and the Ju-88A-4. Volume 2 featured the Bf-109E, Me-262A, Ju-87A, He-111, Hs-126 and the Do-17.

Fly Model is a new company to me, but you’ll probably hear from them more in the future. They offer a number of interesting and off-beat models in all the popular scales. They have a 1/32 Hurricane Mk I, a 1/32 Westland Wessex, a 1/48 BAC Jet Provost, three different 1/72 Messerschmitt Bf-108s, and about 25 different 1/144 DC-9s. This list only scratches the surface. You might want to look at their web site. They have an interesting resin kit of an “Abstosswagen” in 1/35. It took me some looking, but it’s a railroad flat car for hauling tanks. Never heard of that before!

The DC-9-50 Kit

The kit comes in a pretty plain black box labeled DC-9-10/20/30/40/50 with a sticker which tells you which version of the DC-9 and which markings are included.

History and Facts

T-90MS is a modernized version of the T-90 main battle tank (MBT) built by Uralvagonzavod. The tank is being proposed for the Russian Army and potential export customers. The tank was first demonstrated during the Russian Expo Arms in Nizhny Tagil in September 2011. The capabilities of the T-90MS were also exhibited at DEFEXPO 2012 in New Delhi, India, as well as IDEX 2013 in Abu-Dhabi, UAE. The T-90MS tank will deliver enhanced combat capabilities. The tank offers superior fire power and protection than that of its predecessor.

Often, the wheels in modern jet kits are either too thin or too thick to be accurate representations of the real thing. Other times they just lack detail or just do not look right and we have to look to the aftermarket for replacements.

This set from RES-IM provides a very nicely molded set of tires for the MiG-21 Fishbed. The set does not state whether or not it is for early or late versions of the MiG-21 and I have not dug out my Aerofax book on the MiG-21 to see if there are any differences, so I don’t know for sure, but I can say they are a big improvement over the kit tires of my Fujimi MiG-21R kit tires as shown in the photos. The set consists of two main wheels and one nose wheel. The tires are crisply molded with outstanding hub detail that really pops out with paint a wash.

Thanks to Ross at SAC for sending us improved metal landing gear for the massive Boeing 777, and thanks also to IPMS USA leadership for sending it to me….

This is ‘du rigeur’ SAC white metal upgrade to the basic kit plastic! The set consists of 9 parts: Two main struts, two strut retraction cylinders, the nose gear, retraction arm, and a drag brace, and two centering and leveling cylinder assemblies for the main trucks.

The landing gear on the 777 is a monster in real life; it has six wheel/tire assemblies on each wing, and is quite a piece of kit for supporting this highly-successful airliner and cargo hauler. On the kit, it makes sense to have similar strength. For 1/144 scale, it’s a big model. Zvezda’s plastic is pretty strong, but the SAC gear makes it better…