The Su-33 Flanker D is an all-weather-carrier based air defense fighter based on the Su-27. The airplane had a production run of 24 units.

Hasegawa has produced a kit of this interesting aircraft for modelers. As usual, Quickboost has added several items to improve the accuracy of the basic Su-33 Flanker D kit.

The first part is a correct nose cone. The attached photo shows the Quickboost part compared to an Su-27 from my collection. The new cone is the correct shape for the model and is interchangeable with the kit part. It is molded in cream colored resin. It is smooth, seamless and bubble-free.

I highly recommend this product if you want a really superior-looking model. Since this part is interchangeable with the kit parts, it can be recommended for all levels of modelers.

Attaching the wings. The lower wings were first and to ensure everything was in alignment, I cleaned the mating surfaces of paint, did a test fit, and applied the Gunze liquid cement. Getting everything properly lined up, I taped the wings down to the work surface to dry. Don’t do this.

Having painted all of the wing and cabane struts with Tamiya tan acrylic, and after that was dry using the basic Wingnut Wings technique for replicating wood that is found on their website, I applied burnt sienna oil paint with a sponge, then removed a great deal of that with a stiff bristled chisel brush to get in some wood grain effects. These have to dry for at least a couple of days, if not more, depending on your locale’s environmental conditions. I suspect there is a liquid agent that would speed up the drying time of oil paint and I’m going to look into this.

Hasegawa’s Voyager is the 2nd in a series of “Science World” kits. The 1st offering in this series is the 1/72 Manned Research Submersible Shinkai 6500, an intriguing kit in its own right. For those who enjoy “real space” subjects, the release of the Voyager is a stroke of luck.

NASA launched two spacecraft during the Voyager program, known as Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. The actual Voyagers were almost identical, and that being the case this model can be said to represent either vehicle.

At the time of this writing, Voyager is 18,169,754,598 KM from the Earth. In the time it took to type these two sentences Voyager extended that distance to 18,169,757,539 KM. I find that stunning!

Tracing its origins back to a set of 1950 requirements for a replacement for the M38 family of vehicles of World War II “Jeep” descent, the M151 Military Utility Tactical Truck (MUTT) became the primary ¼-ton tactical vehicle of the United States Armed Forces until the advent of the HUMMWV in the mid-1980’s.

In the course of 80 pages packed with 220 photos – mostly color – and a handful of line drawings, author David Doyle captures the genesis and service life of this legendary military vehicle. Although “In Action” in name, plenty of detail photos and narrative are provided of the vehicle in various phases of development, assembly and maintenance – a modeler’s treasure chest!

Operational photographs and narrative capture the MUTT’s service in numerous configurations, conflicts, and theaters of operation, including Vietnam, NATO and PACOM exercises, Beirut, Grenada, and others.

History

The T-34 tank series proved to be quite a nasty surprise for the Germans after their invasion of Russia in June of 1941, and eventually influenced the design of future German armored vehicles. So impressed were they with its capabilities, the Germans actually considered building their own version of the T-34. The Russians built the T-34 in several factories during the war, many of which needed to be relocated to avoid capture by the advancing German armies. Maintaining commonality in the vehicle became a challenge. As with most military vehicles, actual combat revealed the need for changes and improvements in the base design. The T-34 was no exception. Initially, the factories focused their efforts on supplying the needs of the military without attempting to include too many improvements in the T-34. Nonetheless, improvements were made.