ResKit is a Ukrainian manufacturer of high-quality aftermarket accessories for scale plastic model kits, specializing in finely detailed resin and 3D‑printed parts. Despite operating in a country affected by war, ResKit continues to design, produce, and deliver aftermarket parts from Ukraine, demonstrating resilience and dedication to both the hobby and its customers. ResKit.

ResKit has provided several resin detail sets for the ICM Tarhe and Sky Crane helicopters, including this landing gear set. The kit contains two main landing gear with weighted tires and the nose gear and tire. The parts are 3-D printed resin with brass pieces for the actual struts. Using brass for the axles and struts will greatly increase the strength of the landing gear assembly. Height of the landing gear can be adjusted depending on the load or whether the aircraft is airborne. I plan to hang ICM‘s fire tank on the helicopter so the additional strength will be helpful.

AMT’s Mr. Speed Funny Car includes parts to build a 1953 Studebaker funny car rear-engined dragster. This is not the same kit as the 2014 AMT Studebaker kit with “Mr. Speed” box-art. That earlier kit had a stock chassis included but no funny-car chassis. This new kit has only a funny-car chassis and can’t be built as a stock Studebaker. The box-art for the kit has no text over the image, so you could cut it out and display it as artwork. All the parts and decals are bagged to prevent loss or damage. The clear and chrome parts are bagged separately. The chrome parts have tissue paper between the trees to prevent scratching. There are a lot of optional and unused parts that you can save for use on other projects. The clear parts are provided in both clear and red versions and are sized for a stock roof or chopped roof. For tires, the builder has the option of assembling hard plastic parts or single-piece soft vinyl tires.

Eduard has graciously provided the IPMS Reviewer Corps with their new Limited Edition dual combo kit: Wilde Sau, Episode Three: Until the Fall of the Empire. Featuring the Fw 190A-8 and Fw 190D-9 kits in 1/48th scale.

This is Part 2 of this kit review, and it will focus on the Fw 190A-8 airplane build.

Part 1 of this review looked at the box contents.

In the Box

For the Fw 190A-8 kit, the first half of the instructions are dedicated to its assembly. It starts in the cockpit where Eduard provides smooth panel parts to allow the PE details to be glued directly to the plastic without having to first remove & sand away the raised detail. But there are options to use decals to overlay on top of the molded panels or you can paint it by hand.

Once the cockpit is finished it can be installed into the fuselage halves along with the engine front plate.

Double Xcellent Model puts together a great package when they release a decal set. I’ve used their F-15 JASDF set for stencils in the past and was excited to try out a full set of DXM decals. Right off the bat, the instructions impress. Clear and colorful, as well as easy to read. This was the first of two sets I have to review and what caught me off-guard at first was trying to find the decal numbers on the sheet, fortunately DXM provides a second sheet in the pack that has the decal numbers in large white circles on it to use as a reference. There are no miscellaneous numbers to clear off the decal paper when you place them in water this way. This is a totally different approach in the decal world, and as a modeler, I can appreciate that.

Valiant Wings has just released the 26^th volume in it’s Airframe and Miniature series, which is a much expanded and revised edition of the Beaufighter book published in 2018 (Volume 14).

This new edition consists of 264 pages, including over 200 photos (of operational as well as museum aircraft), scale line drawings, color profiles, several model builds, a set of 1/48 plans and more. The contents are printed on high-quality, semi-gloss pages, with heavier stock covers. This book follows a similar format to others in the series. There is a brief publisher’s note on the first page explaining the decision to cover this topic a second time, specifically mentioning that Volume 14 has been out of print for quite some years!

As I have come to expect from the Airframe and Miniature series, the ‘preface’ is an in-depth summary of the development and deployment of the Beaufighter, within the RAF as well as Commonwealth and other countries’ Air Forces.