Several months ago I had the pleasure of reviewing Iliad’s book, Colors of the Falcons, a thorough examination of camouflage schemes and colors used on Soviet aircraft during the Second World War. Since I rated this publication very highly, I was interested to see if their decals were as good. I was not disappointed.

The subject of this review is Iliad Design’s newly released 1/48 scale “Milestone Phantoms” decal set. As the title indicates these decals allow the modeler to finish a Phantom as one of several significant production aircraft. These include:

Editor's note: This build includes parts from Quickboost.net as noted below:

• B24 Liberator Oxygen Cylinders, P/N 72--319
• B24 Liberator Turbo-supercharger, P/N 72-307

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this model to SSGT M.G. Hobelman who served with the 376^thHeavy Bombardment Group based in San Pancrazio Italy. SSGT Hobelman flew 38 combat missions from September 21, 1944 to April 15, 1945 manning the nose turret of a B24J. Thanks to his son, a good friend of mine, I had the pleasure of meeting SSGT Hobelman and sharing conversation over breakfast about what he experienced during the war. Unfortunately, “Hobie,” as he was affectionately known passed away last year. I thought often of the stories he told me during this build and will never encounter the B24 in the same way as a result. Rest in Peace my friend.

Introduction

My thanks go out to MRC-Academy for providing this up-dated kit for review and to IPMS USA for letting me do the review. My apologies to Academy & IPMS for this review taking so long - I hate it when my job gets in the way of my hobbies but I had some issues at work for a while there.

In the Box

The box contains 7 gray and 1 clear sprues (including the new sprue "S" with many new detail parts), a nicely scaled, turned brass air data tube, instructions, a full-color (11.75" x 16.5") poster depicting painting and marking placement and a superb new decal sheet by Cartograf. There are about 287 parts but you won't use 70 of them so you'll have a good set of extra bits when you're done.

The instructions are very clear and well organized. There are still a couple typos along the way so pay attention (the lever arms that rotate the pylons when the wings sweep in the right wing in step 6 should be labeled #37 vs. # 36 as indicated.

The B-17 is one of my all-time favorite aircraft and with the new Revell kit out in 1/72nd scale I was very excited to get this sheet of decals to give me some additional options when I acquire the kit.

I have used SSI decals before and they have always performed well for me. This sheet is printed in perfect registration and gives full markings for two B-17Gs including stencils and stars and bars for both aircraft. The only flaw I can see is the nose art on both planes lacks detail.

The aircraft depicted are:

Alpha Precision Abrasives is a manufacturer of industrial abrasives. It also has selection of abrasive tools for the hobbyist. Master Detail is packaging a selection of Alpha Precision Abrasives products into an introductory package. The package includes

• 1/8-inch Sanding Files (100/180; 120/240 and 240/320 grit)
• 3 Plastic Sanding Needles (150, 240 and 320 grit)
• Micro Finish Cloth Abrasive Sheet (3200, 3600, 4000, 6000, 8000 and 12,000)
• Abrasive Cleaning Disk

The sanding files are really nice. They bend enough as to follow curved parts without damaging or deforming them, while still have enough ‘hardness’ as to get the sanding job done. You can clean them and re-use them several times (see below). They are color coded in each side for a different grid, however the 100/180 are both white, making difficult to know which grit is the one being used.