Helion produces books on many aspects of Military History from the Late Medieval period through to the present day. Helion was established in 1996, and since then they have published almost 1,200 books, with 100 or more new titles coming out every year. The 'Africa@War' series covers African military history since 1945.

Peter Baxter is an author, amateur historian and heritage travel guide. Born in Kenya and educated in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), he has lived and traveled over much of southern and central Africa. Peter lives in Oregon, USA. His interests include British Imperial history in Africa and the East Africa campaign of the First World War in particular. He is the author of Pen and Sword's Gandhi, Smuts and Race in the British Empire. You can find out more at peterbaxterafrica.com

When I obtained the 1/48 Special Hobby Si204D for review, I knew I was going to need to see if anybody made pre-cut masks for it. It has a large canopy similar to that used on the Heinkel He111, so I didn’t relish the task of masking it, especially if I had to cut my own masks. Luckily, shortly after I received the kit a new list of Eduard items was distributed for review and the Siebel masks were on the list. I immediately requested them.

If you were ever a fan of the Saturday morning cowboy series back in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s, or enjoyed the classic Sam Peckinpaw movies, this figure should be fairly familiar to you. Labeled as “Pedro Melgoza, bounty hunter”, the beautiful illustration on the box cover bears an unmistakable resemblance to Tom Selleck. As I’ve discussed before, Masterbox is unique in the modeling world for illustrating the products BEFORE sculpting them, and I believe this is a good example.

On opening the box, you find both our bounty hunter figure as well as a very nicely done mount with two complete heads for some variety in the choice of poses. Sorry to say, ladies, but the figure within does NOT resemble Tom Selleck, but appears much more a typical Bandito figure to my eye. The figure assembles quickly, with only the setting of the shotgun across the shoulders requiring a little finagling. No putty was required.

This is a cast white metal conversion set for the Eduard, or actually any, 1/72 scale Fokker D.VII kit. The package I received contained four airfoil shaped spreader assemblies for the landing gear, and two sets each of the landing gear struts and tailskids.

Not having an Eduard kit available, I used an old Revell Fokker D.VII, and the unit fitted nicely. The spreader bar unit was a little roughly cast, but it was easy to sand it down to where is looked good. Not having an Eduard kit, I’m not sure why the unit needed replacement, as there isn’t really much to the gear, just the spreader and the two supporting “V” struts. The struts fit easily into the notches on the bar, but they need a little cleaning up, as there are two molding lines on each set of struts.

Eduard Models has expanded its Look line by releasing a set to enhance their own P-400 model.

This set of the Look line includes a pre-painted resin instrument panel and prepainted photoetch seatbelts, plus prepainted photoetch levers and such.

The instrument panel is provided in two resin parts and they are meant to be drop-in replacements for the original parts. They fit perfectly. You only have to remove them from the casting blocks and you are ready to go.

The prepainted PE is part of the STEEL line. I’ve been fortunate to review items of that line before and I knew I was in for a treat. Despite the STEEL name of if the PE is very easy to bend to final shape. You only have to remove them from the fret, bend them to shape and glue them in place (use CA).

As you can see in the pictures, the parts look amazing. Talk about a simple and fast way to improve the Look of your model!

Highly recommended.