The Master products are very fine and well done brass parts to update or repair your kit. In this case, it was an F-5A which I built several years ago, and the pitot tube was badly bent. Also, the guns were barely visible.

This set consists of a brass pitot, two 20mm guns, and a fairing which can replace the left gun.

The upgrade is pretty simple. You get a .3mm drill. Remove the kit pitot and drill a hole there. The guns require a little more work, as there isn’t a good place to start drilling. I began by using a #1 blade to dig the guns out, then drilled the .3 mm holes. Then I installed the pitot and the guns. I had to use a little filler under the guns to get them looking good.

I painted the area with the same gray I used to paint the model, then highlighted the guns. I used Testors “Burnt Metal” for these, as I find gun metal to be too dark.

And the project was done. Looks good.

Launched on the last day in April, 1919, and commissioned just over three years later, on June 3, 1920, this sixth vessel to carry the name Tennessee was the name ship of her class (which included her sister, USS California) and the last US battleship to carry 14” guns. In this Naval edition of his extensive “Legends of Warfare” series, author David Doyle provides another extensively illustrated history of this famous warship. While each chapter - covering Construction; Launching, Fitting Out and Commissioning; To War (with subsequent descriptions of her collision with USS California and participation in the action in Surigao Straight); and The End of the Line - includes a brief introductory written description, the bulk of the written information comes as captions to the hundreds of photos (the vast majority in sharp black & white, with four color photos of her following decommissioning).

Osprey Publishing just released a new book devoted to the Escort Carriers under British Flag during World War 2. Still this book has a few paragraphs devoted to the first two Escort Carriers under Dutch Flag. They had (Dutch) Fleet Air Arm Flights detached to them, under operational control of the British, so I think they count as ‘British’.

This book is relatively short at 48 pages but don’t let the relatively small thickness of the book fool you. The book is packed with information. It clearly describes the need for air cover for convoys and how out of necessity many merchant ships were converted to operate as a ‘proof of concept’. Once the value of the Escort Carrier was proven, the larger US industrial capacity provided the vast majority of the Escort Carriers under British Flag.

The book is broken down in the following sections.

This is the 5^th of the MMP Single series. This book is for the modeler who is going to build this aircraft. There’s no real text, other than the photo captions but there’s a bunch of good information to help build and detail a MiG-17F.

The first 5 pages are line drawings in 1/72 and 1/48 scale. Then 4 pages of detail drawings of canopy, landing gear, instrument panel, and aircraft construction detail.

There follows 8 pages of black/white photos of aircraft details and in service. Finally, 3 pages of color photos, and a large 3-view of a Lim-5 in full color which takes up the last 3 pages.

The photos give a very good idea of what the aircraft looked like when in service, and the color photos are wonderful in that they give good color info on the cockpit interior.

Overall Evaluation: Well recommended. If you’re going to build one of these, this is a low-cost option to get the detail and info you need to do a well-detailed model.

All Phantom Fans have heard of the famous VF-154 Black Knights. This decal set from AOA provides an excellent set of four markings for the F-4J during the 1970’s. This sheet covers one Navy fighter squadron - VF-154 Black Knights - when they operated the F-4J Phantom in the 1970's. From the AOA website:

Marking Options Included:

1. USS Ranger [Vietnam] (1970-71) - standard scheme
2. USS Ranger [Vietnam] (1972-73) - CAG & standard scheme
3. NAS Miramar (1977-78) - CAG scheme

AOA states that there are markings for the centerline fuel tank for the 1972+ period. You will notice that the fuel tank is quite visible on the illustrations of the F-4J provided by AOA in the packaging.