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Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$16.95

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) is well known for making replacement white metal landing gear for many, many subjects. This set replaces the main and nose landing gear for the AMK 1/48th scale Kfir C2/C7 kit from AMK. The set consists of seven well-made white metal parts; four are the main gear and three make up the nose gear. The main gear replaces kits parts C54/57 and E19. The nose gear replaces parts C17, 21, and 68.

To prepare the parts, I sand off a few small seam lines and the parts are ready. For the main gear, the assembly adds the two white metal parts together and then you complete the assembly with the plastic oleo from the kit.

Review Author
Rob Booth
Published on
Company
Werners Wings
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$5.00

Werner’s Wings is a Baltimore, MD based firm that offers decals and resin detail parts for scale modelers. Founder Floyd Werner has been around scale modeling for many years, and is one of the hobby’s leading authorities on US Army rotary wing aircraft (not just through modeling, but from years of very personal experience!), and WWII Luftwaffe fighters. A quick search of the IPMS Review or other modeling-related sites will yield plenty of background on his considerable modeling skills and knowledge.

Floyd’s passion for detail in modeling modern rotary aircraft subjects is evident in this release of resin antenna mounts to replicate the stand-off mounts used for the wire antenna array on Bell’s UH-1D in 48th scale. The subjects of these sets continue Werner’s Wings commitment to providing quality resin and metal detailing sets and decals for rotor-modeling interests.

Review Author
Rob Booth
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$16.95

Scale Aircraft Conversions has produced replacement gear for the Hasegawa/Italeri 1/48 scale Macchi C205 Veltro kits. The white metal replacements are a clean drop-in for the kit plastic parts. I have reviewed several of these replacement gear packages, and purchased many more on my own. I have always found them to be at least equal, and usually superior to the kit parts in detailing, with the added benefit of superior strength.

The supplied items in this issue include the two main gear strut and actuator assemblies, and two tail gear struts with the tail wheel molded in place (check your reference photos). Some other SAC packages include replacement main gear wheels, as well, but not the case here. You will need to use the kit wheels or other replacements for your build.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$6.00

Quickboost, which is part of Aires, is known for their wonderful and simple kit enhancements which are drop in or require slight surgery. This set is for the wonderful AMK 1/48th Kfir kit and is a replacement set of antennae. It consists of six resin parts on a small casting block which replace five of the kit parts. Parts 1,2 4 and 5 are listed as direct replacement while part 3 requires the removal of the molded-on kit part. All of the casting is superb and the parts are finer than the corresponding kit parts.

Going through the parts individually:

Review Author
Bill O'Malley
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$21.95

Scale Aircraft Conversions produces white metal replacement parts for kit details such as landing gear. This set provides metal landing gear, plow brake, upper & lower cable support struts, and outside wing cable supports for the WingNut Wings 1/32 Jeannin Stahltube plastic kit. These detail parts come in a 2 1/2”x 3 1/2”x 1” blister pack containing eight sprues with 12 parts. Parts include the main landing gear, plow brake, and the upper and lower struts and turnbuckles for the wing rigging cables.

Book Author(s)
Piotr Witkowski, Color by Andrzej Glinski
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$26.40

This tome appears to be Piotr Witkowski’s third book in English and it’s a follow up to Volume 2 of his Operational Market Garden Paratroopers that focused on small arms and specialized equipment used by 1st Independent Parachute Brigade. The positive feedback he received from Volume 1 and 2 encouraged him to get this volume published. You can find my reviews on Volume I and II at the IPMS USA Review website. I’ve found two prior books in Polish: Polskie jednostki powietrzno-desantowe na zachodzie (Bellona, 2009) and a second edition of this book titled: Spadochroniarze Sosabowskiego: Dzieje polskich jednostekpowietrznodesantowych 1939-1945 (Bellona, 2012).

Book Author(s)
Terrance McGovern, Edward C. Harris Illustrator: Adam Hook
Review Author
Mike Lamm
Published on
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$19.00

Osprey’s Fortress series is a well-established line of books covering a variety of fortresses around the world. The Fortress series of books started 15 years ago with the Japanese island defenses in World War II, and with this installment, Defense of Bermuda, the series is up to over 100 titles.

Book Author(s)
Mike Loades, Illustrator: Peter Dennis
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$20.00

Mike Loades is a respected author, broadcaster, director, and action arranger who has made numerous television appearances as a historical weapons expert and military historian. Mike founded the first horse archery club in California, the California Centaurs. You may have seen his work on the History Channel or on National Geographic. One of his recent projects was the movie, Assassin’s Creed, which ended up grossing over 241 million against a 125 million budget. He has several DVDs available: Archery: Its History and Forms (1995), and Going Medieval (2014). He is the author of Swords and Swordsmen (2010), The Longbow (2013) and The Composite Bow (2016).

Book Author(s)
Chris McNab Illustrator: Adam Hook
Review Author
Gino Dykstra
Published on
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$20.00

Does anyone who is into historical modeling not know of Thermopylae and the famous last stand of the 300 Spartans? Personally, I’ve always been fascinated by the Greek Hoplite and this period in history, although I will NOT be going into a review of the recent movie on this subject. Let it just be said that this battle and those that occurred around the same period determined, to a great degree, the world as it stands today.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Aires Hobby Models
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$8.50

The Ka-27/Ka-29 Helix helicopter family is a follow-on to the Ka-25 Hormone helicopter. Like the Ka-25, the Ka-27/29 has contra-rotating stacked rotors eliminating the need to a tail rotor to counter torque. Like most helicopters, the Helix’s cockpit is very visible and unfortunately, the seats included by most kit manufacturers do not bear any resemblance to those of the actual helicopter.

This set from Aires, part of its Quickboost line, seeks to remedy this by providing very nicely detailed seats with the harnesses. The set includes four seats, which allows you to outfit two kits as there are only two seats in the front cockpit of the Helix. The seats are not identical, they each have different configurations for the lap belts, as unless the helicopter is at an airshow, on the actual aircraft, the lap belts end up in lots of different configurations depending on how they are unbuckled and set or tossed aside.