Background

On November 27, 1944 a 21-year-old Captain named Leonard “Kit” Carson was leading a flight of Mustangs on a mission to strafe oil reserve stores at Leipzig. As they approached the area of Magdeburg, Germany a large group of 50-75 Fw190s was spotted. The squadron dropped their long-range tanks and turned to attack the Focke Wulfs head on. In a series of turning, diving and climbing dogfights Carson managed to down five of them. By wars end, then Major Carson would fly 115 combat missions and score 18 ½ aerial kills with an overall score of 23 with ground kills included. Carson flew four different Mustangs called “Nooky Booky” including P-51K 411622 depicted in this review. I don’t think anymore of an introduction is needed for this legendary aircraft.

This set from Quickboost is designed to replace and improve upon the kit parts for Hobby Boss’s Mi-2 Hoplite. It includes part from two other Quickboost sets, as well as FOD covers (Foreign Object Damage) for the intakes and exhausts. The kit’s air intake cowling includes two holes through which you place the air intakes. It also has a molded-in intake in the upper center with a screen engraved in it. Additionally, there are two exhaust ports on each side of the engine cowling. The Quickboost parts are the cowling with two hollowed intake tubes cast in, along with an opening at the upper center, plus four properly shaped and thinned exhausts. The neat addition to this set is the FOD covers for all these openings, along with photoetch pull handles for them. You also get a photoetch screen to place over the opening in the air intake cowling, along with a spare screen.

Background

A familiar sight to all who have traveled the highways and byways of the United States is the “semi” tractor-trailer truck hauling goods from coast-to-coast. One of the leading manufacturers of the “tractor” portion is Freightliner, a subsidiary of Daimler AG established in 1942.

The Kit

Big truck, big box, big model – lots of “wow factor” for the young builder! Molded in light blue, white, black, and clear, the kit comprises of 102 parts. A sheet of peel-and-stick decals and instructions are also included. Copyright data on tractor and trailer parts indicate 1979 and 1980 vintage of the original tooling, respectively. As expected with tooling over 3 decades in service, there was quite a bit of flash along mold parting lines which required some extra effort to clean up prior to assembly.

This is the third set of 1/48 decals from Speed Hunter Graphics which came out of the Reid Air Publishing Group. The decals look very nice, clear and in register. They are printed by Cartograf of Italy and work very well, I’ll tell you why in a bit. This offering covers six F-15C MSIP II Eagles with a nice mix of Mig killers, commanders' aircraft, and even an aggressor bird. You couldn’t ask for a more varied mix. I couldn’t find whose kit these decals were sized for on the instruction sheet but on the web site it was recommended for the Hasegawa F-15C. As fate would have it, I only had the Academy kit which seemed to work quite well. I also noticed that the site had selections for 1/32 and 1/72 size sheets. I do hope that they branch into the other scales because these decals are really worth it.

The options included in this set are:

Here is the newest book in MMP’s “White Series”: Finnish Fighter Colours 1939-1945, Volume One. The author, Kari Stenman, is a name long associated with publications on the Finnish Air Force. Just scanning through my library, I see him as the author of several Osprey “Aircraft of the Aces” books, as well as a Squadron/Signal book. In fact, in the acknowledgements section of this book he mentions research assistance he has received over the last forty-five years! This book is clearly written by a dedicated expert in the field.

The book itself is hardbound, with a nice glossy cover and the 200+ pages within are produced on high-quality stock with a matt finish. Photos, mostly black and white, are on virtually every page. Most are at least ¼ page in size. Numerous, extremely high-quality side profiles are also present. Text is all in English, and is very well-written.