Aires has provided a resin wheel bay set for the Curtiss P-40B/C (recommended kit – Airfix Curtiss Hawk 81-A-2). This includes both main wheel wells and a canvas cover for the tail wheel support. When the early Curtiss P-40’s left the factory, they had a canvas cover in the wheel wells that kept debris from entering the wing. From what I have read, it was common that this was removed by the crew chiefs when the planes reached the front lines. It may not be easy to check, but try to for the plane you are modeling. All three Aires resin pieces were cast without any flaws and were easily removed from the casting with a razor saw.

I received the Dutch Decal sheet for the F-104G Starfighter ‘Graffiti’ KLu/RNethAF and found that it was a supplemental sheet. It only came with the graffiti and code for # D-8337 and a second aircraft that isn’t covered by as much graffiti, D-8063. The instructions state that this sheet is a supplement to sheet #72069, or you can do like I did and piece the rest out from other decal sheets. All of those extra decal sheets just come in handy sometimes.

The instruction sheet is very good and shows a 4-view drawing of the aircraft with decal placement. I went to the web site to check out sheet # 72069 because this sheet has a second option that has a small graffiti on the tail with a small tail number but no large D # up front. After checking out the other sheet I noticed that they have all the numbers to make any of their aircraft.

The FW-190A-7 was one of the last versions that Eduard had not covered directly, the other being the A-9. You could always build one from their Royal Class kits but never as a stand-alone kit. Well, Eduard has stepped up to the plate and has hit another home run.

I’ve built their A-5, F-8, A-8, and D-9, so I have some experience with this series of kits. That said, this kit is just as good as those kits and…why shouldn’t it be? It contains the same parts.

The kit contains six sprues of RLM 02 plastic with minimal flash, one sprue of clear parts, two frets of photo etch (one of those being pre-painted), and a set of masks. Of course, there are two decal sheets which contain markings for four aircraft. The instructions are printed on high quality paper stock. I found the instructions to be easy enough to understand.

Lifelike Decals has presented us with another sheet on the Me-109. This sheet features some colorful aircraft of various types so you can use this sheet on numerous models.

The instructions are printed on two single-sided A4 sheets in full color. The one thing I like is that Lifelike isn’t afraid to offer an educated guess when some marking are in question. They let you know what is speculative and how they came to their conclusions. Very professional, and a non-pompous way to do business. There is a separate sheet for the stencils that cover the Emil and Gustav versions.

There are two decal sheets. The decals are in perfect register and very thin. They appear to have good color opacity as well. The larger of the two carries most of the markings, while the smaller one carries the individual and kill markings. There appears to be enough National markings to do all the aircraft with enough stencils to do one machine.

Another great sheet for the Eduard Albatros kit. This one will be a pleasure to many WWI modelers. WWI aircraft have always been colorful, but finding good quality decals has been a pain in the past. Lifelike has helped fix that with their latest two sheets.

The instructions are printed on two single-sided A4 sheets in full color. The one thing I like is that Lifelike isn’t afraid to offer an educated guess when some marking is in question. They let you know what is speculative and how they came to their conclusions. A very professional and non-pompous way to do business.

This particular release, like 48-039 Albatros Part 1, has a sheet of the major propeller types used on German fighters in WWI. This is a very valuable asset and shows the difference to the props and the manufacturers.