This is the third set of Amigo exhaust nozzles I’ve reviewed, and this set exhibits the high quality I saw previously. It is designed for Hasegawa’s 1/72 scale Su-35S Flanker and is a “drop-in” for the kit’s exhaust pieces. However, Amigo chose to represent only the articulated position of the exhausts while the kit has the option of both articulated and in-line positions.

History

The Hasegawa 1/72 Ki-61 dates back to the early 1970s and is still a nice kit, but basic. CMK has come out with some detail sets to spice up these old kits.

What You Get

4 crisply molded resin parts along with a 9 X 3.5 folded sheet of instructions. These parts are very fragile so please be careful when handling them.

Construction

The first thing you need to do is remove the flaps from kit part B10 and thin the undersides of the corresponding areas of parts B11 & 12. This 2nd part is where I totally messed this up due to my not paying attention. I removed the areas totally and this made it almost impossible to build. I managed to get these on and make them look halfway decent, but it could have and should have been better. With the exception of my mistake, these went on pretty easy and look very nice.

Background

Excerpted from Wikipedia:

The M54 5-ton 6×6 truck (G744) was the basic cargo model of the M39 Series truck. It was designed to transport a 10,000 lb., 14-foot long cargo load off-road in all weather. In on-road service, the load weight was doubled. The M54 was the primary heavy cargo truck of the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine forces during the Vietnam War and was also used by the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and ARVN forces.

The M54 truck was used as the base vehicle for Gun Trucks during the Vietnam War. Field-applied armor added protection to the Gun Trucks, and armament consisted of various combinations of weapons including M60s, .50-calibre machine guns, XM 134 miniguns, and anti-aircraft weapons such as the quad mount .50 cal. machine guns. Early 2 ½ ton trucks proved inadequate leading to their replacement by M54 five-ton cargo trucks.

Introduction

The U.S. Army RU-8D Seminole (not to be confused with the Piper light twin of the same name) was based on the Beechcraft Model 50 Twin Bonanza, first flown in 1952. The Army version modeled in this kit takes a civilian aircraft, strips the luxury interior out and loads the inside with radio receivers and festoons the exterior with antennas to fulfill the signal intelligence mission. Used extensively over Vietnam, the Seminole crew would home in on enemy radio transmissions with the goal of pinpointing the position of those units. These underappreciated units provided critical intelligence to units on the ground. I was pleased to see a model company honoring this often lonely and forgotten mission with this model.

This is a reprint of the original edition first published in 2010 in Veloce’s Classic Reprint Series. The author’s biography is available on the Veloce website above and is as follows: “Donald Stevens was born in the East End of London, but grew up in Haywards Heath, the Sussex market town to which he was evacuated in 1939. In his early teenage years he became fascinated by aeroplanes and other machines, and on leaving school began training as a mechanical engineer. At 19, he joined the newly-formed design consultancy Norris Brothers Ltd as its first employee and became a member of the design team for Donald Campbell’s Bluebird hydroplane (K7). Following National Service in the RAF, Donald became project coordinator for the design and construction of the Bluebird car. This is his first book.” I was unable to locate if Donald Stevens has written any subsequent books, but you can see Donald on youtube.com discussing this book.