Building 1/144 can be great fun, but sometimes older kits need a little boost to bring them up to the standards we’ve come to expect from newer (but more expensive) kits. A case in point is the LS 1/144 F-15, which has a couple of things which could use improvement.

The wheels on the LS kit are correctly sized in diameter, but they look like ATV tires. They’re too wide, and the sidewalls are rounded. So the Res-Im tires are a pretty good improvement. There’s a comparison photo below.

I started out to do this review on the Minicraft F-15, but the tires are molded onto the landing gear legs. Too difficult for me, especially in this small scale. See the picture below to see the Minicraft LG.

Once I had the F-15 almost complete, painted, decals installed, I was ready to do the landing gear. I usually save the gear until late in the build to prevent damage to the parts when I handle the plane for decals.

This set provides a replacement pitot tube for the Airfix BAe Systems Hawk 100 kit. As with all of Master Model’s replacement parts, this pitot tube is exquisitely made and show in the photos it is a big improvement over the kit pitot. It will be a welcome addition to your Hawk.

This will be the easiest add-on you ever make, as even though the instructions tell you to drill a hole for the replacement part, when I test fitted it to the kit, it just dropped into place without having to do anything to the mounting hole. All you need is some superglue gel and a few seconds to make sure the pitot tube is correctly oriented, and you are done, but watch your fingers as the pitot tube is very pointy.

Highly recommended! Thank you to Master Model for the review sample and to IPMS/USA for letting me review it.

Recently I was given the opportunity by IPMS USA to review Scale Aircraft Conversions adaption of the T-33A landing gear in white metal for the 1/48 Great Wall kit. The set contains the two main gear legs with the accompanying struts, a nose gear that incorporates the landing lights and the retraction strut and oleo scissor. A very nice addition to the set is the 20 gram forward fuselage ballast nose weight reproduced in metal. These are direct replacements for the parts that come in the Great Wall T-33A. Comparing the kit landing gear and the SAC landing gear side by side you will notice similarities between the two, but a little better detail in the SAC offering including brake lines. Overall this is highly recommended for stronger landing gear and added detail and is a great addition to the Great Wall kit. I would like to thank Scale Aircraft Conversions for another great offering in metal landing gear and IPMS USA for the opportunity to review this item.

One of Brengun’s more recent releases is a photo-etch fret of drop tank gas caps for 1/72 US Navy aircraft. The set includes 5 different types of gas caps, with 9 of each type, so you can detail quite a large number of drop tanks with this set. The set does not include any instructions or information as to which gas caps go on what types of drop tanks, but from what I can tell from looking at the photo of some sample tanks with the caps installed on Brengun’s website. It appears that the caps are intended for World War II US Navy aircraft.

Background

Introduced in the 1970's as the U.S.Navy's replacement for the F-4 Phantom in its fleet defense fighter role, the F-14 Tomcat quickly established itself as a state-of-the-art weapons system and as one of the world's leading air superiority fighters. The Tomcat saw significant combat duty, starting with the downing of a pair of hostile Libyan Su-22's in the early 1980's, and concluding during the Global War on Terror in 2006 when it was replaced by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

Throughout its distinguished service life, the F-14 expanded its role to include air-to-ground bombing, and fielded variants with designations of F-14A, F-14A Plus, F-14B, and F-14D – all derived from engine, avionics, and mission capability enhancements.

This kit portrays a mid-production F-14A of late 1970's/early 1980's vintage.