Short History

The History of the Eagle is as described by Great Wall Hobby: The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15 Eagle is an American twin-engine, all-weather tactical fighter designed by McDonnell Douglas to gain and maintain air superiority in aerial combat. It is among the most successful modern fighters, with over 100 aerial combat victories. Following reviews of proposals, the United States Air Force selected McDonnell Douglas' design in 1967 to meet the service's need for a dedicated air superiority fighter. The Eagle first flew in July 1972, and entered service in 1976. The Multi-Stage Improvement Program (MSIP) is a joint program carried out by Boeing and the USAF's Warner Robins Logistics Center in Georgia. Under MSIP, upgrades were progressively incorporated onto the production line and then retrofitted to earlier production aircraft.

This bridge kit is part of Academy’s nine kit series of models of Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventions. These kits are simple assembly with a limited number of parts, but are good instructional models exploring Da Vinci’s inventions.

The kit does not require any painting or cements for construction.

The arch bridge designed by Leonardo Da Vinci uses a self-supporting arch concept to distribute weight through the full curve of the arch.

The plastic parts are molded in brown plastic and include three plastic sprues plus 2 base pieces. The kit includes 24 plastic parts, instructions, and a lightweight cardboard box to store the parts. The kit has two levels of assembly, Elementary and Advanced depending upon the span length of the bridge. The instructions include some information about bridge types and design.

I hate masking canopies, but nothing detracts from a good looking model like a poorly painted canopy. The easiest way to do it right is with canopy masks specifically designed for the kit.

The latest offering from Eduard is for the Trumpeter MiG-23MLD. This set provides masks for not only the canopy but the wheels. The canopy masks provide both the outline for the rear portion of the canopy and whole masks for the front of the canopy sections.

All the wheels are provided with masks. There Heads Up Display has two masks for it as well.

This set is very complete and for the price I can save myself lots of headaches and time. These are a great accessory for your kit. If you haven’t tried them you really owe it to yourself to give it a go.

Highly recommended

History

In the early 1960s, the US Army’s Howze Board recommended testing new forms of mobility to make the soldier “free from the tyranny of terrain.” The result was the 11th Air Assault Division, to be rechristened the First Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and sent to Vietnam in 1965. Rather than moving to combat by truck or by foot march, as in wars past, the Cav rode in helicopters, lots of helicopters. Those many choppers, from OH-13s and OH-6s to CH-47s and UH-1s needed crew members and door gunners. This figure represents one of those aviators.

Hauler, a small company out of Czechoslovakia, continues to add to its list of quality aftermarket and modeling supply products; this time with a package of four 50 gallon steel barrels in 1/35th scale.

The package contains a single baggie containing four barrels mounted on backing blocks. No stencils and/or decals are included. The barrels are single-piece affairs, eliminating the need to remove that pesky seam line found on standard two-part barrels included in many armor kits.

The barrels are attached at one end to the backing block, and while the attachment is significant, the rim of the barrel keeps things pretty much in place during removal. A lot of resin dust is produced during this process, and unless you plan to carefully sand the cut end and scribe detail into it, you are going to lose the use of that end of the barrel on your model or diorama.