Iliad Design has released a new decal sheet in its 72nd scale line devoted to early P-40s and Tomahawks. This sheet provides you with 6 airframes, 3 in American markings and 3 in British markings.

The American options include a natural metal finish, an Olive Drab over Neutral Grey and a Olive Drab/Dark Earth over Neutral Grey. All of them sport red and white stripes in the rudder.

The British options include two Olive Drab/Dark Earth over Neutral Grey, and my personal favorite, Dark Earth/Middle Stone over Azure Blue in North African campaign markings.

The decal sheet instructions do not specify for which kit they are meant to fit (Academy, Airfix, AML, Hasegawa or HobbyBoss). That shouldn’t be an issue for most of the decals, with the exception of the red and white stripes for the rudder which might need to be trimmed to fit depending on which kit you are using.

The Japanese Agano-class of light cruisers had a total of 4 ships on its class: Agano, Noshiro, Yahagi and Sakaw. These ships were lightly armored command vessels that operated for destroyer and submarine squadrons.

Hasegawa has released a detail set for its Agano Class in 1/350. This set includes

• Type-41 twin 15 cm guns (x2)
• Type-41 twin 15 cm guns with rangefinder (x2)
• Type-98 twin 8cm hi-angle turret

The Agano class boxing includes the standard Type-41 and Type-98, what is added is the rangefinder and some details parts for the standard turrets to model the Yahagi and Sakawa.

The overall surface detail is excellent –as you expect from Hasegawa- and the molds are completely free of flash. The cannon holes need to be drilled, but that is to be expected of plastic parts.

This detail set is a welcome addition as it allows the base Agano kit to be converted to other ships of the same class.

Centenary Datafile 168 is the first in a set of Datafiles that cover the Hannover CI.II/CI.IV/CI.IIIA series of aircraft. The history of the “Hawa” is presented in this issue, supplemented with 50+ period photos and six pages of technical drawings in 1/72nd and 1/48th by Mick Davis.

Included within is a discussion on the very unique and interesting geometry of the “Hawa” as well as some historical documentation in the form of the Aeronautical Engineering report on 13199/18 including notes and sketches. Modelers will find the entire publication filled with excellent detail resources, but the AE report includes some awesome sketches and drawing which can assist the modeler in adding detail to a model.

Some excellent full color artwork by Ronny Bar are presented on the back cover, both inside and out, and on the inside front cover.

Eduard has released a series of WWII-era seatbelts in the “Superfabric” series. This review covers the following item:

• Seatbelts Luftwaffe WWII bombers SUPERFABRIC, Catalogue No: 49085, MSRP: $7.95

The Superfabric seatbelts are made of some sort of “rubber-like” material. They have volume -i.e, they are not flat like decals- and they have a little bit of texture like if it they were made of ‘fabric’ (pun intended).

From what I read in the Eduard website you can either apply the seatbelts “dry” directly on the painted seatbelt or “wet” if the seatbelt has been coated in Future.

I almost always like to coat my cockpits with Future (in preparation for a wash), however, in this review I choose to apply the seatbealts over a “flat surface” (i.e, just over enamel paint).

Background

Developed from a prototype first flown in 1947, the Beriev Be-6, NATO code name “Madge”, was an amphibious, twin-engine, maritime patrol-aircraft. Its most prominent feature was the graceful gull wing design. Powered by two Shvetsov radials rated at 2,300 hp each, the Be-6 was capable of carrying a variety of weapons such as mines, depth charges, and torpedoes, in addition to its 5X23mm cannon armament in the tail, topside turret, and nose positions. The early version had a retractable radar pod behind the rear step. Later versions replaced the stinger guns with a magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) boom. The Be-6 served with both the Soviet and Chinese navies. A few soldiered on into the 1970s before the type was finally retired from service.