At the start of WWII, the U-boat packs operated with impunity in the North Atlantic and while their torpedoes sunk a lot of ships, their deck guns did a lot of damage also. This ended with the advent or air patrols and small carriers. Eduard has produced an excellent resin and photoetch kit of the 8.8cm gun used on the Type VII U-boats. My only recommendation is to check references in that on the later Type VII's, the gun was removed due to its ineffectiveness due to the threat of aircraft.

Eduard kit consists of 14 perfect resin parts and 15 photoetch parts on a single fret. The first dozen of these parts actually forms the gun sight alone. Fit is excellent but the parts are small with some being 2mm long and requiring bends. The rest of the gun assembly is smooth with the resin parts coming off the pour stubs easily and fitting perfectly. Add the adjustment wheels and tampion (gun plug) and its clamp and the gun can be set aside.

Each issue of Scale Aircraft Modeling has been a basic design and format but they changed it up with the last issue. There are some changes again in that while there were usually two Feature Articles, in this issue, there are five, an Aviation in Profile piece, and a usual series of Compact Build Reviews.

The Feature articles for this issue start with a Hasegawa 1/48 A-7D Corsair II in bright Bicentennial markings by Karl Robinson. Special attention is paid to the paint scheme and producing the inert ordnance. Mr. Robinson also shows how to produce FOD guards and air show labels for the ordnance.

Next up is the Hobbyboss 1/48 A-7D by Jay Laverty made up with TwoBobs "Molar Mauler" decals which have a huge set of teeth on each side of the intake. The kit is weathered and looks superb.

Model Art Magazine is a monthly magazine that covers aircraft, armor, ships and car modeling. Model Art started releasing magazines in 1966 and has evolved from there over the past forty-six years.

The July issue of model features a main article on vehicles mounted with an 88mm gun, a special article continued from June on the Tamiya 1/32 F-4J Black Bunny, one show report and several monthly short articles.

The issue starts of with a new product report from the Shizuoka Hobby Show 2014. Following that is the special article on the Tamiya 1/32 F-4J "Black Bunny" full detail up. This is continued from the June issue. Anything and everything that could be detailed has been. Next is the IJA/N Airplane illustrated. This month covers mounted fuel tanks from a "Zero". Several color photos and color artwork.

LPS Hobby is a Brazilian that recently added three more Republic P-47D decal sets to their 1:72 scale line. This set, # LPM72-16, provides markings for three P-47D Razorback Thunderbolts that sported Malcolm hoods late in WWII. The set includes two small decal sheets that provide all of the unique markings for the three aircraft and enough national insignias and stencil data to do two of the three (National markings from kit decals will be needed to do the third one).

As the photos below illustrate, the decals are nicely printed in vivid, opaque colors by Microscale and everything is well registered. They are printed on thin film like other Microscale decals, and should respond well to mild setting solutions such as Mr. Mark Softer. It is recommend that the decals be applied by ‘floating’ them in place with enough water to keep them from bonding to the surface before they are properly positioned…then gently blotted when they are in place.

The three aircraft are:

The Ship

Launched in April 1943 and commissioned four months later, USS Intrepid (CV-11) participated in numerous actions in the central and western Pacific from early 1944 until the end of the Pacific War, including Leyte Gulf and Okinawa. She was hit twice by kamikazes but was still on station at the end of hostilities. Intrepid underwent modernization twice during the 1950s, which enclosed her bow and gave her an angled flight deck. Reclassified as an Anti-submarine Carrier (CVS-11), Intrepid was the lead ship for the NASA’s Mercury Aurora 7 and the Gemini 3 splashdown recovery. From April 1966 to February 1969, she made three deployments to the waters off Vietnam. She ended her active career back in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, being decommissioned in 1974 with over 30 years of service. In August 1982, Intrepid was reopened as a museum ship in New York harbor.