When I heard we were having all the grandchildren down for Spring Break, I knew it would be a good time to build a kit with my Grandson Parker. Up on the list comes AMT/Round 2's 1/25 Munster's Monster Truck and I snagged it up. Parker was excited about having the chance to build with Grandpa almost as excited as I was and we dove into the kit the day he arrived.

The kit is molded in black with two sprues of chromed parts, instructions, a full set of decals, and the giant tires naturally. This is a full glue kit and includes a lovely decal sheet of Hermann Munster's face that is beautifully printed.

The AN-2 “"Annushka" (NATO designation “Colt”) bi-plane is a throwback from a very earlier age as a rugged biplane used in a STOVL role. The Hobby Boss kit is a nice replica of this plane, yet there are some details that require improvement. One shortcoming is the landing floodlights on the leading edge of the lower wing. The kit provides the lens for the lights, but they are blanked off and no light is represented.

Each issue of Scale Aircraft Modeling follows a basic design and format. There are usually two Feature Articles, an Aviation in Profile piece, industry news and a series of Compact Build Reviews.

The Feature articles for this issue covers a build of 1/72 Revell Tornado IDS build in Tigermeet markings and a 1/32 Special Hobby Fiat G.50. The Tornado build is by Pierre Baldru and covers the construction and painting of this colorful kit. He modifies the kit with Aires Wheel Wells, Master pitot tube, Verlinden seats and Eduard RBF tags. The kit is then finished with a remarkable German Tigermeet scheme with the entire plane striped. It looks fantastic

The other Feature article from James Ashton and covers building the 1/32 Special Hobby Fiat G.50. No aftermarket is used and concentration is put on the mottled camouflage screen and perfect subtle weathering using oils.

The AN-2 “"Annushka" (NATO designation “Colt”) is a throwback from a very earlier age as a rugged biplane used in a STOVL role. The Hobby Boss kit is a nice replica of this plane, yet there are some details that require improvement. Hobby boss provides the option of having the cowl flaps open or closed. Quickboost offers a set of replacement cowling flaps in the open position which are much thinner and have slightly more detail; they are intended to replace kit parts – E49, E50, E53 and E54.

These parts are not quite a drop in fit and required me to clean up the opening in the cowl where the flaps fit; this is due to the accurately molded side pieces of the flaps. The cowl openings are tapered and needed to be squared in thickness to allow the flaps to fit. I ended up enlarging the opening in the longest dimension to achieve a good fit. I used gap filling CA to glue the flaps in position, the slow set allowing me time to work the flaps into the desired angle.

Modellers Datafile #21 might arguably be considered the most complete reference book available for anyone intending to build a model of an early version of one of the best-known fighters of World War II, the North American P-51 Mustang. Later versions of the P-51, equipped with the Packard built Merlin 60 series engine, possessed excellent range and maneuverability that contributed to Mustangs being known primarily as a long-range escort fighters and ground attack fighter-bombers in nearly every combat zone during WWII (and later serving in that role in the Korean War). However, the early version of the Mustang, as originally designed, was built around the Allison V-170 engine, which had limited high-altitude performance that resulted in a different primary role for this iconic fighter. Originally known as the RAF’s Mustang Mk.1, it was initially flown operationally as a tactical-reconnaissance aircraft and fighter-bomber.