While growing up, I always had a soft spot for street cars, so I jumped at the chance of building and reviewing one as soon as I had the opportunity. MiniArt provides you with a “full meal” model of a European Tram: over 600 parts (on 25 sprues), including a very nicely detailed vacuform base with tracks, and two power poles. Before you open the box, just know that it is fully packed with parts. As soon as I opened the box, it was impossible for me to get all the sprues back in. I ended up using an empty model box for storage of some extra sprues.
What's New
Many thanks to Mr. Ross MacMillan of Scale Aircraft Conversions and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to try this neat conversion and replacement set for the Italeri V-22. I am delighted to report on another sweet add-on.
This detail set from Scale Aircraft Conversions is for the Hasegawa 1/72nd scale A-3 Skywarrior. The kit has been around for some time and although not a newer rerelease it is still available. This set is a direct replacement for the kits landing gear and has a few modifications that help improve the Hasegawa kit. This conversion set has 7 parts, which includes the main landing gear legs, the nose gear and the oleo scissors and retraction struts for the main gear. The nose gear comes complete with the wheel molded in place. This appears to be a direct copy of the kit gear. As a result you will be required to open up and clean the space between the nose gear fork and the tire.
When I received the aftermarket SAC landing gear for the 1/72 Academy P38 Lightning I went to get out the kit I had and realized the one I had was 1/48 scale, so I had to quick get one off ebay to do the review. Once I found one at a reasonable price and received the kit I finally got down to business. I opened the kit and got the SAC gear out for comparison. After removing the gear from the kit sprues I laid them out to compare them side by side. I was kind of disappointed with the look of the SAC gear, they had some flash on the gear and some mold lines that were very noticeable. Then I looked over the kit gear and found that Academy has some very good gear right out of the box, the mold lines and crisp detail were almost better than the SAC gear.
This set of finely turned stainless steel and brass gun barrels for is designed for the new Academy USS Indianapolis kit. It does not include a styrene turret face, as is included in the set designed for the Trumpeter kit, but could undoubtedly be used to augment the Trumpeter San Francisco class cruisers as well.
Each of the 8” barrels are slightly tapered with very finely defined segmentations. The short stubs at the end of the barrel allows for easy insertion into the kit’s turret face. Although the barrel openings are not as pronounced as compared to other Master barrel sets (or the kit’s barrels), these barrels are noticeably longer, more even and, no doubt, more accurate than the kit parts. A couple of my kit’s barrel ends were noticeably uneven. That’s not an issue with the Master barrels.
History
The F-104 Starfighter was one of the most famous and long lasting aircraft in history. Entering service with the USAF in the 50s, variants of the F-104 flew into the mid-2000s. The G model was manufactured under license in several NATO countries was used as a multi role fighter-bomber due to its increased range and load capacity. The 104S is an upgraded version that the Italian Air force flew until replaced by the Eurofighter Typhoon.
The Ryan ST was a trainer used in the early 1940’s. The sleek airframe and Menasco inline engine made for a pretty hot little ship.
You can build either a U.S. Army Air Force PT-20, or a Dutch STM-2 on floats or one of two Australian STM-2’s from this kit.
I received the package in excellent condition. It was in a nice sturdy box surrounded by enough tissue paper to use for the next three holidays. The actual model box is another sturdy package with all the parts again wrapped in tissue for protection. Each part was either enclosed in a zip lock plastic bag or wrapped in tissue. I found no loose, broken or damaged items. I took inventory and everything was accounted for.
Review
The 325th Fighter Group, also known as the “Checker Tail Clan” is one of the most well known units of the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. They flew P-40s, P-47s and P-51, making them a very interesting unit for modelers. They flew over North Africa, France, Italy, Eastern Europe and even the former Soviet Unit. Their distinctive tail markings helped aerial recognition and likely worried their counterparts when encountered in combat.
The book has the following chapters
Danger, Danger Will Robinson… Moebius Models has come to the rescue of all those living in our past and loving Lost in Space. Their latest release, in beautiful 1/6 scale, is the original bubble headed booby, the B-9 Robot which played such a huge parts in the series. The robot itself was played by Bob May and voiced by Dick Tufeld. If you are my age, almost everyone I know remembers at least one of the robot’s lines. The B-9 Robot may be one of the two most famous robots in TV and movies, along with Robbie.
Let’s dive in and look at the kit. The basic parts for the kit are done in a medium-soft gray plastic, and are comprised of seven sprues and four torso parts. Two clear sprues are also included, along with a small photoetch fret and a decal sheet. Last, there are eight gray vinyl parts for the arms and rubber portions of the legs. The kit’s molding is very nice, and there is a nice instruction sheet included with it.
This F4U-4 Corsair wheel bay update set is packaged in the typical Aires fashion, coming in a sturdy plastic package with foam backing, and instructions tucked in between the cardboard back and plastic. My first impression was of how crisp the detail is on the wheel bays, as well as the gear doors. Mold release agent is non-existent; however, I still recommend washing the resin before use.
Compared to the Hobby Boss kit parts, which are decent, the Aires wheel bays are very sharp and have more details, such as more pronounced ribs and wiring. The landing gear door’s interior and exterior surfaces show very few differences between the Hobby Boss kit parts and the Aires replacements, with the exception of the superior detail on the interior surface of Aires’ small forward landing gear doors.