Editor's note: decals sheets reviewed are shown in photo starting at the bottom and moving up in display: 1/24 Generic Luftwaffe - AS24LUFT; 1/24 Focke-wulf - ASA24FWA; 1/32 Generic RAF - AS32RAF; 1/24 JU-87 - AS24JUA .
Introduction
The author, John Weal, has written a number of books on the wartime career of the Focke Wulf FW-190 and its pilots, and this book fills a gap that needed to be filled, that of the Defense of the Reich units that operated mainly over Germany from mid-1942 until the end of the war. The book mainly covers the activities of JG 1, JG 2, JG 4, JG 26, JG 76, and JG 301, and is confined primarily to the radial engine variants, from FW-190A-4 through FW-190A-8. These units operated primarily against American 8th Air Force bomber formations, and they were highly successful until the introduction of the long range P-47’s and P-51’s, which tipped the balance in favor of the Americans.
Not too long ago I reviewed a different set of decals from Bombshell with the same theme but for a different aircraft and they proved to be everything good I wrote about them and more. This series of decals are specifically for these particular P-47’s, which incorporate two separate sets – Part 1 and Part 2. I am reviewing Part-2, which contains more of the famous icons in the field of “Nose Art”. This set depicts “Rain-Dear” and “Phil Darling” and has a couple of beauties ready to be displayed and to enhance your scale model. Looking very close at these decals, you can see that the registry is spot on and the colors are fantastic with no bleed through and the details are sharp and crisp. As with other sets from Bombshell, the decals have minimal carrier film and are somewhat thin which allows them to conform easy but strong enough to not tare with proper handling.
The Maschinen Krieger universe is a SciFi series created in the 1980’s by Kow Yokoyama and ran as a series of stories in Japanese Hobby Magazine Hobby Japan. Many of the creations are permutations of WW I and WW II tanks and aircraft upgraded and all started with powered armored suits. In 2009, Hasegawa received the license for the kits and entered the market with the Falke, Lunadiver Stingray and now the P.K.H. 103 Nutcracker, a hover tank. After building the Lunadiver Stingray, when this came up for review, I wanted to add to the collection I am building.
Inside the box are 8 tan sprues and an upper and lower hull for the Nutcracker. Molding is superb with fines detail. Also included are 5 sprues to build two of the powered suits, a Gustav and Melusine. Finishing out the box is a large decal sheet and painting guide detailing the 5 options available for the tank. More painting instructions are also on the box bottom.
Seventy-one years after the French capitulated to the Wehrmacht in the summer of 1940 the French Army still seems to the butt of jokes. Regardless, the campaign still generates a great deal of interest in the academic and hobby community. With Tamiya’s release of the Char B1bis and the UE Armored Carrier, there is still a tremendous amount of interest in the modeling community for French subjects.
The E-3 Sentry is a logical follow-on to the earlier US Air Force EC-121. Of course the Sentry has better radar, more room and a more reliable aircraft. The basic airframe is the Boeing 707-720 with the JT-3D engines. When NATO decided they needed an airborne command and control system, they bought 18 Sentries. It’s of interest to modelers that the 17 remaining NATO Sentries are registered in Luxembourg, which has no other aircraft. In fact they don’t have an air base, so the NATO aircraft are based at Geilenkirchen, Germany.
This is the third issue of the basic E-3A from Minicraft, along with their Boeing 707s, C-18 and E-8 JSTARS. The mold is several years old, but it has been well maintained, with crisp edges and almost no flash. All sprues are in separate plastic bags which reduces lost parts, breakage and scratches on the clear parts.
Bombshell Decals are a new product to me. I was pleasantly surprised to find the set I received for review to be very colorful and in good registry and covering two aircraft of one of my favorite modeling subjects, the Republic P-47 D Razorback.
One is an aircraft of the 352 FG at two different periods of World War Two. The main difference between the two is that one has the national insignia with a red border and the other with the blue border plus the number of kills.
The second aircraft is the Belle of Belmont of the 56 FG with invasion stripes, not included on the decal sheet. Both aircraft have the very suggestive and colorful nose art common on warplanes of the era.
The instruction sheet is in full color and showing the port side, top and bottom placement of the decals as well as an FS 595 color guide. Your model kit will provide the required stenciling decals.
The Victor was the second of the three “V Bombers”, Valiant, Victor and Vulcan, flown by the RAF in the nuclear strike role. When Surface to Air Missiles came onto the scene, the Victor became a low-level penetration aircraft. With the advent of the Blue Steel stand off missile, the mission became more feasible, but still sporty. This is when the camouflage changed from white overall to grey/green upper surfaces.
After producing several 1/400th U-boats, Mirage is now offering U-boats in the increasingly popular 1/350th scale. The U-511 was a Kriegsmarine long-range IX-C type submarine. The Turm-I variant included trial installation of a six tube Wurfkörper 42 artillery rocket launcher rack and improved 37mm and 20mm anti-aircraft armament. The kit features a 2-piece full hull, detailed exterior surfaces, conning tower with 2 periscopes and wintergarten, 10.5cm deck gun, display base, photo-etch parts (railings for all deck levels, anchor, cable cutter, WGr42 launcher base, ladders, screw blades and nameplate), and decals (U-511 bow placards and ensign). The completed model is approximately 8.6" long.
"Steampunk", according to Wikipedia, "...is a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s..." and "...involves an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century and often Victorian era Britain—that incorporates prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy." "Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them; in other words, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne or real technologies like the computer but developed earlier in an alternate history." You can read more about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk or just search the web.
