Pavla models has added a control surfaces set for the Hasegawa S-3A Viking to their 1/72 aircraft accessory line. When you look at the Hasegawa kit you realize why Pavla has made this set. There are absolutely no frills on this model. Even the torpedo bay doors are molded shut.

This offering is really a quality set of resin pieces; smooth, seamless and bubble free. The detail is also very nice and doesn’t need any extra work to bring out the detail. Some of the kit pieces will have to be cut from the kit so it isn’t for the faint of heart. Sometimes I still get nervous when I have to do plastic surgery and I also need to make sure I have plenty of Band Aids.

Description:

Kit includes parts to build a four-wheeled, wagon-style, horse-drawn farm cart. The box art is nicely done, but is the only painting guide for the kit. The back panel of the box includes a sprue map and exploded-view assembly instructions. No decals are included.

Inspection:

The kit includes two sets of identical sprues, with a total of 52 parts molded in light gray soft plastic, including bottom, sides, front and back panels of wagon body, suspension pieces including front and rear axles, hitching beams and turning mechanisms for front axle, as well as four spoked wheels, seat bottom and backrest, and various hardware. There is no visible flash on any of the parts, but mold separation lines are present on all of the parts. The wood sections are nicely represented, with fine grain molded into the surfaces.

Assembly:

In the early 1980's, while on active duty in the US Navy, I was stationed at Harbor Clearance Unit One, Detachment, San Diego (or as we called it Harbor Cleaners San Diego). Our unit was tasked to handle ALL Diving, Repair and Salvage, on the West Coast of the USA from San Diego to Alaska. While assigned to this unit, we were tasked with some pretty exciting jobs. We handled everything from Ships Husbandry , Searches, Towing, Recoveries and Salvage. In 1983, I had the privilege to be tasked with one of the most unique jobs I ever did, I was be part of the Towing crew for the USS Missouri. The Battleship was just taken out of the mothball fleet (inactive ships placed in storage for possible reuse) in Bremerton, Washington and prepared to be towed to Long Beach Naval Shipyard in California. She and her sisters were to be modernized for use. Being a Navy Diver we were tasked with riding the ship, while under tow, to undertake in any emergency actions such as fire or flooding.

Here is another detail set from the folks at Aires/Quickboost: Stabilizers for the WWII Japanese Army Fighters Ki-61 or Ki-100 Tony.

This detail set will work with ANY of the 1/48 Hasegawa Ki-61 Hein “Tony” or Ki-100 kits on the market today. All of these aircraft shared the same basic airframe, and this detail set will work with them all.

As shown in the photos, this Quickboost detail set has four resin parts for the horizontal stabilizers on these fighters. The builder must cut the parts from the resin, and remove a little flash before gluing the flaps in place. This is a very quick, easy, and inexpensive way to give your model that little extra detail.

The detail of these parts is on par with what you get in the kit. I recommend this detail set to you if you want an easy way to drop the flaps on your next 1/48 Hein project – especially of you don’t own a razor saw to cut the original kit parts that.

The Story

In the past several years, interest in the FE-2 series has been generated by the construction of two flying replicas of this vintage biplane in New Zealand, and in 2009, Albatros Publications produced a multi-authored text entitled “The FE-2B Flies Again” which included both a history of the type and a description of the process in which two completely accurate replicas were built and flown. Following this, in the same year, Albatros author and historian Paul R. Hare produced a Windsock Datafile issue, #134, describing the FE-2D. This has been followed by this issue, describing the first production model, the FE-2B. All of these publications are worth having if you have any interest in World War I aircraft.