Among the companies offering ways to weather and complement the realism of your scale models a new competitor has emerged. The company ModelMaker Z is now offering Pigment Powders. A selection of 17 unique colors with descriptive names such as Dark Russian Dirt, South East Asian Mud, Old Rust, Medium Rust, and Panzer Gray Fading are available. The ultra-fine pigment powders are packaged in clear half-ounce bottles with screw-on lids. Powder Pigments likes to say the bottles are transparent because “Quality and Value are Clear”. Each 1/2-oz. bottle retails for $5.00 and is available from your local Hobby Shop as well as direct from the ModelMaker Z web site.

Created specifically for the new 1/32^nd scale Thunderjet by Hobby Boss, this is an absolutely beautiful set of decal markings for 2 F84E’s, one USAF and one French version described as follows:

• F-84E-20-RE No. 49-2299A, 36 FWB Commander Colonel Robert L Scott Jr. out of Furstenfeldbruck AFB, Germany in late 1952 – early 1953. NOTE: The instructions to paint the tail surface white before applying the blue stripes has been inadvertently left out of the directions. It will need to be done if you choose these markings.
• F-84G-30-RE No. 52-3023, E.C. 3/11 “Jura” Luxeuil vers 1955.

As in the past, the printing, colors and register are pure perfection. The decals are very thin, yet opaque and applied using the Micro products methods to settle down nicely.

The book is divided into 13 chapters with and introduction and 5 appendixes:

Appendixes

1. Tabulation of Second Wave Dive-Bomber Attacks
2. Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Japanese Terms
3. Ships in Pearl Harbor and Vicinity
4. The Perfect Attack
5. Acknowledgments

This book is best described by as an analysis of the Japanese Pearl Harbor air raid on an operational and tactical level, using operational research methods and combat models developed at the US Naval War College.

Each chapter reviews what and how the Japanese military planners and the top commanders thought the primary goals were to be and how to accomplish those goals, filtered thru the mindset, doctrine and personal traits of the Japanese people involved.

History

The Curtis Company manufactured 13,700 P-40’s before and during World War II, with production ending on November 30, 1944. The P-40 flew with the air forces of the United States, the RAF, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, France, Brazil, China, Turkey, and Russia and by some resources Finland.

The P-40 lineage may be traced back to the radial engine-powered P-36 and H-75. The P-36 was intended to replace the P-26 Peashooter in an effort to match the high performance European fighters (the Bf-109, Spitfire and to an extent the MS-406). The Wright XR-1670 radial engine rated at 900 bhp powered the first prototype which first flew in April 1935. Soon it was evident that the radial engine-powered aircraft would be outclassed, and therefore the Air Corps requested that a fighter be equipped with the Allison V-1710 inline engine. Eventually the design morphed into the P-40C powered by the Allison V-1710-33 rated at 1040 bhp.

Eduard offers two photo-etch detail sets for the Special Hobby 1/32 A5M2b kit. Zoom set #33 070 is the one to get if you just want to focus on enhancing the detail in the cockpit. The set includes a total of 42 pre-painted parts that replace some kit parts and/or add detail to ones that will be used. The kit’s plastic instrument panel is replaced with five very impressively detailed components that are sandwiched together to simulate the panel’s relief and then enhanced with brackets, machine gun supports and gun charging handles. Photo-etched rudder pedals are provided to replace the less-detailed ones in the kit and to detail the kit’s rudimentary rudder bar, pre-painted seat belts replace the un-painted ones in the kit, multi-part throttle quadrant and prop pitch levers replace kit parts and a radio panel face, control box fascias, levers, knobs and numerous small bits are included to perk up the sidewalls.