IPMS/USA

BIG CUTLASS…PART DEUX

Well, shiver my swashes and buckle my timbers…at last.  The finishing touches have been applied to this  magnificent beastie! The stance of the aircraft can be referred to as a cross between a praying mantis and a Great Dane passing a peachpit.  In any case, this has to be one of the most unique carrier aircraft ever produced.  Although not the most popular among pilots, I recall reading a pilot report in Tail Hook magazine where comments ranged from concern over a hard landing which would drive the nose gear up through the cockpit floor “doing horrible things to the pilot” to attempts to keep the fuel load in trim being much akin to “sitting on a basketball.”  Oh, well, I digress, so on to the build.  If you desire, Part I of this review complete with parts photos can be accessed by clicking on http://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/f-7u-3m-cutlass.

Verlinden Productions continues to be on the front line releasing many items for Middle East War model builders.  This set is just another offering in their LONG line of items directly designed for the IDF modeler.  This set is designed for the newly released Tamiya M-51 kit!  Other than a couple issues, you could cover your M51 with period gear plus get a three piece crew set.  All the items are well cast and bubble free.  The detail on all the parts is quite incredible.  The figure faces have some great detail as well.  What is included in the set is the following:

Thank you to Marie Ray of Specialty Press, Crécy Publishing Ltd, and the IPMS/USA Reviewer Corps for allowing me to read and share my thoughts on this book.  Mosquito Pathfinder is a detailed and engaging journal of a young English man enlisting in the RAF and surviving 90 missions in Wellington and Mosquito bombers over Germany and North Africa during World War II.  

Ross, the proprietor of SAC, has been a prolific supporter of IPMS/USA from the inception of his company; not only are his products excellent, but he definitely has provided us with some gems, and we appreciate it!

Released in its standard bubble pack with card backing, (with the shield of the only true Air Force Command (SAC) for backdrop (ha), this set is a simple but important addition to anyone building Roden’s new T-28 kit.  I was surprised to see my name written on the header card… until I realized it stood for “Roden”, not “Rod”!  Alzheimers is real…

The kit nose gear in plastic is to scale, which means if you put the required nose weight in to keep the nose on the ground, it will (over time) bend and eventually break off.

Kit Review  Part I:

This is a reboxing of the old Revell kit, which I built many years ago, only with quite a number of goodies included to bring it up to modern standards.  There are such a number of goodies that, in order to get the word out as quickly as possible, this just had to be a two-part review.

The Premium Edition comes with wooden base, laser-cut self-adhesive deck veneers, turned metal gun barrels, and photo-etched, white metal, and resin parts.  The Standard Edition lacks the wooden base, gun barrels and deck veneers.  It is well worth the price to get the Premium Edition.

Introduction:

Apollo 10 was launched on May 18, 1969, and was the dress rehearsal for putting man on the moon.  The flight took the command/service module (CSM [CSM-106]) “Charlie Brown” and the Lunar Module (LM [LM-4]) “Snoopy” to the moon, where the LM separated, descended and maneuvered to within 9 miles of the lunar surface.  The mission of Apollo 10 was to demonstrate the performance of the LM and CSM in the lunar gravitational field and evaluate docked and undocked lunar navigation.  “Charlie Brown” and crew returned safely to Earth 8 days later, on May 26th.  Like many of us, I was glued to my black & white television, in awe of the whole Apollo program. 

First, thanks to Dragon Models USA and particularly Alain for providing IPMS/USA this review sample!  Your support as a major model distributor is greatly appreciated.

Dragon’s TU-95MS is a re-release of the original Dragon TU-95 kit from the late 1989/90 time period; decals are upgraded, but otherwise it’s the same kit.   Fit is good with the exception of the nacelle assemblies; you will have to spend a bit of time getting the aft portion lined up with the front.  Markings are included for two recent (circa 2010 or so) Bear airframes. 

Keep them coming, Bombshell Decals! The decals Bombshell produces is what the current industry needs, nose art of pinup girls and nicely done! They inspired our service men under wartime conditions and appear to carry on some sort of inspiration for modelers to recreate these aircraft in miniature. There is absolute minimum flash in these decals. No trimming is necessary but a reminder that they should be placed on a smooth finish, preferably glossy. All the numbers and letter designations big and small do not have flash background extended around the complete decal. The flash is a center band enough to maintain character spacing and alignment distance. There are no signs of color overlap, which makes the decals crisp and clear. This is very obvious just looking at the nose art ladies. You can actually see blended skin tones and hair highlights.

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) has released a set of white metal replacement landing gear parts for Pacific Coast Models’ 1/32 Spitfire Mk. IX kit.  This set is a direct replacement for the kit’s parts with some minor improvements to details.  The main gear legs are exact copies of the kit parts with the same mounting lug cast in place.  However, Dr. Billy Crisler collaborated with SAC to provide a corrected tail wheel and separate tail wheel strut to improve the detail in that area.