IPMS/USA Reviews

Master Model of Poland produces small brass parts for detailing models, be they aircraft or ships. They have parts for aircraft in 1/32, 1/35, 1/48, 1/72, and 1/144, mostly pitot tubes, refueling probes and gun barrels.

This product is a single pitot tube for a 1/144 Gloster Meteor. The instructions are quite simple.

1. Drill a hole for the brass part.
2. Install the brass part, using CA glue.
3. Paint the part.

I had a HKM Meteor already built, and the kit comes without a pitot. So I added it.

One of the great things about the instructions is the drawing for the placement of the pitot. The drawing is 1/144 scale, and makes figuring out where to drill the hole much easier.

Once I got the drill started and the hole drilled, I got the part out of the package.

The Aircraft

The Douglas C-133 Cargomaster was the only turboprop powered strategic airlifter for the US Air Force. The 50 C-133s in service were built from 1956 to 1960. They were designed to carry large and heavy cargo and were superior to the preceding C-124 Globemaster in that they were faster, easier to load and could carry larger loads. One of the duties of the C-133 was delivery of strategic missiles, the Atlas, Titan, and Minuteman, being faster and safer than over the road. C-133s also delivered Atlas, Titan, and Saturn missiles to the launch pads for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.

When the C-5 came out in 1971, the C-133s were quickly taken off inventory, as most of them had reached their service limits for hours flown.

The Scale Aircraft Conversions Set

The SAC parts are direct replacements for the Roden landing gear parts. The white metal is very sturdy, and the fine parts can be carefully shaped to allow decent fit with the kit.

Painting

Since the original kit parts were painted silver, there was no painting to do. The metal SAC parts looked great.

Reskit is an aftermarket parts company based out of Kiev, Ukraine. Established in 2015, their products are a combination of photo-etch and resin parts. Using CAD and 3D printing technologies, the resulting product is finely detailed and builds up into very complex assemblies.

UPDATED REVIEW

This release by SAC provides replacement white metal landing gear for the Kitty Hawk 1/48 Su-34 kit. While white metal is softer than cast brass, the main struts and nose struts are quite sturdy in this set and will hold up if a lot of weight is added to the model. This release by SAC is a replacement for the kit landing gear, both the main gear and the nose gear. These parts are not a copy of the kit parts it is engineered from build-ups of the kit parts and then cast. As a result, this set has fewer parts than if you built the landing gear out of the box. The gear is engineered to incorporate some plastic parts from the Kitty Hawk kit. Unlike past SAC sets I have reviewed in the past, these parts have been cleaned up and do not show any mold lines.

The replacement main gear comprises 6 parts and replaces kit parts as indicated:

As part Tempest release, Eduard Models has included different aftermarket sets. This one is for the RP-3 60 lb rockets, widely used by the Royal Air Force during WW2. The set in particular is recommended for the Eduard Tempest Mk V, as the rockets railings are meant to fit that model. I've believe the rockets could be used in other RAF models, if you can source your own railings.

A total of 8 resin rockets and railings plus a large PE fret arrive inside a box. To prevent the parts from rattling, there is some packing foam in the box. That is good, but in my particular boxing, the parts were packed so tight, that it might have led to some of the resin parts to bend. Actually 6 of the 8 rockets had some level of bending or twisting. Not a lot of bending but noticeable under close inspection. Probably by dipping the part in hot water and "re-bending" the part it might be possible to straighten them. The railings were straight as arrows.