IPMS/USA Reviews

PJ Productions from Belgium makes great aftermarket and figures in resin for aircraft modelers in all scales. This set is a resin Mirage Pilot wearing of the 1960's wearing the white suit named "habit de lumiere" and the Garneau helmet T312 or the high-altitude helmet EFA T12. The figure is designed to fit either the Mirage IIIC or early IIIE in 1/32^nd scale.

The kit consists five cream colored resin parts- left and right arms, the body with legs and two head options. One is fully helmeted and the second is without so you have an option. The casting is good with only a few seams and no bubbles. I cut the arms off the casting blocks and used the back side of a #11 blade to get the seams removed followed by a light sanding. The same was done with the body and I chose the ETA helmet and head which just needed removing from the casting block. I added the arms and then smoothed the seams. I kept the head separate for ease of painting. Lastly, I primed the entire kit with Alclad gray primer and let it sit and dry.

Some things are just better in a scale thickness. Eduard has always provided some of the world leading photoetch. The Eduard 109s are some of the best kits out there of this iconic aircraft, but like other manufacturers, they are limited what they can do in plastic.

This fret of photo etch is designed to allow you to do a variety of options to improve your kit. The big things on the fret are the flaps and landing gear doors. Also included on the fret are the oil cooler exhaust, radio compartment, and lots of parts for the landing gear. Both the flaps and the landing gear doors are a very scaled thickness. The flaps will allow you to position your flaps in any position you so desire.

The radio compartment is a very nice addition if you want to open up the panel. It is interesting that this panel is slightly different than the one in the Brassin Radio Compartment set. This particular one has the area for the first aid kit. Which isn't on the Brassin set.

This is a photoetch exterior set to for the Hong Kong Models B-17 E/F. This set consists of one photoetch sheet and adds detail to mainly the wings.

In the packet is

• 1 photoetch sheet
• 1 instruction sheet

Summary

This is a nice simple set for adding additional detail to the wings mainly and some to the fuselage. The parts are very easy to install and add details not included in the kit.

Thanks go to Eduard for providing this set to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them.

Scale Aircraft Conversions has produced white metal replacement landing gear for the recently issued Italeri H-21 "Flying Banana" kit. I have reviewed several of these sets, and purchased a few more on my own, because in all cases they have been superior to the kit items. The white metal gear typically provides a much greater weight tolerance than kit-supplied plastic parts.

These white metal replacements are a clean drop-in for the kits' plastic parts. The set includes main gear and nose gear struts and supporting hardware. Detailing has been improved over the kit parts (mold lines removed, etc.). The supplied items also include all main and nose gear braces, the nose gear oleo scissor assembly, landing lights and a pitot replacement.

A side by side evaluation (see photos) indicates identical or improved cast replacement parts that should provide a greater strength assembly, significantly improved weight capacity, and abuse tolerance. The kit parts are positioned below the SAC parts. I will be using the SAC gear in my build of the Italeri kit as a part of an arctic radar line support base diorama.

If you prefer the added level of detail provided by aftermarket resin items, Eduard has recently released a set that you will love for arming your F-14A Tomcat. Consisting of the AIM-9G/H Sidewinder, AIM-7E Sparrow, and AIM-54A Phoenix, this Big Sin set provides four of each missile in glorious resin detail. I would highly recommend the set, and if you have some experience fitting resin parts, and working with fine decals, you should have no problem building and marking these missiles for your Tomcat.

The Phoenix has always been of interest to me as the missile was developed from the AIM-47 Falcon, which was being designed for use on the A-12 version of the SR-71 that never entered service, and the F-108 Rapier, which also never entered service. The start of the AIM-54 project was for the F-111B that oddly did not enter service either. The long-range missile had enough redeeming qualities to be the big stick carried by the Tomcat until both were retired. The AIM-54A saw production start in 1974, and by the time that it ended in 1981, nearly 2600 of the A and B models had been built, and at that time, the C version started rolling out.