Aircraft

 This series of decal sheets is long overdue, and covers an area that modelers have needed for a long time.  I have had experience with Aviaeology’s products in the past, and have found them to be excellent quality decals.  One advantage that this company offers is that they always do their homework in historical research, getting things right.

The AN/APG-66 radar system was developed by Westinghouse (now Northrop Grumman) in the 1970’s for use in the General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) F-16 Fighting Falcon, and entered service in 1979.  The radar was utilized in both the A and B versions of the F-16, and was later replaced by the AN/APG-68 system.  The AN/APG-66 weighed in at 362 pounds and was a multi-role, x-band unit with a range of 160 nautical miles.  In addition to the F-16 A and B, variants of the radar was also installed on the F-4EJ (Japanese export version of the Phantom II), British Hawk 200, US Navy T-39N, and New Zealand A-4 aircraft.  The modes of operation were range-while-scan, track-while-scan, velocity search, and gun director.

Editor's note: Eduard M.A. has requested that the following information be included in this review: The product reviewed "..that it's actually prototype product, and that there might be differences/enhancements when compared to the final, publicly released deck.." The item as given was not intended for review. Oct. 10, 2011

The Product:

This was presented to IPMS President Dick Montgomery by Eduard at the 2011 IPMS convention held in August in Omaha as a not yet released item to be submitted for review. I told Dick, “I will do my best to give a complete and honest review.”

 Well, here it is September already, and our busy beaver fellow IPMSer Ross McMillan follows through with 6 new releases, including one for the all-new Tamiya 1/32nd P-51D Mustang.

As always, crisply cast with only minimal flash and very little cleanup required. Many thanks for the review samples!  Keep up the great work.

The Contents

You get a heavy duty envelope with 4 plastic sleeves inside.  You get:

• 73355 PE, one self-adhesive mostly cockpit, and two really big PE frets for interior and exterior detail
• CX257 Canopy and Wheel mask
• 73008 Remove Before Flight Tags

You also get 2 full pages of instructions, folded so that you have 8 separate half pages of instructions, plus a half page instruction for the masks. 

The Aircraft

The F/A-18 Hornet has been around for a while, and it looks to be almost as big a winner as its predecessor, the F-4 Phantom.  One of the stories going around St. Louis in the 90s was that the plant wanted to build 5058 Hornets, one more than the production run for the Phantom.  Well, the production line is still open, and they’re past 1100 now. 

The Academy kit is interesting to me because it has markings for a Spanish EF-18 and a Canadian CF-18, as well as an Australian aircraft.  My decision was based on the fact that I worked with the Canadian 433 Squadron at an exercise in Wisconsin in 1995, and the markings are for the Porcupine Squadron.

The EF-2000A Typhoon, otherwise known as the Eurofighter Typhoon, the one of the latest generations of advanced technology fighters. Since its debut, several kits have been released, including the Revell and Trumpeter 1/32 scale kits. While I have not yet seen the Revell kit, the Trumpeter version is a great kit, but sadly is lacking in the pilot’s office. Once again, Aires to the rescue!  Aires has released a great cockpit set for the Typhoon. While the set is designed for the Revell kit, I found it also fits great in the Trumpeter kit. The set is cast resin with a high level of detail, and few, if any, casting defects. The set also includes a set of flexible cast oxygen hoses, a clear cast HUD glass, and a fret of photo-etched metal parts.

Eduard continues to lead the pack in taking older kits and upgrading them with PE and resin upgrades. In this case, we have the Academy MiG-29A, which in its own right is an excellent kit, with several items added to bring the basic kit to the next level. In this case, Eduard’s own PE instrument panel and detail set, combined with their in-house “Brassin” resin upgrades. Oh yeah, there is also one outstanding decal sheet included with no less than five variants to finish your model; Two Soviet, one Polish, one Czech Republic, and one Iranian. All are in register, and make for quite a variety of color schemes. The decals also include a comprehensive stencil suite, including missile and launch rail details. Outstanding! 

Master Models has created a superb replacement for the venerable M61 Vulcan cannon found in so many planes. The set consists of 6 perfectly turned brass barrels with hollowed out ends, a machined brass ring a machined center barrel and a set of photetched pieces to bring it all together.

Assembly is pretty straight forward but there are some pitfalls to watch for as you proceed. I attached the six barrels to the back plate and then worked at slipping the parts over and down the barrels. This will work but the barrels can spin and you need to watch alignment at all times. The photoetch parts are delicate and the fit is very tight. I suggest you build the two parts that slide over and then let them dry thoroughly and then slightly open the holes to allow them to slide easier. I didn't and had to force it some and that could distort the parts. After the parts slide, thin super glue will hold it together. Once dry, the parts are very study and the detail is so much better than kit parts. The hard part for me is determining which kit gets to add this set!

Background

I'll not spend much time here. Google for "Jane Russell", when you're done reading that, click any link to "Howard Hughes", and when done with that click the link to the "Hughes H-4 Hercules" to find out all you need to know about this aircraft.

I will add that SWMBO and I had a trip planned that would allow her to go to a big quilt show in Sisters, OR, and allow me to stop off in McMinnville and see the 'Spruce Goose' -- it didn't happen but is still in the back of our minds. Unfortunately, we'll never hear the sound of 8 R-4360's cranking over and running -- that's 224 cylinders generating 28,000 h.p. …. and 448 spark plugs to change ….

The Kit

This is a re-issue of the Gakken/G-Mark kit from sometime between 1965 and 1985; it has been (re-)issued by Minicraft and others through the years. I believe Minicraft also issued this kit in "what-if" TWA markings. Don't let this scare you -- if these are the original molds, they have stood up very, very well.

I would like to thank Osprey Publishing for submitting this book and thank IPMS/USA for allowing me to review it.

When we hear the name P-40 we almost invariably think of the shark mouth P-40s of The Flying Tigers doing battle with Japanese Nates and Zeroes over Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, the P-40s also spent considerable time in the air over North Africa and the Mediterranean area engaging the Luftwaffe’s Bf 109. It is the latter struggle that author Carl Molesworth captures in his book P-40 Warhawk vs Bf 109, MTO 1942-44.