IPMS/USA Reviews

While this set is designed for the Fujimi kit, it's a direct drop in; you can easily use it on any of the Hasegawa offerings (which I'll be using). It's an excellent upgrade from the kit parts and requires minimal modeling effort to complete.

It consists of a single fret of 2 PE afterburner flame rings and two sets of exhaust "feathers" (long), afterburner cans, and exhaust cones. My sample was cast in dark grey resin and was bubble free. The cut lines are clearly defined and the resin separates easily from the pour stubs with a few swipes from a razor saw. A few swipes with a sanding sick leveled the parts up and they were ready to assemble.

Be very careful with the PE afterburner flame rings. They are extremely delicate and are somewhat oversized for the afterburner cans. I used a wooden dowel, to gently move them into position, to where the grooved afterburner can liner begins.

As always, make sure you wear a respirator when you make your cuts and vacuum up the residual dust once you're finished.

Overall this set is just the ticket for anyone looking to make a more Phabulous Phantom.

Italeri has been releasing more Italian WWII subjects in both 1/72 and 1/48 scales over the past several years, with mixed success. Several were excellent kits such as the CR.42 and the SM.82 while others, like the most recent Re.2002, were poorly received by some modelers. The recent release of the MC.200 has drawn some negative pre-release publicity as well as comparisons to the well done PCM kit released earlier. Being a sucker for anything in splotchy camouflage, I jumped at the opportunity to try the kit for myself, and found a solid effort with good points and some bad points as well.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to Eduard for providing this kit to IPMS/USA and to them for allowing me to review it.

We are all familiar with the Fokker D.VII, but a little historical background may be helpful to explain the markings seen on the subject of this review. The D.VII was such a formidable aircraft that the Armistice ending WWI specifically called for all surviving D.VIIs be delivered to the Allies. The United States pick up a few for testing, but nothing ever came of the effort. However, other countries used them operationally. One country, the Hungarian Soviet Republic, a short-lived Communist regime established in the chaos following WWI, used a number of D.VIIs in the Hungarian/Czechoslovakina/Romanian War of 1919. Some of these aircraft were ex-German aircraft and some were built by MAG, (Magyar Altalanos Gepgyar - Hungarian General Machine Company) an Austro-Hungarian company licensed to build the D.VII using the Austro-Daimler engines. It was from early 1919 to July 1919 that the Hungarian Soviet Republic used their D.VIIs emblazoned with the red star as seen on this model.

THE AIRCRAFT

The Vampire certainly qualifies as an "early jet", being second oldest to the Meteor in RAF service. The Vampire's twin-boom layout was a result of the low power of the early jet engines. The shorter the tail pipe, the more power the engine could deliver. The Vampire's original mission was strictly as an interceptor, with only the 4x 20 mm Hispano cannon as armament.

The Vampires had no power assist for the controls, no radar, and no vices. It was fondly referred to as the "aerial kiddie car" by post-war pilots, implying that anyone could fly it. This may explain why the Vampire was exported extensively. The export list includes: Austria, Australia, Burma, Ceylon, Canada, Chile, Congo, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Katanga, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Rhodesia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. Vampires also served with the Royal Navy, and the first jet carrier landing and take off was a Vampire piloted by the famous Captain Eric Brown.

Beautifully cast as "plug in" replacements for the kit parts these parts are ready to use. Designed for the Tamiya A6M-2 Zero.

Many thanks to Quickboost/Aires for the review samples. Visit them on their website at www.quickboost.net for this and many other fine products.

This item is highly recommended.