IPMS/USA Reviews

The photoetch fret arrived in excellent shape in a resealable plastic package with the distinctive Eduard knight logo. The fret is 2.75 x 2.00 inches in size. The color-etched laminated figures are printed on both sides on polished metal. The fret metal is just soft enough to fold the figures, but firm enough to hold shape, whew! The 3D concept is that each figure consists of two halves, joined at the feet. The halves are folded upwards and together, creating a thicker and more-to-scale figure. Properly folded, the shoulders will match, and the boots can be folded to form feet for the figure to stand on. Trimming should be done very carefully, as should the folding. If the folding is not done correctly, it will be difficult to have the shoulders and feet line up.

CMK, Czech Master Kits, has released several resin seats designed to fit their numerous P-40 kits. This one is designed for their new P-40N. The set includes 1 part, the seat. This is a direct replacement for the kit part. The detail is crisp and it should look nice settled in the cockpit. There are no seatbelts molded onto the seat so you can easily use your favorite option.

This is another quick and simple addition to your P-40N.

Thanks to Special Hobby and IPMS/USA for the review kit.

Czech Master Kits, known as CMK, is one of the prolific model companies out of the Czech Republic releasing full kits and aftermarket parts for aircraft, AFVs, ships, figures, and more.

This includes a series of brass chains which are listed as Fine (72^nd scale), Medium (48^th) and Coarse (35^th). This review covers the Fine version of these products as I build mostly 1/72^nd scale kits. What you get is a very nice chain in brass that is 30cm long (almost 12 inches). The links are 2mm long and 1.2mm wide. The quality is high. You can either use the chain at its full length or cut it into smaller sizes for different uses.

I took pictures of the chain in comparison with my most recent review builds, a 1/76^th scale M3 half track from Airfix and Tamiya's new M3 Stuart. To my eye the chain would work for a heavy chain in 72^nd - 76^th scale, maybe in use to tow a vehicle. It looks more like a normal chain in 35^th scale though would be too large to use as tailgate chains.

Here's another nifty little "add on" or "fix-it" for your 1/144th Spitfire. The envelope contains 18 main wheels for Spitfires. I had to look closely, but there are 3 different types of tires in the envelope. There are 6 with no tread, 6 with a tread that runs around the tire, and 6 with a diamond tread. When I said I looked closely, I had to use the headband magnifier to see the tread. But they are there.

As far as using these wheels, they're slightly better in quality than the wheels in the newer Spitfire kits such as Eduard or Mark 1 so you may want to replace the kit items. But if you're looking at one of the "older" kits (Crown/Revell/Academy), the Brengun wheels are far superior. And then there's another need for wheels. The wheels are sometimes knocked off the landing gear, or they just get lost. These are the wheels you need.

One of the greatest things to ever hit the modeling community was the invention of the canopy mask! These unassuming sets have to be the Holy Grail of saving untold hours masking simple and complex canopies!

Eduard has supplied canopy masks for many years, and recently they introduced a new line of TFace masks. These include the standard masks for the outside of the canopy and also a set for the inside. The beauty of these is that the canopy frames can be painted their respective color on the inside. This results in a more realistic look and no tedious masking to remove glossy frames.

I used the TFace masks on Eduard's new Tempest Mk V. The inside of the canopy was masked off and painted black, while the outside received the camouflage colors. My canopy is quite small, but the inside painted areas can still be seen. The masks for the sliding canopy fit perfectly, but I thought the inside masks for the windscreen side glass were a little large.

Where these TFace masks will really shine is when used on a model with larger windows that are easily seen. Examples would be side opening canopies, or models in 1/32 and