IPMS/USA Reviews

Eduard has for a long time been releasing excellent aircraft kits in many forms- but the Profipack editions are easily my favorite ones as they usually include extras including color PE frets, masks, and sometimes bit of their Brassin products as well. This newer edition of their Mustang line contains no Brassin, but the included masks and color PE add immeasurable amounts of excellent detail to the kit build as we will soon see.

What's Inside the Box

The kit contents come in a nice sturdy box and includes the following well-packed bits:

This is a review of the 1/24^th Academy Hyundai Santa Fe.

Engine

No engine. It's curbside kit and a 2018 model year.

Interior

Interior is wonderfully engraved and everything fits perfectly. There were no painting instructions so interior was left black from the kit.

Body

Body was crisp and clean with no flash. I used HOK white and coated with 2 part urethane clear.

Chassis

The suspension parts are very few - about 5 parts total. The exhaust is molded in the chassis leaving only a chrome muffler and exhaust tip to attach.. All the parts fit with no issues.

Instructions

The instructions are several pages long and printed on glossy paper.

Decals

Decals were crisp and I was able to apply them very easily.

This is a review of the Flex-i-File Flex Set #550

Oh man. No engine, no interior, no wheels. And you wouldn't expect those items in a sanding kit. I ran into the Flex-i-File family at the IPMS Nationals in Orlando a few years ago and was impressed with their products. So I bought a few items and have used them extensively over the years.

I've included pics of the package and the package contents. Notice that the sanding sticks and sticks are color matched to a particular grit. Makes life easier.

I've other sanding sticks that fall apart after being used wet. These sticks don't separate and can also be easily trimmed to another shape if needed.

Need to sand the inside portion of a grille opening? Just hook one side of the supplied frame to a sanding strip, put the strip through the grille cavity, and connect the strip to the other end of the frame. Sand away.

The Flex-i-File Flex Set #550 is a fantastic addition to your hobby area tools.

Thank you to IPMS for allowing me to review this kit.

"Pave Hawk" HH-60G

This the second part of the review of Kitty Hawk's 1/35 "Pave Hawk" HH-60G. This review covers the engines, exterior, and armament of the Pave Hawk kit. Background on the Pave Hawk, description of the kit, contents, and interior assembly of the kit is reviewed separately:

Kitty Hawk "Pave Hawk" HH-60G, Part 1 Interior

Background

The HH-60G Pave Hawk's core mission is recovery of personnel under hostile conditions, including combat search and rescue. Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk 26227 of the 305th Rescue Squadron based at Davis-Monthan AFB participated in "Operation Red Wings II, On 2 July 2005, near Salar Ban in Northeastern Afghanistan. This aircraft picked up "Lone Survivor" Marcus Luttrell."   Wikipedia/Jetphotos.

I used references provided by Werner's Wings and online sources to build the Kitty Hawk model to reflect the "Lone Survivor" 26227.

The Author

David Doyle's earliest published works appeared in periodicals aimed at the hobby of historic military vehicle restoration. By 1999 this included regular features in leading hobby publications, appearing regularly in US, English and Polish magazines. Since 2003, over 100 of his books have been published. Broadening his horizons from his initial efforts concerning vehicles, he soon added aircraft and warships to his research objectives.

Contents

The book is divided into four chapters all covering the beginning construction to the final day of the Hornet. I've included a brief description of what is contained in each chapter.