IPMS/USA Reviews

Sprues

• G - This sprue contains parts for the gun, shield, and gun cradle
• H x 2 - This has the wheel and hand wheels
• J - This has the ammo box and 3 shells
• N - This has the trails and associated bits
• P - Photo Etched parts

This kit is a representation of a Soviet "Divisional Gun" that was to fill the role of both a field gun and an anti-aircraft gun. This gun was designed in the early 1930s and started production in 1936. It stayed in production until 1939 when the Model 1939 gun went into production. May of these guns were captured and used by the German, Finnish, and Rumanian Armies.

Before starting the model, you need to decide how you want to display the gun, either in travel mode or firing mode. The instructions don't do a very good job of showing you what the differences are during the build to make the two different versions. I will try to point these out as I go along.

Introduction

The IAR 80 series of fighters was developed by IAR Brasov, a Romanian company, and were intended to replace some of the outdated Polish fighters which equipped the Romanian Air Force before World War II. IAR, which had produced a series of low wing, single seat fighters dating back to 1930 as well as some of the PZL fighters under license, developed a 'home grown design", the IAR-80, which was originally powered by a Romanian derivative of the French Gnome Rhone 14K Mistral-Major radial engine rated at 900 hp. Later models used 1,025 hp K-14-1000A engines, and the IAR-80A and IAR-80B were fighter and fighter bomber developments with slight detail differences. The IAR-80C, which was built in small numbers, was the last production model, and featured two 20 mm. Ikaria cannons, tail bracing struts, and racks for external fuel tanks. Survivors of the war were used by the Romanian Air Force until the late forties, and some were converted to two seat trainers.

The early FW-190As have been overlooked in large scale, that is until Pacific Coast Models released theirs. Now the modeler can build any one of the early short-nosed 190As. Eagle Editions is well known for Luftwaffe reference material, excellent resin and decals. This release is no different.

Designed for the Pacific Coast early Focke Wulfs, these decals are printed in perfect register by Cartograf. I've come to regard Cartograf as THE best decals in the world; certainly the best I've used. They are thin and react well with all known setting solutions.

There are two decal sheets; one that contains the individual markings for the aircraft, and one sheet of stencils and 'common' decals such as the crosses.

The instructions are printed on double sided 11 x 17 heavy gloss paper, and profile views of all four aircraft are included. One side consists of a diagram of the stencils. There is a page of color call outs which also include references, so you can look up the actual aircraft. Don't have those references? Well Eagle Editions includes a single-sided 8x10 page with black and white reference photos of two of the aircraft

The Company

I became aware of Kami di Korokoro several months back when I was surfing through the HLJ site and happened to find that there was a 1/144 model of the TSR.2 available in Japan. I had to have it. It was cheap, and I bought it. The TSR.2 is paper. One of those projects I'll get to some day. I also got this all-resin 1/144 P-40 from HobbyLink Japan.

The Kit

There's really not much to this kit as far as parts go. There's the fuselage/wing/stabilizers and the canopy, propeller, main gear, tail wheel and the doors. Decals for an AVG P-40B and a USAAF P-40C of the 97^th Pursuit Group are provided.

Like most Soviet aircraft of their era, the Mig-23 and Mig-27 have dorsal air scoops over the engine compartment to provide auxiliary cooling. These are large scoops and are quite noticeable on the real plane. The only 1/48 scale kit of these aircraft is the 1980's era Italeri (ex-ESCI) kit, and ESCI broke out from most of the kits of the era and molded the scoops open. While this is better than many kits, the opening is simplistic, it is molded in two halves so there is a seam to clean up, and the scoop is not quite right in shape. Quickboost again steps in with another simple aftermarket set to correct these deficiencies. Rendered in resin are two crisply cast and highly detailed replacement scoops. The shape and detail is superb; it even captures the splitter plate inside! Installation is easy, just cut from the block and attach to the airframe. I continue to be impressed by Quickboost's quality and range of offerings; they offer details rarely seen in the market before. For builders of Soviet era aircraft, this small detail will save time and be a nice enhancement.