If the aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm of the United Kingdom is an area of interest for you, I don’t think you’d have to look too much further for information on every aircraft used by this service since 1945 than this book. That includes fixed and rotary wing aircraft and even some prototypes. The design, development and deployment of every type used is given in significant detail as is a list of all the specifications and requirements issued by the DOD for their design. As a sort of bonus, there is also a listing of all the ships that carried these aircraft, including the helicopters on surface ships.

The photos are excellent, are crystal clear and the line drawings and charts and tables give extensive information on each type of aircraft. It is particularly pleasing that information and photos are supplied of the ships that carried these aircraft.

This accessory kit contains three direct replacement pieces for the Monogram Catalina kit. There’s one piece of the breaching gear that isn’t included with the kit. That is the strut for the rear tail wheels. You will have to use the kit part for this.

The level of detail is nice and representative for a 1/48 scale kit. The gear itself in real life is relatively simple, meant to be attached in the water. There was a little bit of cleanup to be done and two pieces of long, thin flash from the molding process had to be cut off.

General flash on the parts was minimal and they cleaned up easily. I didn’t note that the tail wheel support was extremely soft until after I started working on it. Just scraping flash off with the #11 Blade caused it to bend.

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) has provided the IPMS reviewer corps a set of 1/48th scale metal landing gear for the Academy F4F-3/4 Wildcat. These parts are drop-in replacements and provide a more robust landing gear set given its metal properties.

In the Package

The metal pieces are packed in a clear blister package with cardboard backing. No instructions are provided.

The metal landing gear set is used as drop-in replacements for parts B4, B17, B23, B33, and B50 and can be referenced in the instructions on step 2.

The metal used is malleable and has some give to allow for any minor bending if needed. Also, seam lines will need to be cleaned up prior to painting just like the plastic kit parts.

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) has provided the IPMS reviewer corps a set of 1/48th scale metal landing gear for Clear Props F-86A Sabre. These parts are drop-in replacements and provide a more robust landing gear set given its metal properties.

In The Package

The metal pieces are packed in a clear blister package with cardboard backing. No instructions are provided.

However, my review sample did not come with the nose landing gear and came with an extra RHS strut, part H19 (a quality control slip).

The metal landing gear set is used as drop-in replacements for parts H19 & H15 (RHS & LHS struts) and the K2 oleo arms are molded with the strut. The nose strut, part K22, was missing from my sample review, but it too should have the oleo arms, part K27, molded with the strut. Also, the nose gear extension arm, part K9, is included.

ResKit has obviously spent some time designing their packaging to make a visual impact both from the outside of the box and then when opening it. The parts are capped on top and bottom with foam and each resin print has a cage around it in addition to major pieces also being in small plastic baggies. I assume the baggies are to catch any parts that might inadvertently come off during shipping. All the parts are finely detailed, and the only place I could find layer lines was on the very ends of the cargo platform, and they barely showed up under primer. It took me roughly 2 hours to detach all the parts from the print supports. The main cargo bed was definitely tricky to detach. I worked from the outside, meaning the longest supports, to the inside one layer at a time. I was able to cut the lower base plate in between the layers of supports.

Real Weathering Volume 2 is a reference book with photos of military vehicles showing various conditions of wear and exposure to different environmental conditions. This volume features military armor and land vehicles. The book is the second in a series and is intended for military modelers who want to weather their scale models to better replicate actual vehicles.

The book is not an instruction manual that describes how to model the effects shown in the photos. The value in this book shows examples of vehicles that can be used by the modeler to replicate various effects on actual vehicles. The photos are large and many are zoomed in on particular details.

The only text in the book is in the Introduction and captions on some photos in the Introduction. The main chapters of the book are strictly photographs with no descriptions and are as follows:.

It’s not a marker…it’s not a brush…it’s the Missing Link! The ultimate solution for adding weathering effects to your models.

AMMO by Mig is proud to announce its new Missing Link Sets: Aircraft, Trains and Tanks. Per their website:

The new brush tip watercolor marker set from AMMO by Mig Jimenez represents an evolution in modeling tools. Designed for precision, versatility, and ease of use. This set of 12 transparent colors has been carefully selected to reproduce realistic effects on military vehicle models. With Missing Link Brush Tip markers, you can apply everything from filters to weathering effects on your models.

Scale Aircraft Conversions has developed a set of metal landing gear for the relatively new Airfix 1/72 B-24s. Airfix first released the B-24 H in 2024 and followed by the B-24D in 2025. The kit parts are stout but these metal replacements provide the opportunity for final adjustments and alignment of the gear and wheels. Airfix have addressed the shortcomings of previous B-24 designs by improving the front gear and arranging for solid mounting with 3 contact points. The old Minicraft and Academy kits have only one contact point and the Hasegawa only two. I have included photos of the parts without primer but this is only for clarity and to make it easier to differentiate the SAC gear from the necessary plastic parts. The casting blocks will need to be carefully clipped off and mold part lines cleaned up.

This book is the third in the series of medal of honor recipients in the Army Air Force during World War II. The careers of nine aviators and details of the aircraft they used are profiled in this book:

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Introduction

1. William Lawley
2. Darrell Lindsey
3. Archibald Mathies & Walter Treumper
4. Jack Mathis
5. Thomas McGuire
6. Edward Michael
7. John Morgan
8. Harl Pease

• Index

Organization of chapters

Each chapter includes the flying record of the recipient, list of missions flown, the Medal of Honor citation, B&W photographs of missions, color profiles of aircraft, and the careers of the Medal of Honor aviators.

I asked to review this as I have never used any Yahu Models products before, and I have the Airfix Chevy M6 Bomb Service truck in their USAAD Bomber supply set. Unfortunately, I found out the set, while saying 1/72nd, is actually made for the 1/35th scale ICM series of kits. The back of the package has the correct 1:35 notation.

The set is very nicely detailed with 2 small frets of photoetch. The first one has a full-color instrument panel and separate bezels to add to it. The second fret has some pre-printed placards, including for the engine bay.

Overall, this set will add a lot of extra detail, even though I think the bezels are a bit too small for my skill level, but I also think you could get away without adding them.

Other than the scale confusion, if you have the ICM kits, these will look very good.

Background Notes

This is a white-metal replacement for the Magic Factory A-4M Skyhawk kit and provides all the small details to match those of the kit’s parts, as well as those from the plastic kit itself.

While the Magic Factory’s A-4M kit is a great kit in itself, this aftermarket kit provides two aspects which will aid in completion of the base kit: (1) all of the small details are faithfully replicated in white metal (including expansion marks, collet rings, attachment points for both the rear and front wheels and gear retraction bar) and (2) the added weight provided by the white metal itself adds not only to the strength of the landing gear but more importantly the sheer weight itself of the metal gear parts.

There were 13,738 P-40 Warhawks built during World War II, making it the most produced American fighter aircraft of the war. Among the multitude of 1/48 scale P-40s are the new Eduard kits of the P-40E/N. As aircraft modelers well know, aircraft models displayed on their landing gear are susceptible to damage from the weight of the model, especially on styrene landing gear.

Scale Aircraft Conversion has had the solution since 1990. Their white metal landing gear is designed to bear the weight of the model and complement the detailed non-load bearing plastic parts. Their extensive range covers white metal landing gear from 1/144 to 1/18 scale aircraft.

Another in ICM’s range of paint sets, which is intended for use with any kit of a WWII RAF training aircraft; the box illustrates a Hampden and Tiger Moth. The set contains the following six 12ml paint pots; I have listed their likely intended uses:

• 1003 Deep Yellow – Yellow (aka ‘Trainer Yellow’ – the RAF had only one Yellow during WWII)
• 1023 Aluminium – Aluminium Dope
• 1050 Saddle Brown – Dark Earth
• 1053 Leather Brown – alternative Dark Earth
• 1069 Extra Dark Green – Dark Green
• 1072 US Dark Green – alternative Dark Green

The back of the box has a drawing showing where to use each color on a Hampden and two Tiger Moths, one in overall Aluminum Dope, the other in early Temperate Day Scheme with Yellow undersides and ‘trainer bands.’

On December 17, 1935, the first of a ground-breaking aircraft that ushered in a new era of passenger flight: the immortal DC-3, which needs no introduction and is still a common sight 90 years on; the illustrious DC-3, about which so much has been written for 90 years; the glorious DC-3, which holds a special place in the hearts of aviation enthusiasts across the globe.

Every 10 years, someone releases a book titled “Douglas DC-3: [X] Glorious Years." First, it was Arthur Pearcy with his 40 Glorious Years, 50 Glorious Years and 60 Glorious Years. This year, it’s Fonthill Media’s turn with their new book Douglas DC-3: 90 Glorious Years. This is a reprint of their previous book Douglas DC-3: 80 Glorious Years, printed 10 years ago.

Reference from the ICM website,

MMP was founded in 1996 by Roger Wallsgrove, to publish "Mushroom Model Magazine". This quarterly modeling magazine was developed from "Mushroom Monthly", a club newsletter which ran from 1985 to 1995, achieving a world-wide reputation for quality articles, fearless and honest reviews, and a great sense of humor. From 1997, the magazine was produced in collaboration with Robert Peczkowski and Artur Juszczak (Stratus), which meant a big leap in print quality and design. MMP expanded into book publication in 1999 with Stratus, and since then they have built up a list of hard cover and soft cover titles on aircraft and aviation, naval, military vehicles, and military history. Stratus/MMP Books are distributed in North America by Casemate Publications.

Upon opening the cover, there is a reinforced white inner box that does a good job of protecting the kit’s seven gray plastic sprues, and decal sheet (I recently heard on the Beyond the Box Art podcast that ICM’s boxes are designed to withstand the rigors of delivery services, and this box definitely meets that standard). The instructions span 12 pages and cover 38 steps. The downloadable instructions are also available separately online at the ICM website. Take care with small pieces (grab handles, etc) as the plastic is fragile and can break when removed from the sprue gates.