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P-51D Mustang Resin Updates (for Eduard) 1:48 Eduard Brassin You can always add more details to any kit, and the Eduard kit is no exception and Eduard are on the ball with a few additional Brassin sets containing some impressively crisp resin. Exhaust Stacks (648485) A new set of resin exhausts for your kit with additional detail and well-defined hollow tips that are a straight forward drop-in replacement for the kit parts. Wheels – Oval Tread (648503) We reviewed most of the tread types here recently, but this one slipped through, so here it is. You get two resin main wheels with deeply recessed hub details, separate sopked hub caps, a tail-wheel and a set of kabuki tape masks to simplify painting. Hamilton Standard Propeller Cuffed & Uncuffed (648487 & 648488) Each set consists of the four blades, detailed rear spinner and spinner cone, the central hub with keyed openings to insert the blades, short axle, and small sheet of tiny Photo-Etched (PE) circles to fit to the recess in the tip of the spinner, and you get three in case you lose a couple. To ensure that the blades are set to the correct angle a small jig is included that holds the boss while you glue each prop blade in place with super glue. Choose the appropriate set for cuffed or uncuffed, and remember to have a 2mm drill to deepen the hole in the back of the boss to 5.3mm. Cuffed (648487) Uncuffed (648488) Review sample courtesy of

The latest to limp from the Pigsty Productions line: Hasegawa’s classic old 1/32 F-5E, in the markings of the 1o/1o Grupo Aviação de Caça, Força Aérea Brasileira. This is a pretty decent old kit - it must date from the mid-70s - and I thoroughly enjoyed the build. I started by rescribing everything but the rivets around the tail section. I’d read some horror stories about poor fit, but there were very few problems. You’ll want to watch for gaps at the wing roots and, possibly, where the top and bottom of the fuselage meet aft of that. I packed the wing root joints with plastic card in preference to filler, but overdid it and managed to introduce a whit of dihedral on what should be a dead flat wing. The kit represents a basic F-5E, so for the Brazilian fit I added the ILS aerial on the spine and the fin-root extension. But a refuelling probe was beyond me so this is a very early F-5E (and certainly no F-5EM). The cockpit is good - for its age, very good. I pondered upgrades since it does lack mirrors, latches etc around the canopy, but I balked at paying more for that than the kit’s worth and settled for lead foil seat-belts and leaving the lid shut. The last addition was intake guards. These are necessary because you can see into the intakes and get a lovely view of how the backs of various parts come together. I suppose an alternative is full-length trunking, though I suspect you’d have to make your own. And that’s a terrible long intake. The centreline tank comes with the kit. Things that fall off were robbed from a Trumpeter F-105 - you get masses of redundant weapons in them. The AIM-9Bs in the kit were poor, so I grafted their noses onto old Tamiya AIM-9Gs, then grafted little-lenses onto them for seeker heads. The FAB decals were by FCM. Hmm, yes, FCM decals. One of the other horror stories doing the rounds is that these fall to bits on contact with water. I tested one and found it was nice and robust so, nice, I thought, no problems there. Colour density and register were excellent and, so far as I can tell, they’re accurate. But in the end they were too robust - it was like working with cellophane. Four coats of Microsol, two of Mr Mark Softer, and two of Klear, is what it takes to leave them silvered all over. But they are stuck down, even if they wouldn’t settle into the panel lines, and you can draw your lines in on top of them without tearing them. Stencils and such came from the kit - English rather than Portuguese, but barely legible - and only just behaved better. The camouflage is Humbrol enamel, all done with brushes as usual. The metallic bits are Gunze Mr Metal. Believe it or not, the napalm tanks and the rear fuselage started the same colour - just shows what a difference priming and polishing can make to that stuff. The final finish is Klear, Vallejo matt varnish, and chalk pastels. 'Scuse the Lego! Hmm ... must pick up a new backcloth.