Model Airplane International 07/2014

While it is true that we already have an MS.406 in this scale from Hasegawa. there have always been those that felt it left something to be deserved as far as accuracy went, so who better to do the type than French company Azur, using the moulding skills of MPM in the Czech Republic. I started this kit by quietly studying the I instruction sheet because on the sprue J you have different optional parts like a8 the propeller, as well as some that can «I be discarded such as the fixed radiator for the MS.410. Anyway, first I built the cockpit, it is well detailed with photo-etched for the instrument panel, seat belts and some tiny pieces. The front and rear panel are plain instead of the steel tubing that they should be but, if like me, you leave the canopy closed it will be fine. I made the rollover frame with stretched sprue as this is not supplied in the box but it is shown in the instructions. The main cockpit was a dark shade of blue/grey and for this I chose Humbrol 77 (Navy Blue). I applied Humbrol 67 (Leather Brown) on the harness and seat cushion then applied a very dark wash of Tamiya X-1 9 Smoke before a thin layer of Prince August acrylic polyurethane matt varnish sealed everything in. Next I secured the fuselage halves with very thin liquid cement, working on small lengths to get a strong bond. Half an hour later I added cyanoacrylate glue to act as a (quick) putty so that in a further 30 minutes I could sand these seams. I used the same system between the wing and the fuselage join, starting with the lower section and working up because that way I could better adjust the fit and alignment. Finally I glued the horizontal tail to conclude the fuselage assembly.

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Air International 07/2014

The primary goal of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations is to provide military and, where appropriate, civilian commanders with high-fidelity intelligence to enable timely and efficient decision-making. Effective ISR operations are a key enabling capability in the armoury of intelligence specialists seeking to secure national borders and meet the continued challenge of fighting the war on terrorism against ever-more elusive targets. Built by UTC Aerospace Systems, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. the DB-110 Reconnaissance System (the DB stands for dual band) is at the forefront of this essential mission. Employing cutting-edge technology and with a proven track record on operations, the DB-;110 has acquired an enviable global reputation that is second to none, and will continue to grow in light of recent orders. That said, the DB-110 pod's technology does have wider commercial applications in providing unique wide-area surveillance in near real-time, which the company continues to explore. The DB-110 system is complex but UTC Aerospace Systems specialists explained the system's history, key functionality, as well as its pioneering technology to AIR International.

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Britain At War 07/2014

WITH THE current focus on the First World War, stories that have lain untold for many years are emerging from family sources, writes Mark Khan. The Herts At War Project has recently uncovered one of these accounts. Private William Taylor was serving with the 1st Battalion the Hertfordshire Regiment, a pre-war Territorial unit, when war broke out in August 1914. The 1st Herts was among a small number of Territorial units which were sent to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force. The Herts Regiment was attached to the 4th (Guards) Brigade of part of the 2nd Division. As a result of the dedication, professionalism, courage under fire and comradeship it showed in the days and weeks that followed, the battalion earned the nickname of the "Herts Guards". Aged 23, Private Taylor had travelled to France 1914 with his regiment in 1914. He served as part of a Lewis gun team. When he went to war, Taylor took with him a set of eight photographs, which included images of members of his family, keeping them in a wallet in his breast pocket, as his grandson, David Taylor, recalls: "When he left for France in 1914 he took these pictures with him as keepsakes. In quiet moments he got them out and looked at them and remembered his family back at home". Little did he know that the wallet and these photographs would one day protect him from serious injury or possibly death.

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Aeroplane 08/2014

During mid-May volunteers at the de Havilland Aircraft Museum at Salisbury Hall completed painting the wings of de Havilland Mosquito FB. VI TA122, enabling removal of the tail trestle. A couple of weeks earlier, the team assembled and fitted the two paddle-bladed propellers, and fitted the spinners. In late June the newly restored tailplane was due be fitted, completing the aircraft's fixed structure, after which all that that remains to complete the airframe will be the restoration and fitting of the flaps, ailerons, elevators and rudder. However, work on the FB. VI will soon be put on hold to allow the entire Mosquito team to concentrate on the restoration of the Mosquito prototype W4050, with the intention of having this truly historic machine back together in time for the 75th anniversary of its maiden flight on November 25, 2015. The propellers and the hydromatic variable pitch mechanisms for TA122 had been restored to operating condition by Roy Thomas and Tony Markham over the past few months. Project leader, Bob Glasby, says "The first propeller took around 45 minutes to fit as some issues were experienced in aligning the splines. However, having practiced on that one, the second propeller slipped on in just fifteen minutes!

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Scale Aviation Modeller International 07/2014

The Imperial Japanese Navy formally issued a set of specifications on 17th January 1938 to both Mitsubishi and Nakajima to develop an advanced fighter whose performance would exceed any other fighter aircraft that it was likely to meet. The Nakajima Company on reading the specifications believed them to be nearly impossible to fulfil and pulled out from the competition. The Mitsubishi Company continued to undertake the development of the required fighter. The design team was led by Jiro Horikoshi who had also led the team that produced the A5M. He believed that the requirements could be met but only if the fighter's weight was kept as light as possible. Every weight saving measure was looked at and this included using a new aluminium alloy that was developed by Sumitomo Metal Industries in 1936. It was decided that there was to be no armour protection for the pilot or any other critical parts of the aircraft, and it had standard fuel tanks as opposed to self-sealing ones, which were becoming the norm in the aircraft of other manufacturers. All of this went to make it lighter, more manoeuvrable and have a longer range than any other fighter in production at the time. It had an amazingly low stall speed of 110 kph or 69 mph and it was this that contributed to it being able to out-turn any other fighter it went up against.

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Scale Military Modeller International 07/2014

On April 291975 the People's Army of North Vietnam began the final assault on Saigon. Although outnumbered, the South Vietnamese troops fought tirelessly as the last US personnel evacuated the City. In the early hours of April 30 NVA tanks entered Saigon and the President of South Vietnam announced the capitulation of the country. The Viet-cong flag was hoisted on the roof of the presidential palace and marked the end of the Vietnam war. The origin of the T-54 came from the end of World War II and the development of the T-44. This then became the backbone of the armoured forces of the Communist Bloc well into the 1960s. Armed with a 100mm gun, the T-54 came in a number of versions such as the T-54-1 Model 1946, T-54-2 Model 1949, T-54-3 Model 1951, and the T-54A and T-54B. To the best of my knowledge there is no plastic model of this tank except the Trumpeter one from a good few years ago, so for this build I used the Tamiya T-55 and a T-54B conversion set from Tank Maker. In this set you have a new engine deck and turret fan, so characteristic of this version, and a full engine -which in my copy was sadly distorted and needed a bit of persuasion with a hair dyer! The Tamiya base kit built as you would expect and I added the usual electrical wiring and handrails from my spares-box and also added the piping and fuel tanks from a MIG Productions set. I also used a Blast Models set to improve the details on the turret and main gun.

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Military History 09/2014

Within a decade of the 1888 introduction of the bolt-action Lee-Metford service rifle—designed by Scottish-born gunsmith James Paris Lee and British engineer William Metford to fire black powder cartridges from a 10-round box magazine—the British army began development of a rifle that would fire the Mk 1.303-inch ball cartridge using cordite smokeless powder. The result— matching Lee's bolt-action design with rifling developed by the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield—was the Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk I, introduced in 1895. The new weapon fell short in combat against the Mauser Model 1895s the British faced during the Boer War, however, prompting production of the much-improved Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk I, accepted for service in 1902. Fitted with a 25.2-inch barrel (midway between the original model rifle and carbine) and a sliding charger guide for faster reloading, the SMLE, or "Smelly," saw further improvements and served as the principal long arm of the British soldier until the mid-1950s, when superseded by the semiautomatic L1A1 self-loading rifle. The SMLE Mk III proved its superiority to the Mauser at the Aug. 23, 1914, Battle of Möns, during which trained British soldiers averaged 25 aimed rounds a minute, leading German officers to believe they were using machine guns.

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