Items for aircraft and scratch-building are now available from the Czech manufacturer, as CHRIS CLIFFORD explains.
Above: The quality of design and casting on these Privateer wheels is admirable... a great detail boost for the Matchbox/Revell kit.
Plus Model can always be relied upon for interesting and useful aftermarket accessories. While one of the items is designed to embellish a particular aircraft kit, the others can be employed on all manner of builds. First to be examined here is set AL7070 (€7.99), which offers replacement wheels for Matchbox’s 1980-vintage 1/72 Consolidated PB4Y-2 Privateer (which has also been re-boxed by Revell). The PB4Y2 was based on the company’s B-24 Liberator, but it had a lengthened fuselage and swapped the trademark twin tails for a single vertical stabiliser.
Sharp casting
Plus Model’s resin wheels are splendid, with diamond-shaped tread pattern and admirable hub detail with great depth…ensured by separate hub centres for the mainwheels. The nosewheel is a whole item with all hub features cast in situ. Also supplied are pre-cut paint masks for all wheels, to ensure neatness when airbrushing.
Anyone building aircraft with stores on pylons can benefit from Plus Model’s 1/48 printed paper Remove Before Flight tags. Such devices are seen on all aircraft pylons when they are fitted with bombs, missiles and other stores, which are safety pinned when on the ground. Here we have versions I (AL4106) and IV (AL4109), the latter featuring nocturnal versions with white edging to emulate reflective trim. The sets have 49 and 68 RBF tags respectively, the first supplying tags that are double-sided (the nocturnal tags being printed just on one side). All have clear printing of the REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT wording and have holes punched into one end, so you can add your own pins from wire or other medium. Each set costs €5.59 and two others not shown here provide different styles of RBF tag.
Lastly, anyone scratch-building their own detail can make use of Plus Model’s own-brand styrene sheets in black. Handy for when a dark colour is more appropriate, they come in various thicknesses and sizes. We received samples of the 0.5, 0.3 and 0.2mm sheets, which measure approximately 218 x 190mm (£7.45 each) but there are also smaller 190 x 110mm sheets (again, two sheets per pack) for €3.73.
All these useful items are available direct from Plus Model.
