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Aermacchi M.416 (KPM0374) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov After WWII, Dutch aircraft manufacturer Fokker was keen to get back to work designing and building aircraft that would be of use post war. They developed the S-11 prop trainer, and by as early as 1948 it was showing promise after numerous issues had been dealt with. It was demonstrated widely to European air forces, and others further afield, such as the nascent Israel and some Southern American countries. Italy obtained a license to build 180 airframes of the S-11-3 variant themselves as the Macci M.416, which became Aermacchi as a portmanteau of Aeronautica Macchi. It was powered by a Lycoming O-435A flat-six engine that output 190hp and propelled it to a top speed of 130mph, although a cruising speed of a shade over 100mph was more fuel efficient, giving it a range a hair short of 400 miles on a good day. They were widely used by the Netherlands, Brazil, Israel and Italy, but today only a few are airworthy in private hands around the world, the rest of the remaining airframes relegated to museums, and it should be no surprise that there is an M.416 in an Italian museum, with another being restored. The Kit This boxing is based on a new tool from 2022, with new decals to suit its Italian operators, and it arrives in an end-opening box with a painting of the subject on the front, and the decal profiles on the rear in full colour. Inside is a single sprue of grey styrene, a clear sprue, decal sheet, and instruction booklet printed in colour, with line drawn profiles in black and white on the rear page. Detail is good, with crisp recessed panel lines, raised and recessed surface features, and well rendered scalloping on the aft fuselage. There has been a small amount of mould damage to one of the wheels that will be used, just where it meets with yoke, but this should be easy to repair with a sharp blade or micro-chisel if you have one. Construction begins with the cockpit floor, which has the rudder pedals and a centre console moulded-in, adding the twin control columns to marks on the floor, plus the two crew seats and their decal seatbelts on shallow raised boxes. The two main wheels are prepped by painting them up, as is the rear wheel, then the wings are made by inserting the short inner panel underneath, the landing light in the leading edges, and a cranked pitot probe in the port wing, with an optional straight version you must make yourself from plastic or brass rod. It’s a strange build order, but when do we ever stick rigidly to the instructions? The cockpit is inserted into the fuselage during closure, remembering to paint the internal details that are moulded into the fuselage halves, and adding the instrument panel under the coaming. With the fuselage closed, the front of the engine cowling is glued to the flat nose, and a pair of short lengths of rod from your own supplies are used underneath the cowlings to depict the exhausts. The tail fin is moulded into the fuselage with a separate rudder, then the elevators are butt-joined to the sides, adding the support braces beneath them. The wings are also butt-joints, and even at this scale it might be sensible to add some brass pegs to these and the elevators to give the joints extra strength during handling, especially if you’re a clumsy modeller like me. The final construction phase involves fitting the canopy over the cockpit aperture, and installing a choice of prop with or without a spinner. Speaking of the canopy, if you are feeling brave you should look at the box art and consider adding some of the various grab-handles and other details you can see there. Markings There are three options on the decal sheet, the profiles on the rear showing them all as silver finished aircraft in Italian service. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals appear to be printed using the same digital processes as Eduard are now using, and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. I mention Eduard because from 2021, the carrier film on their decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them carrier film free, making the completed decals much thinner and more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the carrier film. It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain. Conclusion It’s a cute little trainer that I’d never heard of before this kit arrived, and now I want one in my preferred scale. Detail is good, and the removable carrier on the decals will be useful on a silver finish. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Bell AH-1G Huey Cobra ‘International’ (KPM0380) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The AH-1 Cobra was the first dedicated production Gunship or Attack Helicopter to see US service as a new type of weapons platform. During the Vietnam war the US Army began to see the need for armed helicopter to escort its unarmed UH-1 Hueys into combat. Fortunately, Bell Helicopters had been independently investigating helicopter gunships as early as the late 1950s, so in 1962 Bell was able to display a mock up concept to the US Army, featuring a 20mm gun pod, and a ball turret mounted grenade launcher. It was felt by the Army to be lightweight, under powered and unsuitable. Following this the US Army launched and Advanced Aerial Fire Support System (AAFSS) competition, which gave rise to the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne heavy attack helicopter that proved to be too technologically advanced and therefore risky for its time, eventually being cancelled in 1972 after 10 years of development (some things never change). Despite the failure of the AAFSS programme, Bell stuck with its idea of a smaller, lighter gunship and invested its own money developing the AH-1 further. They used as many of the proven components they could from the UH-1 platform, adding these to a newly designed slender fuselage that had a minimal frontal profile, making it harder to hit. When The US Army later asked for plans for an interim gunship for use in Vietnam, Bell was in a fortunate position to be able to offer the ready-made AH-1, or the Bell 209 as it was called internally. Given the work Bell had already done, the programme was completed in a relatively rapid eight months and won the evaluation battle against the competition. In 1966 the US Army signed an initial contract for 110 aircraft. Some slight modifications were made to the production airframes, replacing the heavy armoured glass canopy with Plexiglas to improve performance. Wider rotor blades were fitted and the original retracting skids were replaced by simple fixed units. The G model was the initial 1966 production model gunship for the US Army, with one 1,400shp (1,000 kW) Avco Lycoming T53-13 turboshaft. Bell built over 1,100 AH-1Gs between 1967 and 1973, and the Cobras would go on to fly over a million operational hours in Vietnam, losing approximately 300 to combat shoot-downs and accidents during the war. The U.S. Marine Corps would use AH-1G Cobra in Vietnam for a short period before acquiring more damage resilient twin-engined AH-1J Cobras. The M-35 Gun System was a single M195 20mm cannon (a short-barrelled version of the six-barrel M61A1 Vulcan) on the port inboard pylon of the AH-1G, with 950 rounds of ammunition stored in boxes faired to the side of the aircraft. The system was primarily pilot controlled, but featured dual controls so it could be either pilot or gunner controlled by an M73 sight. The AH-1 went on to serve the US Army until it was replaced by the AH-64 Apache, the last one leaving active service in 1999. The Kit This is a re-release with new parts of the original tooling from 2013, and arrives in an end-opening box with a painting of the subject on the front, and the decal profiles on the rear. Inside is one full-sized sprue in sand-coloured styrene in a resealable bag, a clear sprue in its own Ziploc bag, a sheet of decals and a folded A4 instruction booklet that is printed in colour and has a sprue diagram plus a little history of the type on the front page. Detail is good throughout, and there is no flash to speak of, with engraved panel lines and crisp raised and recessed details. Construction begins with creation of the cockpits and a few other assemblies, starting with the instrument panels, which have a highly detailed painting guide provided as step 1 and 2. The front panel has its coaming moulded-in and needs a little shaving off the bottom edge, while the rear panel has a larger separate part for the coaming, plus a choice of two styles of HUD, then the cockpit tub is decorated with crew controls, one of which is made by stretching sprue from the runners to different diameters and gluing them together to create the collective stick for the pilot in the rear. The armoured wing-back seats with decal seatbelts are then installed along with the two instrument panels, finishing the cockpit, and moving on to making the two-part fuel tanks, one for each side, and the gun turret for under the nose. Each barrel is inserted into a curved plate, which is slotted into the turret, leaving the plates inside the turret, while the barrels project from the two slots in the front. The fuselage halves are painted in two areas with black for the cockpit and gunmetal for the rotorhead area, after which the cockpit and quilted rear bulkhead are inserted into the starboard side, with a circular platform placed on a ledge inside the rotorhead area. The fuselage is joined after adding the exhaust trunk, and the rotor is made up from the blades and control arms, which locate on the circular part within the rotorhead cowling, then adding a choice of short or extended exhaust lips at the end of the trunking. The canopy is made up from the fixed roof/windscreen and two side panes on each side, with the option of leaving the openers closed or ajar, as you wish. Under the tail is a wire bumper, then your selection of fin is joined to the tail boom and has the rotors with control ‘crown’ fitted on left or right sides, depending on which tail you have installed. Stabiliser fins are inserted into slots around the centre of the tail boom, as are the winglets with tips and pylons glued to them before they are fixed in place further forward. The main gear consists of a pair of skids under the fuselage on curved supports, adding a bulkhead behind the turret before gluing that in place along with the fuel tanks and a pair of rocket pods that are each made from two halves to make the cylindrical body, plus a pair of end-caps with the nose/tail of the rockets moulded-in. Some decal options have a blade antenna under the fuselage, so check your choice and glue it in place or otherwise. Markings There are four options on the decal sheet, and you can see the profiles on the back of the box. There’s a choice of colour options between blue Spanish Navy birds and green Israeli airframes. The colours are marked out in oval swatches with names under them, showing no allegiance to any paint brand’s colour codes. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals appear to be printed using the same digital processes as Eduard are now using, and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. I mention Eduard because from 2021, the carrier film on their decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them carrier film free, making the completed decals much thinner and more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the carrier film. It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain. Conclusion Another welcome reboxing of a good quality kit from KP in some more interesting schemes, with good quality decals and decent clear parts at a pretty appealing price. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

MiG-19PM ‘Farmer’ over Europe (KPM0389) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The project that was to become the MiG-19 started as a requirement from the Soviet Authorities for a second-generation jet that was capable of supersonic speeds in level flight, and with a higher altitude ceiling that was necessary to intercept the US balloon incursions (sound familiar?), overflights by US operated Canberras, and the rumours that America was working on the U-2 Spy plane that could fly higher than any of their then current weapons systems. To increase thrust, two engines were used, widening the rear fuselage, and adding afterburners to further improve performance. There was also a need to mount a radar to give the aircraft the capability of all-weather flight, which was mounted in the nose of some variants in a fairing small enough that it didn’t interfere with the intake. They were initially equipped with cannons that were relocated from under the nose in previous designs into the wing roots, reducing the likelihood of ingestion by the engine of the fumes that could cause dangerous surges. The early models were soon upgraded with improved aerodynamics, such as the P, which benefitted from an all-moving tail plane, a basic radar, and 30mm cannons in the wings, and later in its life it had the capability of launching the new Atoll air-to-air missiles. The PM built on this by removing the cannons completely, and replacing then with beam-riding air-to-air Alkali missiles. Further variants followed with other missiles under the wings, additional avionics and ground-control links, day-fighters, reconnaissance aircraft, with many attempts to push the type’s altitude limits to intercept the US overflights that continued effectively unchallenged, until finally the type was relegated to use as a target drone after it was phased out of frontline service. The Kit This is the latest in a line of releases from KP that started with the MiG-19S and its numerous overseas and license-built sub-variants, and now we have the PM. The kit arrives in a medium end-opening box with a painting of the subject firing one of its missiles, as his wingman peels off to starboard. On the rear of the box are the profiles that will be of use when painting and decaling the model. Inside are two sprues in grey styrene, a clear canopy in its own Ziploc bag, decal sheet and the instruction booklet in folded A4, printed in colour. Detail is good, with engraved panel lines plus raised and recessed details, and decals provided for the instrument panel and side consoles. Construction begins with the creation of the bifurcated intake trunks down the sides of the nose gear bay and cockpit, which has decals applied to the rear portion to detail them as the side walls. The starboard side has a small bulkhead fitted to split it from the cockpit, which then allows the cockpit to be built, starting with the instrument panel that is glued against the back of the bulkhead with a decal for the dials, the floor, rudder pedals and control column are inserted, stabilised at the rear by another bulkhead, a turtle-deck behind it, and the ejection seat with decal belts on an upstand at the rear of the cockpit. With the cockpit complete, the fuselage halves are joined together, adding 10g of weight over the nose gear bay, and a choice of two styles of fin, depending in which decal option you have chosen. Inserts are added beneath the cockpit and to the sides of the wing root, and the nose is completed by fitting the splitter-plate, covered over by the intake lip and radome fairing. The canopy has a deck fitted in the rearmost section, and is glued in place over the cockpit opening after painting the coaming and rear deck. The wings are each put together from two halves, adding a fence and two small parts to the gear bay edges, and filling a small square depression on the upper wing root, nipping off the gun barrels from the wing roots, and making good. The completed wings are slotted into the sides of the fuselage, adding the elevators to the rear, and making the exhausts by sliding the trunking into the holes in the tail fairing before gluing it into position. The next task is to make up the tricycle landing gear. The nose leg has one side of the yoke moulded-in, adding the other side around the wheel, then fitting a retraction strut at an angle before inserting it in the bay and adding the doors to the sides. The main gear legs are simpler, and have half of the wheel moulded-in, the other a separate part to prevent sink-marks. They are both glued in place after installing the captive bay doors to the outboard side. A small pitot is glued under the port wingtip, then the fuselage is dotted with a multitude of small intakes and other bumps, shown in four views to assist with placement, skipping step 11 as it relates to the Chinese variants. The next step adds a long probe to the starboard wingtip, and a choice of armament depending on which boxing you have. The PM weapons include a pair of optional drop tanks with sway-braces on the outer stations under the wings, plus four RS-2U (AA-1) Alkali missiles, which have separate perpendicular fins and a pylon with overhangs fore and aft. Markings There are three options on the decal sheet, one in camouflage, the other two in overall aluminium. From the box you can build one of the following: The scanner has imparted a slightly pinkish tone to the reds on the sheet, but they're not like that IRL The decals appear to be printed using the same digital processes as Eduard are now using, and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. I mention Eduard because from 2021, the carrier film on their decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them carrier film free, making the completed decals much thinner and more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the carrier film. It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain. Conclusion The MiG-19 was a step change from the first-generation jets fielded by the Soviet Union, and this model does the type justice, with plenty of detail and a good depiction of its fat butt. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Bell AH-1G Cobra Early/Late (KPM0378) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The AH-1 Cobra was the first dedicated production Gunship or Attack Helicopter to see US service as a new type of weapons platform. During the Vietnam war the US Army began to see the need for armed helicopter to escort its unarmed UH-1 Hueys into combat. Fortunately, Bell Helicopters had been independently investigating helicopter gunships as early as the late 1950s, so in 1962 Bell was able to display a mock up concept to the US Army, featuring a 20mm gun pod, and a ball turret mounted grenade launcher. It was felt by the Army to be lightweight, under powered and unsuitable. Following this the US Army launched and Advanced Aerial Fire Support System (AAFSS) competition, which gave rise to the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne heavy attack helicopter that proved to be too technologically advanced and therefore risky for its time, eventually being cancelled in 1972 after 10 years of development (some things never change). Despite the failure of the AAFSS programme, Bell stuck with its idea of a smaller, lighter gunship and invested its own money developing the AH-1 further. They used as many of the proven components they could from the UH-1 platform, adding these to a newly designed slender fuselage that had a minimal frontal profile, making it harder to hit. When The US Army later asked for plans for an interim gunship for use in Vietnam, Bell was in a fortunate position to be able to offer the ready-made AH-1, or the Bell 209 as it was called internally. Given the work Bell had already done, the programme was completed in a relatively rapid eight months and won the evaluation battle against the competition. In 1966 the US Army signed an initial contract for 110 aircraft. Some slight modifications were made to the production airframes, replacing the heavy armoured glass canopy with Plexiglas to improve performance. Wider rotor blades were fitted and the original retracting skids were replaced by simple fixed units. The G model was the initial 1966 production model gunship for the US Army, with one 1,400shp (1,000 kW) Avco Lycoming T53-13 turboshaft. Bell built over 1,100 AH-1Gs between 1967 and 1973, and the Cobras would go on to fly over a million operational hours in Vietnam, losing approximately 300 to combat shoot-downs and accidents during the war. The U.S. Marine Corps would use AH-1G Cobra in Vietnam for a short period before acquiring more damage resilient twin-engined AH-1J Cobras. The M-35 Gun System was a single M195 20mm cannon (a short-barrelled version of the six-barrel M61A1 Vulcan) on the port inboard pylon of the AH-1G, with 950 rounds of ammunition stored in boxes faired to the side of the aircraft. The system was primarily pilot controlled, but featured dual controls so it could be either pilot or gunner controlled by an M73 sight. The AH-1 went on to serve the US Army until it was replaced by the AH-64 Apache, the last one leaving active service in 1999. The Kit This is a re-release with new parts of the original tooling from 2013, and arrives in an end-opening box with a painting of the subject on the front, and the decal profiles on the rear. Inside is one full-sized sprue in sand-coloured styrene in a resealable bag, a clear sprue in its own Ziploc bag, a sheet of decals and a folded A4 instruction booklet that is printed in colour and has a sprue diagram plus a little history of the type on the front page. Detail is good throughout, and there is no flash to speak of, with engraved panel lines and crisp raised and recessed details. Construction begins with creation of the cockpits and a few other assemblies, starting with the instrument panels, which have a highly detailed painting guide provided as step 1 and 2. The front panel has its coaming moulded-in, while the rear panel has a larger separate part for the coaming, plus a choice of two styles of HUD, then the cockpit tub is decorated with crew controls, one of which is made by stretching sprue from the runners to different diameters and gluing them together to create the collective stick for the pilot in the rear. The wing-back seats with decal seatbelts are then installed along with the two instrument panels, finishing the cockpit, and moving on to making the two-part fuel tanks, one for each side, and the gun turret for under the nose. Each barrel is inserted into a curved plate, which is slotted into the turret, leaving the plates inside the turret, while the barrels project from the two slots in the front. The fuselage halves are pre-painted in two areas with black for the cockpit and gunmetal for the rotorhead area, after which the cockpit and quilted rear bulkhead are inserted into the starboard side, with a circular platform placed on a ledge inside the rotorhead area. The fuselage is joined after adding the exhaust trunk, and the rotor is made up from the blades and control arms, which locate on the circular part within the rotorhead cowling, then adding a choice of short or extended exhaust lips at the end of the trunking. The canopy is made up from the fixed roof/windscreen and two side panes on each side, with the option of leaving the openers closed or ajar, as you wish. Under the tail is a wire bumper, then two choices of fin are joined to the tail boom and have the rotors with control ‘crown’ fitted on left or right sides, depending on which tail you have installed. Stabiliser fins are inserted into slots around the centre of the tail boom, as are the winglets with tips and pylons glued to them before they are fixed in place further forward. The main gear consists of a pair of skids under the fuselage on curved supports, adding a bulkhead behind the turret before gluing that in place along with the fuel tanks and a pair of rocket pods that are each made from two halves to make the cylindrical body, plus a pair of end-caps with the nose/tail of the rockets moulded-in. Markings There are three options on the decal sheet, and you can see the profiles on the back of the box. There’s a wide range of colour options from a blue Navy bird through green Marines to an Army airframe in Vietnam camo. The colours are marked out in oval swatches with names under them, showing no allegiance to any paint brand’s colour codes. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals appear to be printed using the same digital processes as Eduard are now using, and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. I mention Eduard because from 2021, the carrier film on their decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them carrier film free, making the completed decals much thinner and more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the carrier film. It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain. Conclusion A welcome reboxing of a good quality kit from KP in some interesting schemes, good quality decals and decent clear parts at a pretty good price. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

This is the KP (Kovozavody Prostejov) Piper PA-18 (actually the L-21B boxing). In the early 50's the US Air Force purchased 242 Piper PA-18-105SP aircraft to use as primary (screening) trainers for new pilots. While they were owned by the Air Force they had no military marking and bore civilian registration number. These numbers all ended in "T" so they were known as Tango Cubs. This is a limited run kit and while the fit of the interior, transparency, and fuselage halves was excellent it suffered from a common limited run failing of a lack of left/right symmetry; the ailerons on the left wing were bigger then on the right and the 2 horizontal stabilizer pieces did not match at all, and the underwing struts were too long. The kit decals did not apply for the trainers so the tail code was printed on my laser printer and the TA numbers were individual letters and numbers. It was a fairly simple build and took 7 days Next up the the Hasegawa A-1H/AD-6 Skyraider. Enjoy.

SA Bulldog T.1 Limited Run (KPM0399) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The Bulldog was originally designed by Beagle Aircraft, who sadly went bust before they could honour any orders for this two-seat prop-driven trainer, the first customer being Sweden. A new concern, Scottish Aviation took over and brought the Bulldog to market where it was used most notably by the RAF and Swedish Air Force, but by other countries too, as we’ll find out in later boxings. There were several models made, many of which were designed for the export market, with the RAF using the 121 as the T.1, while the 101 was developed for Sweden, where it was designated Sk 61 in the Air Force, or Fpl 61 in army use. The Swedish aircraft differed mainly due to the additional two seats in the rear of the crew compartment behind the pilots who sat two abreast, with a wide expanse of Perspex giving excellent forward visibility over the relatively short nose. The last RAF airframes left service just after the new millennium, and many have gone into private hands from all variants across the world. The now familiar Grob Tutor replaced the Bulldog as the entry-level trainer with the RAF and continues to serve today, with some avionics upgrades to keep pace with technology. The Kit This is the latest in a new range of boxings in 1:72 from KP as a limited edition boxing that brings modern levels of detail to this scale. The kit arrives in a small end-opening box with an attractive painting of the type on the front and the profiles for the decal options on the rear. Inside the Ziploc bag is a single sprue in grey styrene, a small clear sprue, decal sheet and instruction booklet, the clear parts safely enclosed in their own Ziploc bag. Detail is good, although there’s a tiny amount of flash here and there, but it’s minimal and mostly confined to the sprue runners. Construction starts predictably with the cockpit, with the blank instrument panel receiving an instrument decal to detail it, and both seats getting decal belts. The floor is moulded into the one-part wing and has raised areas for the seats that are detailed with a pair of control columns, centre console and rear bulkhead, while the instrument panel is glued into the front of the cockpit opening after closing the fuselage halves. A pair of side windows pop in from the inside, and the front is closed by adding the nose cowling, which has a depiction of the front bank of piston inserted behind it that will show through the oval intakes either side of the raised prop shaft surround. The wings and fuselage are joined, and the single-part elevators with their ribbed flying surfaces moulded-in are glued into their slots in the rear. The canopy is a single piece that has the framing engraved in, and it’s a crystal-clear part that will show off your work on the interior once its finished. There are a couple of choices of antennae on the spine behind the cockpit, and a clear landing light fits into a recess in the leading edge of the starboard wing. To finish off the build, the landing gear legs are glued onto raised teardrop shapes under the cockpit, and it might be an idea to drill and pin these for extra strength, with the one-part wheels attached to the stub-axle on each leg. The nose leg has its oleo-scissor link moulded in, and the wheel fixes to the axle moulded into the one-sided yoke. The two bladed prop is moulded as one piece with a spinner sliding over it, and behind it there’s a cowling under the nose with two exhaust stacks sticking out, then at the rear are a choice of two antennae and a blade antenna under the trailing edge of the wing/fuselage. Markings The stencils are numerous and they are covered on the rear of the instruction booklet to avoid overly-busy diagrams on the back of the box, and there are three decal options, from which you can build one of the following: The decals appear to be printed by Eduard and are in good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. I mention Eduard because from 2021, the carrier film on their decals can be coaxed away from the printed part of the decal after they have been applied, effectively rendering them carrier film free, making the completed decals much thinner and more realistic, and obviating the need to apply successive coats of clear varnish to hide the edges of the carrier film. It’s a great step further in realism from my point of view, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain. There are seatbelts and an instrument decal on the sheet, which should add a little realism to your finished cockpit. Conclusion The Bulldog is a small aircraft, so the model is commensurately small and a simple build that’s very friendly to your pocket. Clean up those moulding seams and you should end up with a really nice replica of this much-loved RAF trainer, with civilian options. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) is to release 1/72nd AGO C.IV kits Source: https://www.modelarovo.cz/kvetnove-novinky-kovozavodu-prostejov-na-moson-model-show-2023/ - ref. KPM0395 - Ago C.IV - Late Camo Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/ago-c-iv-late-cammo/ - ref. KPM0396 - Ago C.IV Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/ago-c-iv/ - ref. KPM03978 - Ago C.IV - Late Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/ago-c-iv-late/ V.P.

When a couple of sets of etched and resin parts came back into stock from my Hannants watchlist, I accidentally bought a second reconnaissance Spitfire. In my defence, it could happen to anyone! It started out because I thought that it might be easier to sell the concept of a pink Spitfire to my other half, as my two small girls might be intrigued by it. Then I did some more research and found out that PRU pink was in fact very, very pale - almost white in fact - but I'd already latched onto the idea so bought it anyway! I'll be doing it as the well-known MK716 - I know loads of other models have been made of it, but I don't own one so I'm not that fussed that it's not uncommon A very minor bit of research shows it to have had some bleed-through of the stripes through the paint once it was overpainted again with pink later in 1944, so I might try to replicate that. The photos here also show it to be relatively mucky with some staining around the ejector ports as well as exhaust staining, so I'll try and replicate that too. It's planned to be another straight out of the box build, although I've got a couple of resin RAF pilots to hand (visible top left) and might use one of those...

After lurking on and off since lockdown, this GB was the final thing that persuaded me to sign up, as I've had a photoreconnaissance Spitfire on my wish list for a while. Hopefully I'm not too late to the party! I don't get a lot of time to do modelling as I've got two pretty busy jobs (one as an Army Reservist), and two young children, as well as trying to get a home office sorted for my other half and finish decorating and upgrading the house from the move two years ago. I do occasionally get some time when working from home and sat in on meetings where I need to listen more than contribute... I've gone for a KP PR Mk.XI; it's my first experience of a KP kit and from first glance, I'm impressed. The mouldings are crisp and the shape looks good, confirmed through a quick comparison with an Airfix Mk.I, though I haven't measured it against a set of drawings - ultimately, it looks like a Spitfire without any major oddities like the slightly-too-fat Academy Mk.XIV. I'll probably be doing the 541 Sqn version with full invasion stripes as on the box art, although I may do the 400 Sqn RCAF version with underside stripes only. First steps are going to be the initial painting of the interior parts, which I might be able to get done today...

Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) is to rebox in March 2023 the AZmodel 1/72nd Bell AH-1G Cobra kit. https://www.modelarovo.cz/novinky-kovozavodu-prostejov-a-azmodel-na-brezen/ - ref. KPM0378 - Bell AH-1G Huey Cobra - Late https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/bell-ah-1g-huey-cobra-late/ - ref. KPM0379 - Bell AH-1G Huey Cobra - Early" https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/ah-1g-huey-cobra-early/ - ref. KPM0380 - Bell AH-1G Huey Cobra - International https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/ah-1g-huey-cobra-international/ - ref. KPM0381 - Bell AH-1G Huey Cobra - Special Markings https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/ah-1g-huey-cobra-special-markings/ V.P.

Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) is to release in March 2023 1/72nd Let/Aero L-60 Brigadýr kits KP claim - https://www.modelarovo.cz/novinky-kovozavodu-prostejov-a-azmodel-na-brezen/ "Probably the most interesting novelty from the March offer will be the completely new model of the Let L-60 "Brigadyr" airplane. We will offer the model in the first four covers, others will follow." But previous KP/AZmodel records say it could be just a retool from the old AZmodel Let L-60 Brigadýr. Wait and see - ref. KPM0382 - Let L-60 Brigadýr https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/let-l-60-brigadyr/ - ref. KPM0383 - Let L-60 Brigadýr - export https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/let-l-60-brigadyr-export/ - ref. KPM0384 - Let L-60S „Brigadýr“ https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/let-l-60s-brigadyr/ - ref. KPM035 - Let L-60S/SF „Brigadýr“ https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/let-l-60s-sf-brigadyr/ V.P.

Hi everyone. I bought this "what-if" kit from Freightdog at the Telford show. It looked like such an amazing aircraft and a fun build. Also, as a new recruit to the IPMS Hawker Typhoon, Tempest & Sea Fury SIG would give me something new to put on their display table next time. Freightdog's resin parts are packed inside the KP Tempest V kit box (but are also available separately I believe). It also includes an A5 sheet containing historical notes, recommendations for builders and instructions cross referenced to the kit's instructions. Thanks are given for contributions by Paul Lucas & Dominic McEvoy, with a dedication to Mike McEvoy. The historical notes read "Proposed in 1943, the Hawker P.1027 was a Tempest development using the then unbuilt Rolls-Royce 46H Eagle. Changes to the Tempest design included a longer nose cowling foro the powerful 4,020 hp Eagle engine, contra rotating propellers and relocation of the radiators from the nose chin (or later wing leading edges) to mid way on the underside of the fuselage, similar to the Martin Baker MB.5. The P.1027 remained a paper project that, if built, could have seen service into the early post-war period." I think it was intended that the aircraft would be a long range fighter. Here are some shots of the parts.... A decal sheet is not provided with the conversion, but there is the one supplied in the kit itself of course. I'll go ahead with building the model and hope I can decide on a scheme and markings by the time I get to apply paint! Any comments during the build would be most welcome: also any thoughts you may have on suitable schemes! Thanks for looking, Pat

I should've kept my big trap shut, but no, I just couldn't help myself! And a contract is a contract, eh @TonyOD? This will be a double-build, a sort of vignette if you will, the idea being to display a USN Wildcat and an RAF Spitfire Vc on a section of the USS Wasp's flight deck, during the second operation to re-supply Malta, Operation Calendar. Now, as anyone who has ever had even the tiniest interest in the defence of Malta will know, the colours of those particular Spitfires are a veritable minefield. Recent research has thrown up a few curved balls but at the same time has perhaps added a greater degree of "likelihood" to the interpretation of their colours than some of the more off-the-wall ideas of the past. But interestingly, there is also a possible variation from the "norm" in the colour of the USN's, and particularly Wasp's, Wildcats at this time, so I'll be going slightly off-piste with that as well. All Good Fun!!! Anyways, that's about it until I get the kits on the bench (which incidentally will be a KP Spitfire Mk.Vc and and Arma Hobby F4F-4). Cheers for now, Mark

First up, a hearty thank you for @TonyOD and @Col. for hosting this GB: its gonna be a big 'un! My (first?) entry will be the 1/72 KP Seafire Mk.Ib kit, according to the box top a new tool. My KP Spit PR.XI build, currently underway, has shown me that these kits are very nicely produced and so I'm looking forward to cobbling this one together. Obligatory snaps (mobile phone, so not the greatest quality - sorry!): (The Dewoitine D.520 is one my absolute faves, so I may have to build the one I have in my stash fairly soon!) Torch markings and Vokes filter were my first choice, but I have to say the all-blue scheme is rather fetching: Destructions and stickers: And receiving Approval to Proceed: @TonyOD/@Col./@Enzo the Magnificent can I ask - would adding some interior detailing prior to kick-off be permissible? I'd be adding to the parts supplied in the kit, rather than building the kit itself. I'm thinking primarily of additional cockpit and fuselage structure detail. Thanks, guys! Cheers, Mark

First of all, I'd like to give a big shout out and thank you to @mark.au, @AliGauld, @bigbadbadge and @Winded Penguin for the opportunity to join in with this informal PRU Spitfire GB: thanks guys! My choice of subject is Kovozavody Prostejov's 1/72 Spit PR.XI in USAAF guise. I'll be finishing it as an aircraft flown by the 14th PRS of the 7th PRG, in the scheme shown for MB950 (scheme 2), but not necessarily MB950 as I'm a bit of twit when it comes to serials! Obligatory box and sprue pics: Before making a start, I needed to clear a small space in which to begin work: The Quality Control Officer sleeping on the job..... However, the Quality Control Officer soon awoke and gradually encroached, so that at the enforced end of play I'd put the seat frame together and fitted the wheel well walls: And she's sat on the instruction sheet, too! Gotta love that Daisy ❤️ Following @Giorgio N's advice on @AliGauld's build thread, I've hacked the centre out of the rearmost bulkhead which as supplied is the type fitted to pressurised cockpit variants. For a pattern, I used the corresponding part from Airfix's Mk.Vc. I'll also be scratching up a new "floor" as the supplied part is a bit short - thanks Alistair for the heads-up on that. And that's it so far: not much to show for my weekend, but I've got a couple of free evenings this week before taking Jane away for a long weekend for her birthday. Thanks for looking in! Mark

Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) is to (reissue?) release 1/72nd Curtiss SC-1 Seahawk kits - ref. KPM0375 - Curtiss SC-1 Seahawk - w/float Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/curtiss-sc-1-seahawk-w-float/ - ref. KPM0376 - Curtiss SC-1 Seahawk - w/wheels Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/sc-1-seahawk-w-wheels/ V.P.

Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) is to release a 1/72nd Fokker S-11/T-21 Instructor kits. - ref. KPM0371 - Fokker S-11 Instructor Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/fokker-s-11-instructor/ - ref. KPM0372 - Fokker S-11 Instructor - Israël Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/fokker-s-11-instructor-israel/ - ref. KPM0373 - Fokker T-21 Instructor Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/fokker-t-21-instructor/ - ref. KPM0374 - Aermacchi M.416 Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/aermacchi-m-416/ V.P.

SA Bulldog ‘Overseas Service’ (KPM0301) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The Bulldog was originally designed by Beagle Aircraft, who sadly went bust before they could honour any orders for this two-seat prop-driven trainer, the first customer being Sweden. A new concern, Scottish Aviation took over and brought the Bulldog to market where it was used most notably by the RAF and Swedish Air Force, but by other countries too, with many African and some Far Eastern operators having used it in the past, a few of which still in service in Africa. The RAF used model 121 as the T.1, while the 101 was developed for Sweden, where it was designated Sk 61 in their Air Force, or Fpl 61 in army use, with another 13 sub-variants tailored to the individual export customers, although they were ostensibly the same aircraft. The pilots sat two abreast, with a wide expanse of Perspex giving excellent forward visibility over the relatively short nose that would have been a great help to a trainee pilot and their instructor. The last RAF airframes left service just after the new millennium, and many have gone into private hands from all variants across the world. The now familiar Grob Tutor replaced the Bulldog as the entry-level trainer with the RAF and continues to serve today, with some avionics upgrades to keep pace with technology. The Kit This is the fourth in a new range of boxings in 1:72 from KP that brings modern levels of detail to this scale. The kit arrives in a small end-opening box with an attractive painting of the type on the front and the profiles for the decal options on the rear. Inside is a single sprue in grey styrene, a small clear sprue, decal sheet and instruction booklet, the clear parts safely enclosed in their own Ziploc bag. Detail is good, although there’s a tiny amount of flash here and there, but it’s minimal and mostly confined to the sprue runners. If you’ve been reading the reviews of the various boxings, you’ll be getting a feeling of déjà vu around about now, but when a similar model is put together in exactly the same way, what more can one say? Skip to the decal section if you’ve read this before. Construction starts predictably with the cockpit, with the blank instrument panel receiving an instrument decal to detail it, and both seats getting decal belts. Check your references to see whether the option you want to depict will have the rear seats fitted, but you’ll have to make those up yourself as they’re not included in the box. The floor is moulded into the one-part wing and has raised areas for the seats that are detailed with a pair of control columns, centre console and rear bulkhead, while the instrument panel is glued into the front of the cockpit opening after closing up the fuselage halves. A pair of side windows pop in from the inside, and the front is closed up by adding the nose cowling, which has a depiction of the front bank of piston inserted behind it that will show through the oval intakes either side of the raised prop shaft surround. The wings and fuselage are joined, and the single-part elevators with their ribbed flying surfaces moulded-in are glued into their slots in the rear. The canopy is a single piece that has the framing engraved in, and it’s a crystal-clear part that will show off your work on the interior once its finished. There are a couple of choices of antennae on the spine behind the cockpit, and a clear landing light fits into a recess in the leading edge of the starboard wing. To finish off the build, the landing gear legs are glued onto raised teardrop shapes under the cockpit, and it might be an idea to drill and pin these for extra strength, with the one-part wheels attached to the stub-axle on each leg. The nose leg has its oleo-scissor link moulded in, and the wheel fixes to the axle moulded into the one-sided yoke. The two bladed prop is moulded as one piece with a spinner sliding over it, and behind it there’s a cowling under the nose with two exhaust stacks sticking out, then at the rear are another pair of antenna and a blade antenna under the trailing edge of the wing/fuselage. Markings The stencils are numerous and they are covered on the rear of the instruction booklet to avoid overly-busy diagrams on the back of the box, and there are three decal options, from which you can build one of the following: The decals are well-printed in good register, with a thin glossy carrier film close to the printed edges for the most part, but with a few that are a little larger. This shouldn’t cause too much of an issue however, as the film is thin and has a relatively soft edge. There are seatbelts and an instrument decal on the sheet, which should add a little realism to your finished cockpit. Conclusion The Bulldog is a small aircraft, so the model is commensurately small and a simple build that’s very friendly to your pocket. Clean up those moulding seams and you should end up with a really nice replica of this common trainer in Malaysian, Hong Kong and Jordanian service. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) is to reissue in late October 2022 the old AZmodel Avia Ba-33 kit - ref. KPM0352 - Avia Ba.33 Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/avia-ba-33/ - ref. KPM0353 - Avia Ba.33 - Metal Prop Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/avia-ba-33-metal-prop/ - ref. KPM0365 - Avia Ba.33 - Thirty-Three Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/avia-ba-33-thirty-three/ V.P.

Kovozávody Prostějov (KP) is to re-release its 1/72nd DFS Olympia Meise kit - ref. KPM0354 - DFS Olympia - In German Sky Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/dfs-olympia-in-german-sky/ - ref. KPM0355 - DFS Olympia - Silence in the sky Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/dfs-olympia-silence-in-the-sky/ - ref. KPM0356 - DFS Olympia - International Source: https://www.kovozavody.cz/produkt/dfs-olympia-international/ V.P.

Polikarpov R-1 (KPM0313) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The DH.9A light bomber that the R-1 was a copy of, was the successful offspring of its underpowered and disliked DH.9, resulting from a strengthening of the airframe and replacement of its weakling Puma engine with the V12 Liberty unit that put out an impressive 400hp for the time. As the name suggests was an American product, used as the intended Rolls Royce option was in short supply at the time. Ironically, the prototype flew with a Rolls Royce power plant as the Liberty wasn’t yet available, but it eventually entered service in early 1918 with the RAF sporting the American engine. It served on after the war, becoming the de facto standard light bomber in British service, with almost 2,000 rolling off the production lines during the two years that they were running. They were opened up again due to foreign orders and conversions of the earlier DH.9s, while the newly minted Soviet Union began making their own unlicensed copies as the Polikarpov R.1, although their power plants varied widely from airframe to airframe. In British service as the standard light bomber, the type remained on charge until the beginning of the 30s, which shows how staggeringly unprepared for WWII the British were at that point. During this period they served all over the British Empire and assisting Russia’s incumbent Czarists, where a squadron of airframes were left behind during the Russian Revolution, possibly acting as patterns for Polikarpov’s engineers. The R-1s stayed in service with the Soviets around the same length of time as it did in British service, while the projected service of license-built DH.9As in the US was cancelled after the end of the war, but not before they had experimented with changing the aircraft substantially to suit their needs, and managed to set the first world altitude record in the process, flying from Ohio in 1921. The Kit This is another boxing of the new tooling from Kovozávody Prostějov but in Soviet colours and covered in red stars. It arrives in a medium-sized end-opening box, with one large sprue inside, plus a large sheet of decals and the instruction booklet that also serves as instructions for the original Airco DH.9A, so ensure you follow the correct steps for this boxing. Detail is good, and moulding crisp with not a shadow of flash on the sprue, while the engraved panel lines, raised details and the ribbing detail on the wings is perfect for the task in hand. Construction begins with the cockpit, which revolves around the extensive floor that takes the comfy pilot’s seat and the gunner’s bench seat both with decal lap belts; additional ammo containers; a box that represents a camera that was sited behind the observer’s position on frame 10 of the aircraft; The instrument panels; control columns and rudder bars. Before the fuselage is closed around the cockpit, a two-part platform with detail on the underside is inserted under the exhaust outlets to represent the sump of the engine, painted in black, grey and with a wooden surround. The front of the fuselage is closed up by inserting the radiator in and under the nose, then the single-span elevator with twin supports is added to the top of the tail, followed by the rudder and tail skid. The lower wings are each single parts and have excellent ribbing detail moulded-in, fitting on pegs that slot into matching holes in the bottom of the fuselage sides, with a dihedral engineered into each wing that should see the tips 5mm higher than the root, as per the accompanying scrap diagram. Various accessories are dotted around the top of the engine cowling and the deck in front of the pilot, plus his asymmetric machine guns on both sides of his position. At the rear, the observer is supplied with a ring mount and a Lewis gun on a curved riser, after which the pilot has his tubular gunsight placed on the deck, and a set of curved exhausts inserted into the holes in the sides of the cowling, pushing the efflux from combustion away from the crew in the process. An optional chin radiator is fixed to the underside of the engine, and while it is upside down, the bombs can be made up on their racks and glued to the lower wing using the red lines on the diagrams to locate them precisely, plus the larger bomb on a pylon that you will need to add some 0.3mm wire to, in order to complete the assembly. The smaller bombs are single parts, but the larger belly-mounted bomb is moulded in two halves to avoid sink-marks. There appear to be two steps missing from this initial batch of instructions, as the step numbers rise from 8 directly to 11 on either side of the same page. I’ll let KPM know, but from what I can make out, the missing steps include adding aileron actuators on the upper wings, and a cooling flap under the nose, and also seems to be a curved wind deflector missing, but it doesn’t look like the one in the instructions, so I’m a little confused. We’ll ignore the rigging (mostly), but rest assured that the instructions contain diagrams showing where the wires should be, and there are quite a few, so make sure you have plenty of your chosen thread to hand before you start. There are four interplane struts and two cabane struts supporting the upper wing, plus a pair of skids under the lower wings, and unbelievably the aircraft even carries a spare wheel under the observer’s station. The landing gear is sturdy, with two splayed V-shaped struts that rest on an aerodynamically faired axle that accept the wheels on each end, with a two-bladed prop inserted into the hole in the radiator, painted in wood grain, which sounds easy. The penultimate page of the instructions shows the rigging locations, and suggest 0.3mm thread or wire as your weapon of choice. The last page contains five profile drawings that could be of use when rigging the model, although two side profiles are duplicated, when I suspect a front view would have been of more use. Markings As seems usual with Kovozávody Prostějov kits, there are three decal options on the sheet with lots of red stars and patriotic slogans, and from that you can build one of the following: The decals are well-printed in good register, with a thin glossy carrier film close to the printed edges for the most part, but with a few that are a little larger. This shouldn’t cause too much of an issue however, as the film is thin and has a relatively soft edge. There are seatbelt decals on the sheet, which should add a little realism to your finished cockpit. Conclusion It’s a well-detailed kit of this copy of a surprisingly long-lived and widely used aircraft that was colloquially known as the Ninak by the British crews and mechanics. Whether the Soviets had any nicknames, who knows? Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

De Havilland Airco DH.9A ‘At War’ (KPM0310) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The DH.9A light bomber was the successful offspring of its underpowered and disliked DH.9, resulting from a strengthening of the airframe and replacement of its weakling Puma engine with the V12 Liberty unit that put out an impressive 400hp for the time. As the name suggests was an American product, used as the intended Rolls Royce option was in short supply at the time. Ironically, the prototype flew with a Rolls Royce power plant as the Liberty wasn’t yet available, but it eventually entered service in early 1918 with the RAF sporting the American engine. It served on after the war, becoming the de facto standard light bomber in British service, with almost 2,000 rolling off the production lines during the two years that they were running. They were opened up again due to foreign orders and conversions of the earlier DH.9s, while the newly minted Soviet Union began making their own unlicensed copies as the Polikarpov R.1, although their power plants varied widely from airframe to airframe. In British service as the standard light bomber, the type remained on charge until the beginning of the 30s, which shows how staggeringly unprepared for WWII the British were at that point. During this period they served all over the British Empire and assisting Russia’s incumbent Czarists, where a squadron of airframes were left behind during the Russian Revolution, possibly acting as patterns for Polikarpov’s engineers. The R-1s stayed in service with the Soviets around the same length of time as it did in British service, while the projected service of license-built DH.9As in the US was cancelled after the end of the war, but not before they had experimented with changing the aircraft substantially to suit their needs, and managed to set the first world altitude record in the process, flying from Ohio in 1921. The Kit This is another new tooling from Kovozávody Prostějov, and it arrives in a medium-sized end-opening box, with one large sprue inside, plus a sheet of decals and the instruction booklet that also serves as booklet for the Soviet R-1, so ensure you follow the correct steps for this boxing. Detail is good, and moulding crisp with not a shadow of flash on the sprue, while the engraved panel lines, raised details and the ribbing detail on the wings is perfect for the task in hand. Construction begins with the cockpit, which revolves around the extensive floor that takes the comfy pilot’s seat and the gunner’s bench seat both with decal lap belts; additional ammo containers; a box that represents a camera that was sited behind the observer’s position on frame 10 of the aircraft; The instrument panels; control columns and rudder bars. Before the fuselage is closed around the cockpit, a two-part platform with detail on the underside is inserted under the exhaust outlets to represent the sump of the engine, painted in black, grey and with a wooden surround. The front of the fuselage is closed up by inserting the radiator in and under the nose, then the single-span elevator with twin supports are added to the top of the tail, followed by the rudder and tail skid. The lower wings are each single parts and have excellent ribbing detail moulded-in, fitting on pegs that slot into matching holes in the bottom of the fuselage sides, with a dihedral engineered into each wing that should see the tips 5mm higher than the root, as per the accompanying scrap diagram. Various accessories are dotted around the top of the engine cowling and the deck in front of the pilot, plus his asymmetric machine guns on both sides of his position. At the rear, the observer is supplied with a ring mount and a Lewis gun on a curved riser, after which the pilot has his tubular gunsight placed on the deck, and a set of curved exhausts inserted into the holes in the sides of the cowling, pushing the efflux from combustion away from the crew in the process. An optional chin radiator is fixed to the underside of the engine, and while it is upside down, the bombs can be made up on their racks and glued to the lower wing using the red lines on the diagrams to locate them precisely, plus the larger bomb on a pylon that you will need to add some 0.3mm wire to, in order to complete the assembly. The smaller bombs are single parts, but the larger belly-mounted bomb is moulded in two halves to avoid sink-marks. There appear to be two steps missing from this initial batch of instructions, as the step numbers rise from 8 directly to 11 on either side of the same page. I’ll let KPM know, but from what I can make out, the missing steps include adding aileron actuators on the upper wings, and a cooling flap under the nose, and also seems to be a curved wind deflector missing, but it doesn’t look like the one in the instructions, so I’m a little confused. There may be more however. I’ll update the review if I get any more information. We’ll ignore the rigging (mostly), but rest assured that the instructions contain diagrams showing where the wires should be, and there are quite a few, so make sure you have plenty of your chosen thread to hand before you start. There are four interplane struts and two cabane struts supporting the upper wing, plus a pair of C-shaped skids under the lower wings, and unbelievably the aircraft even carries a spare wheel under the observer’s station. The landing gear is sturdy, with two splayed V-shaped struts that rest on an aerodynamically faired axle that accept the wheels on each end, with a two-bladed prop inserted into the hole in the radiator, painted in wood grain, which sounds easy. The penultimate page of the instructions shows the rigging locations, and suggest 0.3mm thread or wire as your weapon of choice. The last page contains five profile drawings that could be of use when rigging the model, although two side profiles are duplicated, when I suspect a front view would have been of more use. Markings As seems usual with Kovozávody Prostějov kits, there are three decal options on the sheet, and from that you can build one of the following: The decals are well-printed in good register, with a thin glossy carrier film close to the printed edges for the most part, but with a few that are a little larger. This shouldn’t cause too much of an issue however, as the film is thin and has a relatively soft edge. There are seatbelt decals on the sheet, which should add a little realism to your finished cockpit. Conclusion It’s a well-detailed kit of this surprisingly long-lived and widely used aircraft that was colloquially known as the Ninak by the crews and mechanics. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Sk 61 Bulldog In Swedish Service (KPM0300) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The Bulldog was originally designed by Beagle Aircraft, who sadly went bust before they could honour any orders for this two-seat prop-driven trainer, the first customer being Sweden. A new concern, Scottish Aviation took over and brought the Bulldog to market where it was used most notably by the RAF and Swedish Air Force, but by other countries too, as we’ll find out in later boxings. There were several models made, many of which were designed for the export market, with the RAF using the 121 as the T.1, while the 101 was developed for Sweden, where it was designated Sk 61 in the Air Force, or Fpl 61 in army use. The Swedish aircraft differed mainly due to the additional two seats in the rear of the crew compartment behind the pilots who sat two abreast, with a wide expanse of Perspex giving excellent forward visibility over the relatively short nose. The last RAF airframes left service just after the new millennium, and many have gone into private hands from all variants across the world. The now familiar Grob Tutor replaced the Bulldog as the entry-level trainer with the RAF and continues to serve today, with some avionics upgrades to keep pace with technology. The Kit This is the third in a new range of boxings in 1:72 from KP that brings modern levels of detail to this scale. The kit arrives in a small end-opening box with an attractive painting of the type on the front and the profiles for the decal options on the rear. Inside is a single sprue in grey styrene, a small clear sprue, decal sheet and instruction booklet, the clear parts safely enclosed in their own Ziploc bag. Detail is good, although there’s a tiny amount of flash here and there, but it’s minimal and mostly confined to the sprue runners. If you’ve been reading the reviews of the various boxings, you’ll be getting a feeling of déjà vu around about now, but when a similar model is put together in exactly the same way, what more can one say? Construction starts predictably with the cockpit, with the blank instrument panel receiving an instrument decal to detail it, and both seats getting decal belts. Check your references to see whether the option you want to depict will have the rear seats fitted, but you’ll have to make those up yourself as they’re not included in the box. The floor is moulded into the one-part wing and has raised areas for the seats that are detailed with a pair of control columns, centre console and rear bulkhead, while the instrument panel is glued into the front of the cockpit opening after closing up the fuselage halves. A pair of side windows pop in from the inside, and the front is closed up by adding the nose cowling, which has a depiction of the front bank of piston inserted behind it that will show through the oval intakes either side of the raised prop shaft surround. The wings and fuselage are joined, and the single-part elevators with their ribbed flying surfaces moulded-in are glued into their slots in the rear. The canopy is a single piece that has the framing engraved in, and it’s a crystal-clear part that will show off your work on the interior once its finished. There are a couple of choices of antennae on the spine behind the cockpit, and a clear landing light fits into a recess in the leading edge of the starboard wing. To finish off the build, the landing gear legs are glued onto raised teardrop shapes under the cockpit, and it might be an idea to drill and pin these for extra strength, with the one-part wheels attached to the stub-axle on each leg. The nose leg has its oleo-scissor link moulded in, and the wheel fixes to the axle moulded into the one-sided yoke. The two bladed prop is moulded as one piece with a spinner sliding over it, and behind it there’s a cowling under the nose with two exhaust stacks sticking out, then at the rear are another pair of antenna and a blade antenna under the trailing edge of the wing/fuselage. Markings The stencils are numerous and they are covered on the rear of the instruction booklet to avoid overly-busy diagrams on the back of the box, and there are three decal options, from which you can build one of the following: The decals are well-printed in good register, with a thin glossy carrier film close to the printed edges for the most part, but with a few that are a little larger. This shouldn’t cause too much of an issue however, as the film is thin and has a relatively soft edge. There are seatbelts and an instrument decal on the sheet, which should add a little realism to your finished cockpit. Conclusion The Bulldog is a small aircraft, so the model is commensurately small and a simple build that’s very friendly to your pocket. Clean up those moulding seams and you should end up with a really nice replica of this Swedish trainer. If you don’t do it in splinter camo, I’ll be coming round to slash your tyres. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Spitfire Mk.IXc Club Line Kit (CLK0006) Pilot Sqn. Leader Johnny Plagis 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The Supermarine Spitfire was the mainstay of British Fighter Command for the majority of WWII, in conjunction with the Hurricane during the Battle of Britain, with the Mk.IX being the most popular (with many) throughout the war, seeing extended periods of production with only minor alterations for the role that it was intended for that differentiated between the sub-variants. Originally requested to counter the superiority of the then-new Fw.190, a two-stage supercharged Merlin designated type 61 provided performance in spades, and the fitting of twin wing-mounted cannons in wing blisters gave it enough punch to take down its diminutive Butcher-Bird prey. The suffix following the mark number relates to the wings fitted to the aircraft, as they could vary. The C wing was also known as the Universal Wing, and saw extensive use because it mounted two 20mm cannon in each wing, the outer barrel usually covered by a rubber plug. The main gear was adjusted in an effort to give it more stable landing characteristics, and bowed gear bays removed the need for blisters on the upper wing surface, helping aerodynamics. The gun mounts were redesigned to need smaller blisters in the wing tops to accommodate the feeder motors, and there was even more room for fuel than earlier wings. Lastly, the wings were able to have longer or clipped tips fitted, the resulting shorter wingspan giving the aircraft a faster roll-rate, which would be useful in low-altitude combat especially. The Kit The original tooling of this kit debuted in 2012, so is still a relatively modern tooling. This reboxing with a special decal sheet under the Club Line branding arrives in a small end-opening box with a painting of the subject just completing a victory over a fiery Fw.190, and on the rear there are four profile views of the decal option, as well as some words about the pilot, Sqn. Leader Johnny Plagis. Inside are two sprues in grey styrene, a single canopy part in clear styrene, two sheets of decals and the instruction sheet that is also intended for E-wing Spits, so take care to follow the appropriate instructions when building your model. Detail is crisp, and the outer skin of the model has a polished surface that shows off the engraved panel lines and restrained rivets. Construction begins with the cockpit that a lot of modellers will find instantly familiar. There is a decal for the instrument panel, and the Mk.IXc uses an unaltered armour panel behind the seat. The control column, mass of greeblies in the footwell and the Bakelite resin seat with pencil quilted cushion in the rear are all added during the painting process, with plenty of additional detail moulded into the interior face of the fuselage, although possibly a little soft by today’s standards. The cramped cockpit and scale means that this probably won’t notice however. The fuselage is closed up around the cockpit and exhaust stacks that are inserted from inside, and a gunsight is applied to the top of the instrument panel. The wings are full span out to the tips on the underside, and have narrow boxes glued over the tunnel where the struts rest in flight, before the upper wings are dropped over the top and glued down. For the C-wing, the tips, gun barrels and shallow blister fairings are all fitted into their respective spots, taking extra care to get the blisters aligned with the airflow and each other, as there are no pegs or outlines to follow. It might be wise to glue them on before the fuselage is between them, making alignment easier. Under the wings are two big box fairings for the radiators, which have front and rear faces fitted within, their location shown by cross-hatching in the shallow bay in which the parts sit. An offset T-shaped pitot probe is inserted into the port side of the wing, then the landing gear with separate oleo-scissors and captive bay doors are made up along with the chin scoops of long and short variety. The fuselage is inserted into the space between the wing uppers, a choice of elevators are slotted into the tail, with another choice of two styles of rudders plus the tail wheel underneath. By this time the Spit’s extra power was being delivered by a four-bladed prop, which is a single part clamped in place between the spinner cap and back plate, joined by the longer chin scoop on the C-wing variant. A choice of two tyre types are fitted to the axles at the end of the main gear legs, the other end of which is inserted into a hole in the inner edge of the bays. A scrap diagram shows the correct angle of the revised undercarriage from the front. Markings The stencils for this kit are shown on the back of the instruction sheet using quite small diagrams, but a lot of us could probably put them in the correct place blindfolded, but if you’re not one of those, just make sure your glasses or magnifier are to hand. There is just one decal option in this boxing, but that’s the whole point of the Club Line. From the box you can build the following: The decals are well-printed in good register, with a thin glossy carrier film close to the printed edges for the most part, but with a few that are a little larger. This shouldn’t cause too much of an issue however, as the film is thin and has a relatively soft edge. There are seatbelts and an instrument decal on the sheet, which should add a little realism to your finished cockpit. Conclusion A Spitfire model is a pretty easy sell to most modellers, and this one no different, having the additional interest of being the mount of a well-known Rhodesian pilot that fought against the Nazis during WWII, with 16 confirmed kills, many of which were over Malta. It’s also keenly priced. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

SA Bulldog T.1 RAF Special (KPM0299) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The Bulldog was originally designed by Beagle Aircraft, who sadly went bust before they could honour any orders for this two-seat prop-driven trainer, the first customer being Sweden. A new concern, Scottish Aviation took over and brought the Bulldog to market where it was used most notably by the RAF and Swedish Air Force, but by other countries too, as we’ll find out in later boxings. There were several models made, many of which were designed for the export market, with the RAF using the 121 as the T.1, while the 101 was developed for Sweden, where it was designated Sk 61 in the Air Force, or Fpl 61 in army use. The Swedish aircraft differed mainly due to the additional two seats in the rear of the crew compartment behind the pilots who sat two abreast, with a wide expanse of Perspex giving excellent forward visibility over the relatively short nose. The last RAF airframes left service just after the new millennium, and many have gone into private hands from all variants across the world. The now familiar Grob Tutor replaced the Bulldog as the entry-level trainer with the RAF and continues to serve today, with some avionics upgrades to keep pace with technology. The Kit This is the second in a new range of boxings in 1:72 from KP that brings modern levels of detail to this scale. The kit arrives in a small end-opening box with an attractive painting of the type on the front and the profiles for the decal options on the rear. Inside is a single sprue in grey styrene, a small clear sprue, decal sheet and instruction booklet, the clear parts safely enclosed in their own Ziploc bag. Detail is good, although there’s a tiny amount of flash here and there, but it’s minimal and mostly confined to the sprue runners. Construction starts predictably with the cockpit, with the blank instrument panel receiving an instrument decal to detail it, and both seats getting decal belts. The floor is moulded into the one-part wing and has raised areas for the seats that are detailed with a pair of control columns, centre console and rear bulkhead, while the instrument panel is glued into the front of the cockpit opening after closing up the fuselage halves. A pair of side windows pop in from the inside, and the front is closed up by adding the nose cowling, which has a depiction of the front bank of piston inserted behind it that will show through the oval intakes either side of the raised prop shaft surround. The wings and fuselage are joined, and the single-part elevators with their ribbed flying surfaces moulded-in are glued into their slots in the rear. The canopy is a single piece that has the framing engraved in, and it’s a crystal-clear part that will show off your work on the interior once its finished. There are a couple of choices of antennae on the spine behind the cockpit, and a clear landing light fits into a recess in the leading edge of the starboard wing. To finish off the build, the landing gear legs are glued onto raised teardrop shapes under the cockpit, and it might be an idea to drill and pin these for extra strength, with the one-part wheels attached to the stub-axle on each leg. The nose leg has its oleo-scissor link moulded in, and the wheel fixes to the axle moulded into the one-sided yoke. The two bladed prop is moulded as one piece with a spinner sliding over it, and behind it there’s a cowling under the nose with two exhaust stacks sticking out, then at the rear are another pair of antenna and a blade antenna under the trailing edge of the wing/fuselage. Markings The stencils are numerous and they are covered on the rear of the instruction booklet to avoid overly-busy diagrams on the back of the box, where you will find three decal options, two in black and yellow, and one in civilian service, from which you can build one of the following: The decals are well-printed in good register, with a thin glossy carrier film close to the printed edges for the most part, but with a few that are a little larger. This shouldn’t cause too much of an issue however, as the film is thin and has a relatively soft edge. There are seatbelts and an instrument decal on the sheet, which should add a little realism to your finished cockpit. Conclusion The Bulldog is a small aircraft, so the model is commensurately small and a simple build that’s very friendly to your pocket. Clean up those moulding seams and you should end up with a really nice replica of this much-loved RAF trainer in some more unusual colours. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of