Search the Community

Gloster Gauntlet Mk.II ‘Special Markings’ (AZ7868) 1:72 AZ Model by Kovozávody Prostějov The Gauntlet bears a family resemblance to the Gladiator from the same stable because it preceded it, entering service earlier after an extended development process that would be worthy of a modern defence project. Its development began as early as 1929, but it wasn’t until 1933 that it was given the name Gauntlet, and another two years before it started to enter service with the RAF in small numbers. It was intended as a replacement to the Bulldog, which it outpaced by 50mph thanks to its Bristol Mercury engine, with heavier armament that included two machine guns in troughs in the fuselage sides, firing through the cowling and propeller. Only twenty-four of the initial airframes were made before there were improvements made, which were give the designation Mk.II, resulting in the initial batch being retrospectively named Mk.I. The Mk.II made up the majority of production, with over 200 manufactured in the UK, plus more built overseas. At its peak there were fourteen squadrons equipped with Gauntlets, but as the storm clouds of war began to gather, it was already outdated. By the time war finally broke out, only one squadron was left in frontline service, the rest having transitioned to more modern fighters such as the Hurricane, which was created by Gloster’s new owners, Hawker, still carrying over some design traits from the Gauntlet through the Gladiator to the Hurricane, particularly in the rear fuselage and tail areas. Fortunately for the Hurricane pilots however, the speed and armament of their new aircraft was much improved and gave them a fighting chance against the enemy. The Gauntlet lingered on as a trainer in the UK and abroad for a while, with a single Mk.II preserved in airworthy condition in Finland, one of its former operators, although the engine has been replaced by something a little more modern for practical reasons. The Kit This is a reboxing of a 2008 tooling from AZ that has been re-released with new decals that depict special markings of the Gauntlet in RAF and Finnish service. It arrives in a small end-opening box with a painting of a Gauntlet over a battlefield engaging with a Soviet i16 on the front, and profiles for the decal options on the rear of the box. Inside are three sprues of grey styrene, a decal sheet, a small sheet of clear acrylic with two windscreens printed on it, plus the instruction booklet that is printed on a folded sheet of A4, with a series of rigging profiles on the rearmost page. Detail is good, with just a wisp of flash here and there, and a good representation of the fabric covered framework over the majority of the airframe. Construction begins with the simple cockpit that is based on a well-detailed flat section of floor, onto which the seat, control column and rudder pedals are fixed, applying four-point decal seatbelts to the pilot’s position for a little extra detail. There is cockpit sidewall detail moulded into the insides of the fuselage halves, and once these and the cockpit are painted and weathered, the fuselage halves can be joined together, adding a two-part instrument panel at the front of the cockpit cut-out. The engine is supplied as a single part with nine cylinders arranged around the core, which is surrounded by a three-part cowling due to the teardrop fairings around the perimeter, finishing the cowling off with a separate lip at the front. The tail fin is moulded into the fuselage halves, adding the individual elevator fins to the sides in small slots, and a tail-wheel with moulded-in strut underneath. The lower wing is a single part that is inserted into a slot under the fuselage, and once the seams have been dealt with, the landing gear can be built, made from two triangular struts that are linked by the axle that has wheels mounted on each end, positioning the assembly on the underside of the fuselage using the small recesses that are moulded into the model to locate them accurately. Four cabane struts are similarly fitted to the fuselage in front of the cockpit using more guide recesses, which supports the upper wing that is also moulded as a single part. Four interplane struts are fitted between the wings, and a scrap diagram gives details of the tensioner rods that are suspended in the rigging, which is dealt with over the page. A pair of exhausts are mounted under the cowling, cutting the windscreen from the acetate sheet and folding it to shape before gluing it to the front of the cockpit, then slotting the two machine gun barrels in the troughs on each side of the fuselage. The final task (if we ignore the rigging for now) is the three-blade propeller, with a moulded-in spinner to the front. Speaking of rigging, there are four diagrams on the rear of the booklet, detailing the location of the wiring, which should assist with the process along with the box art for a three-quarter view. Markings There are three options on the decal sheet, two RAF, and one in Finnish service, which comes with the reversed Swastikas they used at the time, confusing the uninitiated for many years. The British subjects are away from the usual silver dope, including desert and night fighter schemes From the box you can build one of the following: The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that 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 Gauntlet was a well-used interwar fighter that in its day was an impressive improvement over those that it replaced, but was soon to be left in the wake of the next generation of fighters due to the speed of development at the time. The kit depicts its fabric covering well, with a detailed cockpit, and it comes with some interesting decal options. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Spitfire Mk.Vc Trop ‘Over Yugoslavia’ (KPM0418) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The Spitfire was the champion of the Battle of Britain alongside the Hurricane and a few other less well-known players, and it’s an aircraft with an amazing reputation that started as a bit of a damp squib in the shape of the Supermarine Type 224. This gull-winged oddity was the grandfather of the Spitfire, and despite losing out to the biplane Gloster Gladiator, designer R J Mitchell was spurred on to go back to the drawing board and create a more modern, technologically advanced and therefore risky design. This was the Type 300, and it was an all-metal construction with an incredibly thin elliptical wing that became legendary, although it didn’t leave much space for fuel, a situation that was further worsened by the Air Ministry’s insistence that four .303 machine guns were to be installed in each wing, rather than the three originally envisaged. It was a very well-sorted aircraft from the outset, so quickly entered service with the RAF in 1938 in small numbers. With the clouds of war building, the Ministry issued more orders and it became a battle to manufacture enough to fulfil demand in time for the outbreak and early days of war from September 1939 onwards. By then, the restrictive straight sided canopy had been replaced by a “blown” hood to give the pilot more visibility, although a few with the old canopy lingered on for a while. The title Mk.Ia was given retrospectively to differentiate between the cannon-winged Mk.Ib that was instigated after the .303s were found somewhat lacking compared to the 20mm cannon armament of their main opposition at the time, the Bf.109. As is usual in wartime, the designers could never rest on their laurels with an airframe like the Spitfire, as it had significant potential for development, a process that lasted throughout the whole of WWII, and included many changes to the Merlin engine, then the installation of the more powerful Griffon engine, as well as the removal of the spine of the fuselage and creation of a bubble canopy to improve the pilot’s situational awareness. Its immediate successor was the Mk.II that had a better Merlin engine and higher octane fuel to give it a healthy boost in performance. The IIa was armed identically to the Mk.Ia with four .303s in each wing, while the IIb carried the two 20mm cannons of the Ib and two .303s in each of the wings. The Mk.II was followed by the Mk.V that had yet another more powerful Merlin fitted, which returned the fright of the earlier marks’ first encounters with Fw.190s by a similar increase in performance from an outwardly almost identical Spitfire. The C-wing was also known as the Universal Wing, and could carry different armament types without modification, cutting down on manufacturing time, whilst offering easy armament changes depending on the task at hand. The Kit This variant of the beloved Spitfire is a reboxing with additional parts of the 2016 tooling, and arrives in a small end-opening box with a painting of the subject on the front and the decal options on the rear. Inside are three sprues in grey styrene, a tiny clear sprue, two decal sheets and the instruction booklet, which is specific to the Mk.Vc. Looking inside, the sprues are very nicely detailed with two sets of wings that have different gun fairings as separate parts for the topsides, so care will need to be taken when snipping them from the sprues. The interior is similarly well detailed, with raised and engraved detail on the sidewalls and instrument panel, plus the typical ladder of strengthening ribbing on the roof of the gear bays, which is moulded into the underside of the upper wings. Construction begins with the cockpit, with a decal provided to apply over the black panel to enhance the details, the control column, red-brown Bakelite seat, the seat frame with an armoured panel between the seat and its frame. This is attached to the floor section, then the stick and seat join them along with the instrument panel where the rudder pedals pass through the footwell cut-out. The completed cockpit is glued into the starboard fuselage half, and the two exhaust slots are backed by some styrene sheet from your own stock, with a drawing of a template given to assist you with this. If you have some 3.5mm wide strip to hand, you’re half way there already. The fuselage is then closed after adding the twin bottles in the port side, and the clear gunsight is fitted to the top of the panel, ideally after you’ve finished with the fuselage seams. The lower wing is full-width as you’d imagine, and this more modern tooling is detailed with the oil cooler and radiator fairing that has textured front and rear radiator surfaces, plus a pair of teardrop shaped blisters outboard of the gear bays, which also has the narrow tunnel that accommodates the gear strut when retracted. The upper wing halves are glued over the lower, and once dry it is joined to the fuselage, has the gun barrels installed in the leading edges, the elevators and rudder fixed to the tail, and the chin insert added to the front, followed by the two-part chin intake, exhausts, and tail-wheel with moulded-in strut. The landing gear is simple and made from a single strut, captive bay door and single part wheel on each side. The prop is moulded as a single three-blade part that is trapped between the front and rear spinner, the latter having an axle moulded to the rear that is inserted into the front of the fuselage. The canopy is a single-part, and has a rear-view mirror fitted to the top of the windscreen, and an antenna just behind the cockpit. The back page of the instructions shows the location of the aerials and all the stencils, including the flare-port decal on the side of the canopy. Markings There are three options on the main decal sheet, while the separate sheet contains all the stencils, which is good to see at this scale. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that 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 well-detailed replica of Britain’s favourite fighter from WWII as it flew with Yugoslavian pilots, and in the Yugoslavian Air Force after WWII ended and before the Iron Curtain came down. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Heinkel He.162B-5 Volksjäger ’46 (AZ7855) AZ Model by Kovozávody Prostějov As the tide of war turned against Nazi Germany, defensive action became more important than attack and expansion of the Reich, and aviation designs were called for under the jingoistic Volksjäger project, which translates to “People’s Fighter”. It was a specification that called for a jet engine point-defence fighter that was cheap to produce, used few strategic materials, could be piloted by a relatively unskilled pilot, and could be built in large numbers to break-up the Allied bomber streams that were pounding military production facilities and cities into rubble on a daily basis. Heinkel’s submission to the programme was the diminutive He.162 that was barely as large as a Bf.109, with short wingspan, a small fuselage that was low to the ground on squat landing gear, which assisted in repair and maintenance of the single jet engine mounted on top of the fuselage just behind the pilot’s canopy. This unfortunate juxtaposition resulted in an early ejection seat being fitted in the tiny cockpit, which would push the pilot clear of the engine intake, but with no anti-flail protection, it was as likely to injure or kill the pilot as save him. The slender fuselage meant that a low fuel load also contributed to a short 20 minute flight time, and there was also little room for armament, which consisted of two 20mm or 30mm autocannons mounted under the cockpit’s side consoles, firing through troughs under the nose. Once the initial issues were resolved, the aircraft was found to be an excellent and quick light fighter, but it wasn’t really simple enough to be flown by a novice pilot. Although it was simply engineered and was partly made of laminated wood, the parlous state of the German aviation industry meant that production was slower than anticipated, and only around 1,000 of the A-series type were completed or under construction by the end of the war, many of which remained grounded due to shortages of spares, fuel, pilots or any combination of the three, so very few saw action at squadron level before the end of the war, reaching service in April 1945, barely a month before the end. The training airframes were sometimes pressed into service in emergencies and racked up some kills, although ejection was highly dangerous, and the structure of the aircraft was known to have some issues, especially with the rudders. The B-series designs were intended to see action in 1946, but the end of the war curtailed development, so they remained predominantly paper-projects. The B was to have a longer fuselage to accommodate more fuel, larger wings, and a more powerful Heinkel designed jet engine, and straight wings with a lower dihedral. Pulsejet power units of the type used in the V-1 flying bomb were briefly considered, but their lack of power and need for a pre-existing airflow to start the engines meant that they were dismissed as a viable source of motive power. The Kit The war ended in 1945, but this kit assumes that hostilities had continued, and pulsejets were used as an alternative form of propulsion. It is based on the 2021 tooling of the A-2 Salamander kit, adding new parts for the engines and their mounts, plus a revised fuselage without the jet engine fairings. The kit arrives in an end-opening box with two sprues of grey styrene, a clear canopy part, decal sheet and the instruction booklet inside, the latter printed in colour on a sheet of folded A4 that covers all six of the B-series variants, so you’ll need to follow the instructions carefully to ensure you built the correct B-5 version with a single pulsejet and straight wingtips. Detail is good with crisply engraved panel lines throughout, a well-appointed cockpit, landing gear bays and even RATO pods for take-off assistance. Construction begins with the nose gear bay, which is built from two halves that have the rudder pedals mounted on each side, as the fuselage is that cramped. The simple ejection seat has decal belts, and a strip that joins the control column to the base, fitting the seat to the sloped bulkhead at the rear. The instrument panel and coaming are joined together and a decal is applied to the dials, adding a gunsight to the centre, and here you could nip off the styrene “glass” and replace it with a piece of acetate sheet for a little extra realism if your hands are steady enough. The main gear bay is built as a single assembly from five parts, which is inserted in the lower fuselage, while the cockpit, nose gear, instrument panel and two side consoles are added to the nose, painted and then the fuselage can be closed, making sure to add at least 10g of nose weight. The pulsejet engine is built from halves with a mesh panel in the front, and is mounted on a short pylon on the fuselage centreline, as marked in red on the instructions. As the engine is mounted further forward than some installations, an extension tube is added to the rear so that the jet efflux clears the tail of the aircraft. The V-tail is made from a one fin moulded into the rear fuselage insert, and this is joined by the other fin that is a separate part, as depicted in small scrap diagrams nearby. This variant has forward raked wings without anhedral wingtips, which are single parts that butt-join to the sides of the fuselage in the location picked out in red. Another scrap diagram shows the configuration from the front along with the other possibilities. Each variant shares the same landing gear, the nose strut equipped with a single wheel that is trapped by the two-part yoke, and the bay door opens down to the port side. The main gear struts have trailing scissor-links and forward-facing retraction jacks that have a single wheel on a stub axle perpendicular to the strut. They are shown fitted in the bare bay assembly so you can see all the location points properly. The bay doors open up and outward, and are each a single part, with detail moulded into the interior. An optional gun pack can be added under the centreline, and a pair of two-part RATO pods can be glued to the sides of the fuselage behind the main bay doors, their locations again marked in red. The final part is the canopy, which is moulded as a single part and glues into the cut-out over the cockpit. Markings There are three decal options on the sheet, with four-view profiles on the back of the box in full colour that have colour names rather than any maker’s paint codes to guide you. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that 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 Luft’46 is interesting to some and not to others, which is fine, as life would be dull if we all liked the same thing. I like it, and forward swept wings with a pulsejet is definitely out of the ordinary. A nicely detailed model that won’t take up much room in the cabinet, and with some interesting decal options. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Heinkel He.162B-3 Volksjäger ’46 (AZ7853) AZ Model by Kovozávody Prostějov As the tide of war turned against Nazi Germany, defence became of greater importance than attack and expansion of the Reich, and aviation designs were called for under the jingoistic Volksjäger project, which translates to “People’s Fighter”, but was also known as the Emergency Fighter Programme. It was a specification that called for a jet engine point-defence fighter that was cheap to produce, used minimal strategic materials, could be piloted by a relatively unskilled pilot, and could be built in large numbers to break-up the Allied bomber streams that were pounding military production facilities and cities into rubble on a daily basis. Heinkel’s submission to the programme was the diminutive He.162 that was barely as large as a Bf.109, with narrow wings, a small fuselage that was low to the ground on short landing gear, which assisted in repair and maintenance of the engine mounted on top of the fuselage just behind the pilot’s canopy. This dangerous juxtaposition resulted in an early ejection seat being fitted in the tiny cockpit, which when triggered would push the pilot clear of the engine intake by an explosive cartridge, but with no anti-flail protection, it was as likely to injure or kill the pilot as save him, which sometimes happened. The slender fuselage meant that a low fuel load also contributed to short range and flight time, and there was little room for armament, which consisted of two 20mm or 30mm autocannons mounted under the cockpit’s side consoles, firing through troughs under the nose. Once the initial issues were resolved, the aircraft was found to be an excellent light fighter, but it wasn’t simple enough to be flown by a novice pilot. Although it was simple to produce and was partly made of laminated wood, the parlous state of the German aviation industry meant that production was slower than anticipated, and only around 1,000 of the A-series type were completed or under construction, many of which remained grounded due to shortages of spares, fuel, pilots or any combination of the three, so very few saw action at squadron level before the end of the war, reaching service in April 1945, barely a month before the end of WWII. The airframes of the training groups were sometimes pressed into service in emergencies, and racked up some kills, although ejection was dangerous, as was the structure of the aircraft, which was known to have some issues, especially with the rudders. The B-series designs were intended to see action in 1946, but the end of the war curtailed development, so they remained predominantly paper-projects. The B was to have a longer fuselage to accommodate more fuel, larger wings, and a more powerful Heinkel designed jet engine, and straight wings with a lower dihedral. Pulsejet power units of the type used in the V-1 flying bomb were briefly considered, but their lack of power and need for airflow in order to start the engines meant that they were dismissed as a viable source of motive power. The Kit The war ended in 1945, but this kit assumes that hostilities had continued, and pulsejets were used as an alternative form of propulsion. It is based on the 2021 tooling of the A-2 Salamander kit, adding new parts for the engines and their mounts, plus the revised fuselage without the jet engine fairings. The kit arrives in an end-opening box with two sprues of grey styrene, a clear canopy part, decal sheet and the instruction booklet inside, the latter printed in colour on a sheet of folded A4 that covers all six of the B-series variants, so you’ll need to follow the instructions carefully to ensure you build the correct version with twin pulsejets and anhedral wingtips. Detail is good with crisply engraved panel lines throughout, a well-appointed cockpit, landing gear bays and even RATO pods for take-off assistance. Construction begins with the nose gear bay, which is built from two halves that have the rudder pedals mounted on each side, as the fuselage is extremely cramped. The simple ejection seat has decal belts, and a strip that joins the control column to the base, fitting the seat to the sloped bulkhead at the rear. The instrument panel and coaming are joined together and a decal applied to the dials, adding a gunsight to the centre, and here you could nip off the grey styrene “glass” and replace it with a piece of acetate sheet for a little extra realism if your hands are steady enough. The main gear bay is built as a single assembly from five parts, which is inserted in the lower fuselage, while the cockpit, nose gear, instrument panel and two side consoles are added to the nose, painted, after which the fuselage can be closed, making sure to add at least 10g of nose weight. Two pulsejet engines are built from halves with a mesh panel in the front, and these are mounted on short pylons on either side of the fuselage centreline, as marked in red on the instructions. The H-tail is made from a shallow V-shaped elevator that fits on the rear fuselage insert, and has the fins with moulded-in rudders fixed at right-angles to the elevators, as depicted in small scrap diagrams nearby. As already mentioned, this variant’s wings have anhedral wingtips, which are single parts that butt-join to the sides of the fuselage in the locations picked out in red. Another scrap diagram shows the configuration from the front along with the other possibilities. Each variant shares the same landing gear, the nose strut equipped with a single wheel that is trapped by the two-part yoke, and the bay door opens down to the port side. The main gear struts have trailing scissor-links and forward retraction jacks that have a single wheel on a stub axle perpendicular to the strut. They are shown fitted in the bare bay assembly so you can see all the location points properly. The bay doors open up and outward, and are each a single part, with detail moulded into the inside face. An optional gun pack can be added under the centreline, and a pair of two-part RATO pods can be glued to the sides of the fuselage behind the main bay doors, their locations again marked in red. The final task is the canopy, which is moulded as a single part and glues into the cut-out over the cockpit. Markings There are three decal options on the sheet, with four-view profiles on the back of the box in full colour that have colour names rather than any maker’s paint codes to guide you. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that 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 Luft’46 is interesting to some and not to others, which is fine, as life would be dull if we all liked the same thing. I like it, and twin pulsejets sounds like a heap of fun. A nicely detailed model that won’t take up much room in the cabinet, and it comes with some interesting decal options. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Bücker Bü.181 Bestmann (KPM0404) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The Bücker Bü 181 Bestmann was intended to be a light trainer with reconnaissance capability, and first flew in early 1939 before WWII began in earnest. It was similarly laid out to the Bf.108, with the pilot and copilot sitting side-by-side in an extensively glazed cockpit, and with its low wing offering good all-round visibility that made it well-suited as a trainer, the role for which the Luftwaffe used it extensively, although it was also used as a hack for communications, and occasionally as reconnaissance where its small size and good view from the cockpit came in useful. In March 1945, orders were given to convert some airframes to mount pylons above and below the wings to carry two pairs of Panzerfaust anti-tank weapons that carried a shaped-charge to defeat enemy armour. The weapon had a very short effective range however, so the pilot would need to follow an almost suicidal course directly toward the tank, often at low level, leaving it until the last second to launch his weapon and pull out, in order to give the charge any chance of even hitting the mark, let alone penetrating the armour. Unsurprisingly, they achieved only minor success for extreme losses, but it was a sign of the desperation of the Nazis to stop the Soviets and Allies from rolling towards Berlin. Production of all types during WWII extended to over 700 airframes, but the Bestmann’s career did not end when the war did. Further variants were built by Zlín in Czechoslovakia after the war, and as the Gomhouria in Egypt, while the Swedes built theirs as the Sk 25 under license from Bestmann, bringing the overall total of all variants to over 4,000, of which only a handful remain. The Kit This is a reboxing of a kit that was launched in 2021 by a company called Stransky, although the copyright on the sprue is marked as 2019, before the fan became covered in Covid virus bacteria. The kit arrives in a small end-opening box with a painting of the plucky Bestmann in action against Soviet T-34s, flying very low to the ground in amongst the dust and flames. On the back are the decal profiles in colour, and inside is a resealable bag that contains a single sprue in grey-white styrene, a clear sprue of five parts, decal sheet in its own Ziploc bag, and the instruction sheet, which is printed on folded A4 paper on all sides. Detail is good, with raised and recessed features all-over, and a well-appointed cockpit, which should be visible through the crystal-clear canopy, especially if you leave the side access doors open. There are however some very slight layer marks visible on parts such as the elevators and the rear of the fuselage that gives away the fact that this is likely to have been developed initially from 3D printed masters. They are nigh-on invisible however, and if they can be seen after priming, a light sanding will be all that is needed to render them invisible. Construction begins with the cockpit, adding the seat backs to the moulded-in bases, and fitting this and a rear bulkhead into the fuselage during closure, after the detail painting of the cockpit and sidewalls are complete. The lower wing is full-span, and the uppers are separate halves, mating to leave a gap for the fuselage between them, and with the underside of the forward fuselage moulded into the lower. Two panels are slipped into the cockpit sides after painting brown, and the elevators are glued to the sides of the tail onto butt-joints that would be stronger with the addition of some brass pegs. The cockpit has two pairs of rudder pedals inserted into the front, and a single part that depicts the two control columns on a central base in front of the pilot seats. A scrap diagram shows these parts from the side and from an angle to assist with placement. Decals are supplied for the seatbelts, which are shown on a very faded see-through diagram of the cockpit, which could easily be missed while you are wondering what the two-part assembly to their left is. It turns out to be a pair of bulkheads spaced apart by two tapered cylinders, and these are inserted into the engine cowling before installation of the main canopy part, which includes a portion of the upper fuselage, the windscreen, roof panel, and the rear screen. The instrument panel is glued into the front of the canopy before installation, and the side doors are shown in closed position, as well as hinged open at the forward edge, much like the American P-39 Airacobra. A pair of small curved rear-view quarter-lights insert in the rear of the cockpit sides, or blanking plates can be used instead, although all decal options show the clear parts in use. The Hirth HM 500 engine is not included in this kit, but the exhausts are, and here you must open up the pinholes in the underside of the fuselage before inserting them from inside, test-fitting to ensure you don’t oversize them. Three pipes are moulded on one carrier, with another separately on its own carrier. A central divider is installed in a bracket moulded into the lower, and painted black, after which you can add the upper cowling and the nose fairing, with asymmetrical intake slot, with the prop sited on a pin that projects from the fairing. Sights for the Panzerfausts are fitted on the top cowling in front of the windscreen, along with the venturi sensor, with a pitot probe under the wing. The fixed landing gear is made up from strut with moulded-in oleos, and a separate wheel, one for under each wing leading edge, with a scrap diagram showing their orientation from the front, plus a pair of actuators for the flying surfaces are also sited under the trailing edges. The tail wheel is fixed in a hole under the rear, then it’s a case of fitting the four Panzerfausts with moulded-in pylons, which are mounted under and over the wings, with a flashed-over hole visible on the inside of each part. It would be best to open these up before closing the wings, and take careful note of how the redundant manual sights on the weapons should be oriented, using the scrap frontal diagrams to aid you. Markings There are four decal options on the sheet, and they have managed to include profiles for all angles on the rear of the box, along with swatches of the paints used and their colour names, having no allegiance to any particular brand. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that 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 Bestmann is a small aircraft that has a certain elegance to it, which is portrayed nicely by this kit. The juxtaposition of the Panzerfaust armament is at odds with the overall design, but it shows the insanity of war eloquently. A nicely detailed kit with some interesting decal options, not all of which are armed. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

AVRO 626 Prefect (KPM0413) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov Developed from the AVRO 621 Tutor, the 626 was intended to be a jack-of-all-trades for training pilots of smaller air forces, and was structurally almost identical to the Tutor, save for the fact that there was an additional crew position behind the second cockpit. The third opening had a scarff ring installed for gunnery training, but could also be used to seat a wireless operator or a navigator, as well as riding with two crew for pilot training, hopefully without the gunnery training going on that could well have deafened the instructor, and possibly rained hot brass cartridges down the back of his flight suit. Although it first flew in 1930, it was entirely fabric-covered, resembling a WWI biplane more closely than the Spitfires and Hurricanes that first flew only a few years later. Early incarnations had a tail skid, but were later fitted with a tail-wheel for reliability and comfort, and many were sold to overseas air forces as originally envisaged. The RAF took a handful on charge, and these saw service at home throughout WWII, although its Armstrong Siddeley Lynx IVC 7-cylinder radial engine with a maximum speed of 112mph would mean it would be easy prey if had the misfortune to be intercepted by an enemy fighter. The British gave it the name Prefect, but it served in greater numbers in countries around the world, including Commonwealth Allies such as Canada and New Zealand, several South American nations, European and Eastern European countries, and China, some of which may have been pressed into operational service. Only one Prefect survives today, and that can be found in flying condition in New Zealand. The Kit This is a reboxing of the original release from 2007, but with a pair of new fuselage halves moulded in a different colour on my example, as the original boxings had two-seat cockpits and a smoothly faired-over rear training cockpit. The kit arrives in a small end-opening box that has a nice painting of a Spanish airframe on the front, and the decal options on the rear. Inside is a resealable bag that contains two sprues and two separate parts in grey styrene, plus the new fuselage halves in a tan colour. The package is rounded out by a large decal sheet, a small slip of acetate film with the windscreens printed on it, and the usual folded A4 instruction sheet that is printed in colour. Detail is good for the scale, including interior ribbing on the fuselage, fabric effect on the flying surfaces, and a representation of the seven-cylinder radial engine. Studying the sprues 'Forensically' shows that the two grey parts were originally part of the larger sprue above, but were removed with nippers to fit the box. Construction begins with painting of the two instrument panels according to the diagram, then building the engine from front and rear halves, which also has a painting guide. The two crew seats are simple parts that are detailed with decal four-point seatbelts, installing them on the flat cockpit floor and adding control columns for both crew members, then a two-part cowling is made, painted interior green and slipped over the engine. The interior of the fuselage halves are painted interior green before the instrument panels are fitted into the starboard side, inserting the cockpit assembly and then closing the fuselage. This edition’s tan fuselage halves have the third cockpit faired over with a raised flat cowling that is otherwise identical to the grey fuselage halves, so it’s a straight forward substitution. The main gear legs are then fixed underneath, starting with a triangular strut that is supported by adding another strut behind it, then mounting the wheel on the short stub-axle. This is repeated on the other side, followed by the tail-wheel and the engine, which is glued to the front of the fuselage after installing the exhaust ring on a peg at the top to ensure the exhaust pipe is correctly oriented. The lower wings mount on flat root fairings on the fuselage sides, and would benefit from brass rod spars to strengthen the bond, but the elevators are moulded as a single part that fits into a depression at the rear of the fuselage, fixing the fin and integrated rudder on the rear once complete, then supporting the elevators with a strut under each side. Before the upper wing is considered, the two windscreens are cut from their acetate sheet, folded at the lines, and are glued to the front of the cockpit openings. There is a third windscreen printed on the sheet, which could be used as a backup, and might be fitted on future boxings with the third cockpit opened for training. The upper wings are separated from the lower by two wing-mounted Z-struts with additional straight struts behind them, and another two cabane Z-struts mounted on the cowling in front of the forward cockpit. Before the upper wing is mated to the tops of the struts, the fuel-tank must be laid over the centre of the wing, which can thankfully be done without cutting the centre out, although the join may need a little work to get it to seat neatly, possibly removing the ribbing to let the tank sit closer to the wing. Ignoring the rigging for a moment, the leading-edge slats on the upper wing are glued in place, then the two-blade prop is slipped over the drive-shaft on the front of the engine. Rigging of the model is depicted in the final diagram in red, and should be viewed in conjunction with the box painting, and as many photos of the real aircraft that you can find. The technique you use however is entirely up to you. Markings There are four decal options on the sheet, and the back of the box covers three views, although the right-side, top and bottom profiles are necessarily smaller and with shorter wings as you can see below, but it shouldn’t cause any issues. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that 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 Many interwar aircraft aren’t as well known as they might have been due to WWII, and trainers even less so. This is a nicely detailed model of one of AVRO’s unsung heroes that trained some of the future pilots that later fought in the war, and flew many hours all over the world. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

LVG C.VI German Service (KPM0402) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov Developed by the catchily titled Luft-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (LVG) in 1917 as a two-seat artillery-spotting and reconnaissance aircraft, and having some relatively advanced features, including a send-only morse-code radio, and heated flight suits for the crew, as well as partial metal construction to add strength to the flying surfaces such as the elevator and tail fin. 1,100 of the type were made, and it reached the Western Front in time to serve as a close reconnaissance and observation aircraft, where they probably had to be regularly patched to cover bullet-holes. Unsurprisingly, the C.VI was a development of the C.V, being a little larger and more advanced, with the lower wing staggered 28cm behind the upper, and the fuselage was fully monocoque, compared to the partial monocoque fuselage of the earlier aircraft. Both aircraft had a chimney-style exhaust and a flat-panel radiator in the centre of the upper wing. The C.VI was equipped with a single LMG 08/15 7.92mm machine gun firing through the propeller on interrupter gear, with a Parabellum MG14 on a Scarff ring operated by the rear crew member. It could also carry up to 200lb of bombs, becoming an early example of armed reconnaissance. A straight 6-cylinder water-cooled Benz engine provided motive power, and that output a surprising 197hp through a two-blade wooden propeller, which gave it a maximum speed of 110mph, which seems painfully slow by today’s standards. They were advanced enough not to be scrapped the moment hostilities ceased in 1918, and some saw civilian service as mail-planes in Germany, while a few more were sold to neighbouring Poland, Finland, Czechoslovakia and a few went to the newly formed USSR, who had pulled out of WWI after their revolution, only to begin a conflict with Poland in the early 20s where they saw some action, with more airframes acquired by Poland. Switzerland also ran two airframes for almost the whole of the 20s. The Kit This is a rebox of a 2016 tooling by KP Models, and is boxed with new decals depicting aircraft in German service. The kit arrives in an end-opening box that has a painting of the subject on the front, and the decal option profiles on the rear, and inside is a resealable clear bag with a single sprue in tan coloured styrene, a small piece of printed clear acetate, decal sheet, and the instruction booklet that is printed in colour on a sheet of folded A4. Detail is good and the moulding crisp, with engraved panel lines where appropriate, restrained ribbing on the fabric-covered wings, plus well-detailed engine and machine guns, and cord wrappings on the interplane struts. Construction begins with the building and painting of sub-assemblies, starting with the curved instrument panel, moving onto the straight-six engine, which has all the cylinders moulded together and topped off by a detailed cylinder head part, and a base on which it mounts in the fuselage. Three ported intake manifolds are fixed to three cylinders each, and the exhaust with its moulded-in manifold is fitted to the starboard side, with a choice of tall or short exit pipe. This is then mounted on an oval bulkhead after the cockpit floor is detailed with a box to raise the pilot’s seat, which has a control column and rudder pedals applied to the floor in front. The Scarff ring is fitted with a pintle-mount, attaching the MG14 and its drum magazine to complete the assembly. The fuselage interior is painted natural wood to match the cockpit floor and engine mounts, adding a small part in the aft cockpit, the instrument panel in the front, and the nose machine gun in a slot in the starboard fuselage half, the back of the breech extending into the cockpit through the cut-out in the instrument panel. The fuselage is closed around the cockpit and engine assemblies, adding an optional vertical fairing around the engine, installing the Scarff ring on the rear cockpit cut-out, and a tail skid under the rear of the fuselage. The elevators slide into the rear of the fuselage, mounting the tail fin centrally over it. The upper wing is a single part, which has two Z-form cabane struts fitted at right-angles to the wing surface, and a curved reservoir structure underneath, ready for installation. The landing gear is built from a pair of V-shaped struts with an aerofoil axle linking them together, and single-part wheels on each end. These are glued under the fuselage, and the lower wings are attached to the sides on two pins, where you are advised not to use super glue, presumably because they may need adjustment to ensure the correct angle, as per the accompanying frontal profile. The two windscreens are cut from the acetate sheet and glued to the front of the cockpit cut-outs, then the upper wing is lowered onto the model, supported initially by the cabane struts, with four more individual struts per wing added from the sides, which of course ignores the rigging and painting. The prop gives you a choice of two blade-types, then the rigging diagram is shown on the following page, which should be read in conjunction with the box art and your own research. The final diagram shows the lozenge patterns that were painted on the upper surface of the wings, although decals for these are not included. They are available as an option however here, and are sold under the code KPEX026 if you want to make the task easier. Markings There are three decal options included on the sheet, which covers the National and personal markings for each option, while the rest of the camouflage should either be painted by the modeller, or as mentioned above, a decal set can be purchased to ease finishing the wings. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that 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 interesting and unusual model from KP Models, back on the shelves after a long absence. The moulding is very crisp, and includes plenty of detail to endear it to us modellers. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Zlín Z-142 Export (KPM0407) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov Zlín originally produced gliders, beginning operations in the 1930s, soon venturing into powered flight to build a few sports aircraft before the outbreak of WWII. After the war, they continued to produce the occasional glider, but also produced light aircraft of various types, which continued throughout the 40s and 50s, until the Z-42 single-engined trainer aircraft was introduced in 1967. Development of the type continued with several variants that led to the Z-142, which although it looks very similar to its progenitor is a larger aircraft with side-by-side seating for the two crew behind a more powerful Walter engine that benefitted from a supercharger to output 210hp from its fuel efficient inverted 6-cylinder fuel-injected motor. The Z-142 first flew in 1978, and as well as seeing extensive use as a trainer, it is commonly employed as a personal aircraft and a glider tug, having some acrobatic capabilities too, although best not done whilst towing a glider! Over 350 airframes were built, and development continued to improve the type further, the Z-242 having a Lycoming flat-four engine that necessitated a wider cowling to accommodate the engine’s extra width. The Kit This is a reboxing of the 2015 tool of this type with new decals, and it arrives in a small end-opening box with a painting of the aircraft on the front and the decal option profiles on the rear. Inside is a resealable clear bag containing a single sprue of grey styrene, canopy in its own Ziploc bag, two decal sheets, and the instruction booklet, printed in colour on a piece of folded A4. Detail is good, however there is a little texture apparent on the parts that could be attributed to over-application of release agent on the moulds, and there will be some ejector-pin turrets that need cutting off to allow some parts to fit together, although that’s not the most difficult task in the modelling world if you have a pair of nippers and a sanding stick. Construction begins with the instrument panel, which is painted and has a decal applied from the smaller sheet, which also includes a decal for the earlier Z-42. It is glued under the coaming, and set aside while two seats are painted and have their decal four-point seatbelts applied so that they can be installed on the stepped cockpit floor, adding two control columns in front of the seats, and fixing a rear bulkhead at the back of the raised portion. The completed cockpit is trapped between the fuselage halves, painting the cockpit sidewalls before applying glue, and remembering to also place the instrument panel and coaming in the front of the cut-out. The open fuselage front is closed by the nose cowling, and underneath a pair of raised panels are added, one of which has a hole in it to accept the nose gear leg, which is built from strut, separate mudguard and the wheel, which flex-fits between the yoke. The main gear legs are curved struts with the wheel added to the axle at the bottom, each one fitting into a hole in the lower sides of the fuselage. The wings are each made from two halves that butt against the fuselage, but would benefit from pinning in position to strengthen the joint, while the elevators are a single part and slot into a groove under the moulded-in tail fin at the rear. The port wing has a small cut-out in the lower half, into which is placed a clear lens, remembering to paint the space silver before fitting the clear part. The single part canopy glues over the cockpit cut-out, the two-blade prop with moulded-in spinner is inserted into a hole in the nose cowling, and a pitot probe is fitted under the port wing to complete the build. Markings There are four decal options on the main sheet, demonstrating the “export” part of the kit’s title by having four different countries as subjects. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that 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. If you’ve noticed that the Canadian flag has no white background, fret not – it’s applied to a white painted tail fin. Conclusion Trainers often look similar, but the similarity is softened slightly by the variety of schemes that they will be wearing in this boxing. The texture on the styrene will be simple to remove with some light sanding, so don’t let that stop you from picking up one of these less common aircraft from Eastern Europe. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Zlín Z-126 Over Europe (KPM0408) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The Z-126 started life as the Z-26, a low-wing monoplane trainer aircraft that was designed by Zlín and built by their colleagues at Moravan. Originally starting with an almost completely wooden construction, the design progressed until it had a tubular metal airframe with wooden wings that bears a passing resemblance to the de Havilland Chipmunk. The first prototype flew toward the end of the forties, replacing Bücker trainers that had been in use previously and were starting to show their age. After around 160 airframes had been produced, the wings were upgraded to metal construction, and these improved airframes went into service as the C-105 with the Czech Air Force in the early 50s. The next upgrade was to the engine, installing a 6-cylinder version of the Walter Minor engine that was previously only a four-cylinder motor, with a suitable increase in power and its product number to Z-226. There have been further variants of the type over the years, including the Z-226A, which is an aerobatic aircraft, and the single seat versions were appropriately called the Akrobat. The Kit This is a reboxing of a kit that originated in 2013 as a Z-205, the range having broadened to depict the Z-126 in between times, with its last outing in 2018 as a speciality boxing relating to a film. This new boxing has new decals to depict three colourful aircraft, and arrives in an end-opening box with two sprues in grey styrene, a clear part, decals and instruction booklet printed in colour on a folded sheet of A4. The profiles for the decal options can be found on the back of the box, which can be cross-referenced with the table on the front of the instructions that gives colours in local Czech brand Agama and the more widely available Humbrol codes. Detail is good, with engraved panel lines, detailed cockpit, plus raised and recessed features around the model. Construction begins with painting the instrument panels using the instructions provided, then doing the same for the seats, and a form behind one of the panels. The control columns and rudder pedals are painted and applied to the long cockpit floor, with a stepped rear fitted at the same time as the crew seats, which both have decal seatbelts. After detail painting the interiors of the fuselage halves, the cockpit can be fitted into the starboard side, and the fuselage closed, dealing with the seams, then moving on to the engine cowling, which is in two halves plus an internal bulkhead with radiator detail moulded-in that will be seen dimly though the tiny cut-outs in the front cowling. Four tiny exhaust pipes are glued to recesses to the cowling and painted a rusty brown for installation on the fuselage later in the build. First however, the cockpit has its two instrument panels and backing forms applied, supported by the fuselage sides, taking care to put the correct one in each station. The lower wing is single span, and is mated with the fuselage along with the separate upper wings, adding the combined fin and rudder part, and the elevators at the rear. The airframe is completed by gluing the single canopy part over the cockpit cut-out, fitting the engine cowling and two-bladed prop at the front. The model is raised from the bench by fixing the two main gear struts and their wheels under the wings on pegs, and the small tail strut with moulded-in wheel slides into a hole under the tail fin. Markings There are three decal options on the sheet, each one looking substantially different, and from a different country from the others, which should give a broader appeal. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that 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 To this reviewer’s eyes, the Z-126 looks like a Chipmunk with a fastback conversion, and that is quite appealing. Detail is good, the markings options disparate, and she’s a small aircraft that won’t take up much space in the stash or the cabinet. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Fieseler Fi.167 Over the Balkans (AZ7845) 1:72 AZ Model by Kovozávody Prostějov While Germany still harboured the desire to be a major naval power that could rival the British Royal Navy, they began a huge expansion of their Kriegsmarine that included gigantic battleships such as the Bismark and her sister ship Tirpitz, and their first aircraft carrier, named DKM Graf Zeppelin. They needed aircraft to fly from their carrier(s), so a development of the Bf.109 and the Ju.87 Stuka were commissioned in preparation. A torpedo bomber was also part of the requirement, and the specification was issued for a full metal biplane that could fulfil the need, as well as being capable of dive-bombing. In a competition with Arado, the Fieseler design won the day, and a prototype was ordered, followed by some pre-series production airframes for assessment and flight testing. It turned out to more than meet the requirements set down, being able to 100% carry more weapons than the specification, and was also a pleasant aircraft to fly, with an impressive short-field performance that was a distinct advantage on an aircraft carrier with limited deck space. In fact, during testing one aircraft descended from 300m without moving forward from a point on the ground that was indicated for reference. When the Graf Zeppelin was cancelled and later reinstated, Fi.167 production was stopped soon after it started, and then was cancelled altogether when it was decided that the Stuka could carry out the dive-bombing task, and a torpedo bomber was no longer needed. Nine airframes were transferred into Luftwaffe service and sent to the coast of the Netherlands for trials. Upon their return they were sold to Croatia, who used their short-field abilities and load-carrying excellence to supply their troops, who were often fighting in difficult positions where traditional methods of supply wouldn’t work. On one such mission, the pilot of an Fi.167 was killed by a round from a trio of British Mustangs, but not before the gunner had claimed one of the Mustangs prior to bailing out. The aircraft subsequently crashed, and the fate of the rest of the nine was similar, with none surviving the post-war period. The Kit This is one of four boxings of a new tooling from AZ Model, and arrives in an end-opening boxing with a painting of the afore-mentioned incident on the front and the three decal options on the rear of the box. Inside the box are two sprues of grey styrene, a clear part in its own Ziploc bag, a colourful sheet of decals, and the instruction sheet, which is a folded A4 sheet printed in colour on both sides. Detail is good, including engraved panel lines, rippled fabric effect on the flying surfaces, plus raised and recessed details throughout the model. Construction begins with the cockpit floor, which is detailed with two seats, control column, mount for the gunner’s weapon, and a bulkhead between the two crew. The instrument panel is inserted into the starboard fuselage half, and a painting diagram is provided for the pilot’s panel and the gunner’s panel that is moulded into the back of the bulkhead. With the fuselage closed and the seams dealt with, the exhaust are added and the full-span lower wing is joined to the bottom of the fuselage, and the elevators are plugged into slots either side of the moulded-in tail fin. Inverting the model, the landing gear spats are installed, and these have moulded-in wheels, and the real struts could be jettisoned in the event of a water landing, reducing the chances of the aircraft cartwheeling when it touched down. An intake is fixed under the chin with a representation of the cooling surface glued inside, and a centreline pylon with separate sway-braces is glued between the landing gear, which has a pair of support struts fitted. The upper wing is also full-span, and mounts to the model via two N-shaped struts per wing, and another pair of N-shaped cabane struts that locate in recesses on the fuselage sides. A small diagram shows the bracing wires in simplified detail, but this is best viewed in association with the box art, which shows that they are double-strung, and there are also twin wires linking the ailerons together behind one of the struts. Another pair of supports are fitted to the tail fin and elevators, with a scrap diagram showing how they should look from behind. The tail-wheel has a V-shaped arrestor hook in front of it, and the four-part torpedo on the centre pylon if you feel the urge to portray a test aircraft or a what-if option instead of the decal options. The prop consists of a back-plate to which the individual blades are attached, to be covered by the spinner, with a drive-shaft fitted to the rear to insert into the front of the fuselage. An aerial is mounted near the leading edge of the upper wing, with an aerial wire joining it to the tail fin. The machine gun with dual drum magazines are fitted to the rear of the cockpit cut-out before the canopy is glued in place, which is moulded as a single part with the rear section tipped up in preparation for action. Markings There are three decal options on the sheet, and they are all sufficiently different to have a broad appeal to many. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals are printed using a digital process and have good registration, sharpness, and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut loosely around the printed areas. This means that 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 I’m a little jealous that I can’t have one of these in 1:48, but it’s a nice model of a very rare aircraft that saw some unusual service toward the end of the war and beyond, changing hands in between times. 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-19P ‘Farmer’ Warsaw Pact (KPM0391) 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, additonal 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, although this boxing appears to suit part 6 as the panel lines match up. 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 rear deck fitted inside, and it is then 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, leaving the gun barrels on the wing roots, as is appropriate for this earlier model. 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 P wears a pair of drop tanks with sway-braces on the outer stations under the wings, as missiles weren’t yet carried. Markings There are three options on the decal sheet, all in overall aluminium in the service of different Warsaw Pact countries. 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 The MiG-19 was a step change from the first-generation jets fielded by the Soviet Union and its Pact members, and this model does the type justice, with plenty of detail and a choice of various operators. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Aero L-159A/E Alca Special Markings (KPM0386) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The L-39 was a fast jet trainer that was designed and manufactured in Czechoslovakia (as was) as a direct replacement for the earlier L-29 Delfin. It had success in its roles, and received numerous upgrades that resulted in new designations, and since the dismantling of the Soviet Union, some have found their way into private hands throughout the west, and they are often seen at airshows. It first flew in 1971, and was hoped to become the standard trainer across the Union, and following numerous upgrades by 1977 the ZA variant was put into service, fitted with a cannon and four hard-points for mounting various weapons in the Light Attack role. With the Soviet Union gone, the orders began to dry up, and an updated L-159 was produced in partnership with Boeing, using more modern avionics. To differentiate, it was called the Alca and first flew in 1997, with an order for 150 from the Czech government, deliveries starting at the beginning of the new millennium. The order was cut back due to budgetary issues, and the aircraft went into storage, eventually to be resold to Iraq where it has seen action against IS, and to Draken International, to be used for aggressor training. Following success with its new owners, the production line was restarted with modified airframes in single and two-seater guises. The Kit This is a reboxing of a 2018 tooling of the two-seater that has had additional parts to create a single-seat variant in previous boxings, but this version includes new decal options to warrant the “Special Markings” suffix. The A variant is the single seat Alca, while the E designation refers to the export version of the A. Like many of KP Models’ 1:72 kits, it arrives in a small end-opening box with a painting of the subject flying alongside a Spitfire in similar WWII livery, and on the rear are the profiles of the decal options in full colour. Inside are two sprues in grey styrene, a small clear sprue in a Ziploc bag, decal sheet, and the instruction booklet, which is printed in colour on folded A4 paper. Detail is good, with raised and recessed features throughout, including finely engraved panel lines and rivets, and a well-appointed cockpit. Construction begins with the landing gear for a change, starting with the nose gear leg, fitting the wheel between the legs of the yoke, and adding a detail part behind the pivot. The main gear legs are angled to the rear and have their wheels applied over the brake discs, then these assemblies are put to the side for later use. The ejection seat is next, adding sides to the seat, plus a bulky headbox, and an undocumented seatbelt decal to add extra interest. The cockpit is standard across boxings, having space for two seats moulded into it, as well as the side consoles, and a location for the separate control column and a pair of bulkheads that fix at the back of the forward cockpit and at the very rear. The seat and instrument panel are installed in the front, adding rudder pedals to the rear of the panel before you glue it in place, then building an avionics rack to fill the rear space, which is then mostly hidden by installing a three-sided cover over it, so judge for yourself how much will be seen. The exhaust for the single Honeywell/ITEC F124 turbofan engine is made from two halves with a rendition of the rear of the engine covering the forward end, and this too is put to the side while the two fuel tanks are built from two halves each, and a gun pod is made from two vertically split halves plus the twin muzzles. The fuselage halves are closed around the cockpit and exhaust, then the two intakes with separate splitter plates are fixed to the front of the sponsons on the sides of the fuselage, where a bit of dark paint will hide the dead-stop of the air-flow. A spine part covers the top of the fuselage, and coaming plus HUD glazing is added to the front of the cockpit cut-out over the instrument panel. The lower wings are full span and have the upper wing halves laid over the top before they are mated to the underside of the fuselage, adding the elevators to butt-joints either side of the moulded-in fin, which would benefit from pins to strengthen the joint. The canopy is glued over the cockpit, and two clear domes are added to the wingtips, inserting a pitot in each wing’s leading-edge 10mm from the tip fairings to complete the upper portion of the model. Underneath, the nose gear leg is inserted into a hole between the closed bay doors, and the main gear legs with additional captive doors fit into holes in the underside of the wings, adding three pylons outboard, the fuel tanks fitting to the innermost one. The gun pod fits on a small pylon on the centreline behind the nose gear, then it’s a case of adding a blade antenna under the nose, and a blister under the tail to complete the model. Markings There are three options available on the decal sheet, with full profiles on the back of the box, surrounded by oval colour swatches that show the colour names in English and Czech. 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 nicely detailed model with three interesting decal options, especially the retro WWII choice, but the aggressors are both attractive alternatives. It’s a shame there’s no open canopy option, but not everyone likes those anyway. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

AGO C-IV Late (KPM0398) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov The C-IV was a two-seat German reconnaissance biplane from WWI that was introduced in 1916, but wasn’t well-received due to some negative characteristics, namely being unstable in flight. The initial orders were large from German and overseas customers, but these were scaled back appreciably in light of the early experiences of the flight crews. An attempt to solve the instability was made by installing a fin in front of the small comma-shaped rudder amongst other improvements, but despite this the orders weren’t reinstated, resulting on fewer than 100 being built overall. It was powered by a Benz straight-6 water-cooled engine that produced a respectable (for the day) 220 hp, and had a distinctive vertical exhaust that pushed the fumes over the heads of the crew and away into the slipstream at a relatively spritely 120mph maximum speed. The Kit This is the third boxing of a brand-new tooling from Kovozávody Prostějov, and like most of their 1:72 kits, it arrives in a small end-opening box with a painting of the type on the front, plus the decal options on the rear of the box in full colour. Inside are two sprues of grey styrene, a small sheet of clear acetate with the shape of the windscreens printed on it, a decal sheet and the instruction booklet, which is printed in colour on a sheet of folded A4. Detail is good, and includes plenty of raised and engraved features, plus a well-detailed engine and internal details moulded inside the fuselage. Construction begins with painting the instrument panel according to the first drawing, then creating the cockpit on its floor, adding the two seats on raised cylinders, the steering wheel (yes, it’s a wheel) and a pair of rudder pedals in front of the pilot, then applying the decal lap-belts on both seats. The engine is moulded as a single part, but is well detailed considering its size, and has the exhaust “horn” added overhead before it is trapped between the fuselage halves along with the cockpit, instrument panel and the tail skid. Inverted-V cabane struts are fitted each side of the engine, adding an MG08 machine gun to a pair of pegs on the port side strut. The rear gunner’s ring is installed over the opening and his Parabellum MG14 is fixed to the rear after adding a large magazine to the right side of the breech, with a single inverted-V strut and rectangular frame placed between the two circular cockpit openings. At the rear, the full-span elevators are placed on a recess in the deck, the part helpfully marked with the word “bottom” on the underside, unless someone was just feeling naughty? The comma-shaped rudder and fin are glued over the groove in the centre, and a pair of struts hold the fin vertical, with a mirror image pair under the elevators that do the same for them in the horizontal. The lower wings are full-span and fit in a recess under the fuselage, fixing Z-shaped vertical struts near each tip and a single strut around mid-span, taking care to line the holes up with those in the upper wings. The Z-struts are made from a V-strut with a straight strut glued to the flat front of it, and should be allowed to cure before installing it on the wing. The upper wings are two separate halves that butt-join together, and our usual advice of adding pins for strength applies here. A small tube is fixed under the starboard wing in the centre of an engraved radiator on the lower surface and you should add the two feeder hoses as you join the wings, which will doubtless be a delicate task. It would be a good idea to fit the two acetate foil windscreens before installing the upper wing for convenience’s sake, using a glue that won’t fog or melt the acetate to secure them. Under the wings, a pair of V-struts hold the aerofoil shrouded axle in position, fitting the two wheels on the ends, and adding a mechanism that looks to be some kind of latch or arrestor to the centre of the aerofoil. The last part is the two-bladed prop with moulded-in spinner that glues to the flat front of the fuselage. Markings There are two decal options on the sheet, both wearing the same camouflage scheme of brown and two shades of green over a light blue underside. 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 may not have been a particularly good aircraft, but the tapered wings give it a more modern look, and it’s a little bit different from the norm, which is an automatic tick in the appeal box from my point of view. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Let L-60B Brigadýr Agro 1 (KPM0393) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov Strangely, the L-60 was a Post-WWII replacement for the German Fiesler Storch, which was license-built in Czechoslovakia during WWII as the K-65 Čáp. The initial Aero design was plagued with problems that were remedied by an extensive re-design that became the Brigadýr, which unsurprisingly stands for Brigadier in English. The re-designed aircraft first flew in 1954 with an improved flat-6 M-208B engine manufactured by Praga Doris, outputting just 190hp, but sufficient to give it the flight characteristics that made it an excellent STOL aircraft along the same lines as the Storch, with an incredibly low 32mph stall speed. An improved version with an all-metal tail was given the designation L-160, with a grand-total of fewer than 300 across all variants made by the time the production lines closed in 1960. For a relatively short-run aircraft, it was utilised in many areas of aviation, such as crop-dusting, armed trainer for the Czech Air Force, glider tug, observation aircraft and as a communications hack. The Kit This is a reboxed release of the original kit that first hit the shelves in 2008 under the AZ Model brand. There have been new parts since then, and even a radial-engined offering that was known as the L-60S, with improved power output. This edition arrives in an end-opening box with a painting of a blue-and-white Brigadýr on the front that’s spraying some unknown chemical pesticide as it goes, and the profiles for the four decal options on the back. Inside the resealable clear foil bag are two sprues of grey styrene that appear to have been moulded as one, but were nipped in half to fit inside the box. A separate Ziploc bag contains the canopy, which is moulded as a single-part blister, despite the aircraft being a high-wing monoplane. A decal sheet and instruction booklet that is made from a folded sheet of A4 and printed in colour completes the contents. The detail is good, having lots of raised and recessed elements, especially on the wings and fuselage, but the cowling for the radial engine option can be seen on the sprues too, although they aren’t needed for this boxing. Construction begins with the cockpit, with a flat floor that has four rudder pedals moulded into the front, with spaces for the individual front seats and the rear bench seat, which are marked by a scribed rectangle with an X running through it, which is replicated on the raised front seat bases. The two-part pesticide container drum takes up a portion of the rear cockpit, and despite the instructions telling you to fit the rear seats, I suspect the two components will be incompatible, so perform a test-fit before getting gluey. A control column is inserted in front of each pilot, and the front seats also have four decal seatbelts per pilot. There appears to be a firewall at the front of the floor in the instructions, although this is misleading, as the well-detailed instrument binnacle is attached directly to the front of the cockpit cut-out during closure of the fuselage, with just the addition of a rear bulkhead preventing a view into the tail. Once the seams have been dealt with, the single-part canopy is glued over the cut-out, and a drum-top with filler valve moulded-in is glued to the rear of the canopy, which is also painted over during the later stages. At the rear, the full-span elevator and tail fin are installed together, taking care to ensure they are perpendicular to each other and the rest of the airframe. An additional triangular part can be used to create a fin-fillet for two of the decal options, but the top two don’t require it. The nose is made from two halves that have the upper louvres moulded-in, and have the intake under the chin added as a separate part, with a pair of exhausts made from rod or tube from your own stock. A bulkhead is inserted into the nose on a ledge, then the intake lip closes the front of the fuselage, adding a stepped square fairing under the front of the cockpit. A pair of optional two-part bombs are depicted fixed to the underside of the fuselage, but these are for other military variants, so can be put in the spares for this boxing. The wings are moulded individually, adding the two flying surfaces to the curved trailing edges and a long pitot near the tip of the port wing. They butt-fit onto flat spots on either side of the canopy top, and would benefit from adding pegs to strengthen the joint, perhaps a single brass rod that passes through the entire canopy. The wing support struts also form part of the main gear leg arrangement, linking the sides of the fuselage to the undersides of the wing, the locations marked out in red. The gear struts are each braced by a V-support, and the wheels are fitted to the axles, with a single part for the tail-wheel and its yoke under the fin. A crew step is glued to the port fuselage side under the side window, with a scrap diagram showing the angle from the front, which also helps with the locations and angles of the wing and gear supports. The penultimate task is to add the pin to the rear of the two-bladed prop, then glue it in place in the nose of the model, fixing a landing lamp in an aerodynamic fairing under the port wing, just inboard where the supports meet the wing. It’s a styrene part, so you’ll need to either replace the front with a clear lens, or paint it silver. Under the rear of the cockpit, a drum with a groove around its circumference is installed, with a flared diffuser housing fixed into the groove at the rear to complete the build, although for the sake of painting it’s best left off until later. There is a scrap diagram showing the model from below that will help with aligning the diffuser with the airflow. If you check the profiles, you’ll also note that there are some small supports and actuators leading to and from the mechanics below the fuselage, which you could consider replicating with some stretched sprue or fine wire. Markings There are four decal options depicted on the rear of the box, all wearing different liveries, although one option doesn’t appear to have a diffuser fitted. 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 curious little post-Storch aircraft, and looks quite appealing as an airborne tractor. Detail is good with just a hint of flash here and there, and the more colourful agricultural schemes make a change from the drabness of military models. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Yokosuka D4Y2-S Judy Night Fighter (AZ7843) 1:72 AZ Model by Kovozávody Prostějov Intended as a replacement to the ageing Aichi Val, the Suisei, or Comet in English, was delayed by development issues that meant the Val had to soldier-on in service, where it racked up a substantial tally of Allied ships and other assets in the dive-bomber role. Initially powered by a license-built Daimler Benz DB601 engine, the aircraft had a high top-speed that gave it an advantage when avoiding defensive fighter screens on the way to the target, but like many Japanese designs, it lacked armour and self-sealing fuel-tanks that meant one burst of fire stood a good chance of turning it into a flaming wreck. It wasn’t until the later radial-engined 4 variant that such niceties as armoured glass and cockpit armour were introduced, too little, too late, as all the experienced pilots had already met their doom. Although it was intended as a dive bomber, its speed led to its use as reconnaissance aircraft, as well as a night fighter, and late in the war it was also used in kamikaze attacks, having the unfortunate distinction of being the aircraft used in the last attack of the kind of WWII, ironically just after the Japanese surrender documents had been signed. It was equipped with a pair of forward-firing .303 machine guns throughout its service, and a rear machine gun for the gunner in the back of the long greenhouse canopy, which was upgraded to a more powerful 13mm weapon in later variants to improve its destructive capability, firing upward through the canopy at the bomber streams overhead. Its bomb load was only 500kg, often stored in the internal bomb bay, or as two 250kg bombs under the wings. The Kamikaze variant carried 800kg, as it wasn’t expected to make a return journey. The D4Y4 was the last version, configured to the unique requirements of kamikaze attacks, having its rear gun removed, the bomb load increased, plus windscreen and cockpit armour added, along with some protection for the fuel tanks. The end of the war curtailed the development of the D4Y5 that mounted a more powerful 2,000hp radial engine and a four-bladed prop. The Kit This is a reboxing of a kit that was originally tooled in 2012, although additional parts have been added since then, and a new decal sheet is provided for this issue. It arrives in an end-opening box, with a painting of the type on the front firing on a high-flying B-29 Super Fortress that’s part of a bomber stream, but isn’t taking it lying down, firing back from both the remote turrets on the underside. A full set of profiles can be found on the rear of the box, using Gunze paint codes to call out painting instructions. Inside the box are two sprues of grey styrene, a sprue of clear parts in its own Ziploc bag, decal sheet and instruction booklet, all tightly wrapped in a resealable clear foil bag to prevent chaffing of the parts. The instructions consist of an A5 booklet of two pages of folded A4, with spot colour on the front page, and a set of stencil profiles on the rear. Detail is good, with crisp engraved lines on the surface, and plenty of raised and recessed details incorporated on the sprues. Construction begins with the cockpit, which is assembled on a long flat floor with a raised portion in the middle that accepts the pilot’s seat and decal seatbelts, adding the control column in front, and painting the moulded-in rudder pedals. In the rear section, a single tall bottle and a rack of three more squat bottles are inserted into depressions, as is a box, and later on the rear crew seat on a rotating gun-mount frame with more decal belts applied is fitted in front of the box, and is shown facing forward. In between the crew are two radio boxes that are fixed to the upstand behind the pilot’s seat and on the floor just behind it. There is mention of Photo-Etch (PE) parts in the cockpit, but this is a generic Judy instruction sheet, and refers to another boxing. The instrument panel is blank, and has two decals applied to depict the dials instead of PE, and these should be applied after painting the panel, as the dials are printed on a clear carrier film. The cockpit and instrument panel are sandwiched between the two fuselage halves along with the tail wheel, and here there is some ribbing and other detail moulded into the interior that will benefit from some careful painting to accentuate them. The lower wing is a single-span part that incorporates part of the lower fuselage, and this has the two gear bays inserted from within along with a clear window in the cockpit floor before it is joined to the upper wings and mated with the fuselage. The gear bays also have some ribbing moulded-in to add detail to your model, as well as sockets for the gear legs that are installed later. First, a choice of large or small tail fins is butt-jointed with the fuselage, as are the elevators, and all these would benefit from pinning for extra strength, even at this scale. The larger fin is appropriate for this boxing, so toss part 8 into the spares bin early on to avoid confusion. Both cowling types are included on the sprues, but you can ignore step 9 for this issue, as the early Judies had in-line engines. The cowling is made from two halves, into which the exhaust stacks are slotted into grooves at the sides, adding the three-part chin intake below, then applying the spinner to the three-bladed prop and inserting the shaft into the hole in the nose. The diagrams all have their appropriate variants included in text on the left, so making a mistake would require some effort to ignore them, which is good. The main gear is next to be made, fitting the wheels to the end of the struts, and adding the captive bay door over the open side to trap the wheel in place, doing the same in mirror-image for the other leg. It is worth noting however that the upper end of the bay door should be cut off to create a small additional door that rests almost flat against the wing once installed, so cut those before you glue them to the legs. A few scrap diagrams help you with the correct alignment of the landing gear parts, and show the angle for the inner bay doors. A small pair of doors are fitted to the tail gear bay, with an arrestor hook only fitted to certain options, due to a dwindling number of carriers the Japanese navy had nearer the end of the war. There is a common roll-over bar with V-brace support fitted between the cockpits, then a choice of guns for a couple of specialised sub-variants of which this is one. The night fighter has a forward-angled upward firing 13mm machine gun mounted on the floor in the rear cockpit in a similar manner to the German’s Schräge Musik that was intended to take down bombers from beneath their poorly defended undersides, as evidenced on the box art. Three of the four canopy steps can be ignored, taking note of step 17, which has the canopy installed in the front of the cockpit cut-out with a telescopic sight projecting through a hole, and you must also drill in the main canopy to accommodate the machine gun in the rear cockpit. The canopy is a single part depicting the rest of the greenhouse, adding a radio mast around the mid-point of the framework, for which you’ll need to provide your own wire/thread to connect it to the top of the tail fin, as per the top diagram of the stencil profiles. Drilling the hole in the clear canopy may sound terrifying, but if you take care, make a pilot mark with a needle or awl to avoid slipping, and don’t press too hard with your drill bit, filling the canopy interior with a piece of Blutak to help prevent damage, it shouldn’t be too scary. Markings There are three options on the decal sheet, and although they all wear the same green over grey camouflage with a wiggly demarcation, their tail codes will separate them in a line-up. From the box you can build one of the following: The decals have been designed by Rising Decals, and appear to be printed using the same digital processes as Eduard are now using, having 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 re-release of this initial version of the night fighter Judy that is well-detailed, and from my own point of view is a more attractive option than the later radial-engined options. What amounts to carrier-free decals also adds to the appeal. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Let L-60 Brigadýr Export (KPM0383) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov Strangely, the L-60 was a Post-WWII replacement for the German Fiesler Storch, which was license-built in Czechoslovakia during WWII as the K-65 Čáp. The initial Aero design was plagued with problems that were remedied by an extensive re-design that became the Brigadýr, which unsurprisingly stands for Brigadier in English. The re-designed aircraft first flew in 1954 with an improved flat-6 M-208B engine manufactured by Praga Doris, outputting just 190hp, but sufficient to give it the flight characteristics that made it an excellent STOL aircraft along the same lines as the Storch, with an incredibly low 32mph stall speed. An improved version with an all-metal tail was given the designation L-160, with a grand-total of fewer than 300 across all variants made by the time the production lines closed in 1960. For a relatively short-run aircraft, it was utilised in many areas of aviation, such as crop-dusting, armed trainer for the Czech Air Force, glider tug, observation aircraft and as a communications hack. The Kit This is a reboxed release of the original kit that first hit the shelves in 2008 under the AZ Model brand. There have been new parts since then, and even a radial-engined offering that was known as the L-60S, with improved power output. This edition arrives in an end-opening box with a painting of a blue-and-white Brigadýr on the front, and the profiles for the three decal options on the back. Inside the resealable clear foil bag are two sprues of grey styrene that appear to have been moulded as one, but were nipped in half to fit inside the box. A separate Ziploc bag contains the canopy, which is moulded as a single-part blister, despite the aircraft being a high-wing monoplane. A decal sheet and instruction booklet that is made from a folded sheet of A4 and printed in colour completes the contents. The detail is good, having lots of raised and recessed elements, especially on the wings and fuselage, but the cowling for the radial engine option can be seen on the sprues too, although they aren’t needed for this boxing. Construction begins with the cockpit, with a flat floor that has four rudder pedals moulded into the front, with spaces for the individual front seats and the rear bench seat, which are marked by a scribed rectangle with an X running through it, which is replicated on the raised front seat bases. A control column is inserted in front of each pilot, and the front seats also have four decal seatbelts per pilot. There appears to be a firewall at the front of the floor in the instructions, although this is misleading, as the well-detailed instrument binnacle is attached directly to the front of the cockpit cut-out during closure of the fuselage, with just the addition of a rear bulkhead preventing a view into the tail. Once the seams have been dealt with, the single-part canopy is glued over the cut-out, then at the rear the full-span elevator and tail fin are installed together, taking care to ensure they are perpendicular to each other and the rest of the airframe. An additional triangular part can be used to create a fin-fillet for some versions, but the decal options for this boxing don’t require it. The nose is made from two halves that have the upper louvres moulded-in, and have the intake under the chin added as a separate part, with a pair of exhausts made from rod or tube from your own stock. A bulkhead is inserted into the nose on a ledge, then the intake lip closes the front of the fuselage, adding a stepped square fairing under the front of the cockpit. A pair of optional two-part bombs are depicted fixed to the underside of the fuselage, but these are for other military variants, so can be put in the spares for this boxing. The wings are moulded individually, adding the two flying surfaces to the curved trailing edges and a long pitot near the tip of the port wing. They butt-fit onto flat spots on either side of the canopy top, and would benefit from adding pegs to strengthen the joint, perhaps a single brass rod that passes through the entire canopy. The wing support V-struts also form part of the main gear leg arrangement, linking the sides of the fuselage to the undersides of the wing, the locations marked out in red. The gear struts are each also braced by a smaller V-support, and the wheels are fitted to the axles, with a single part for the tail-wheel and its yoke under the fin. A crew step is glued to the port fuselage side under the door, with a scrap diagram showing the correct angle from the front, which also helps with the locations and angles of the wing and gear supports. The final job is to add the shaft to the rear of the two-bladed prop, then glue it in place in the nose of the model, fixing a landing lamp in an aerodynamic fairing under the port wing, just inboard of where the supports meet the wing. It’s a styrene part, so you’ll need to either replace the front with a clear lens, or paint it silver. Markings There are three decal options depicted on the rear of the box, all in civilian service, hence the lack of need for the bombs. 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 curious little post-Storch aircraft, and will likely cause some misidentification from the unwary. Detail is good with just a hint of flash here and there, and the more colourful civil schemes make a change from the drabness of military models. 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

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

P-51B/C Mustang Club Kit (CLK0009) 1:72 Kovozávody Prostějov Originally developed to fulfil a British requirement for a new fighter aircraft, the unmistakeable North American P-51 Mustang famously went from drawing board to first flight in just 178 days. It went on to become one of the most famous and successful aircraft of the Second World War, thanks to its speed, agility, distinctive looks and long-range capabilities. The performance of the original Allinson engine gradually dropped off above 12,000ft, but this was transformed by being replaced by Rolls Royce’s legendary Merlin engine. With its Achilles heel sent packing, the Mustang went from strength to strength as the B and C variants, which had a “razorback” spine and scalloped rear windows that gave the pilot a little better rearward view. It was eventually developed into The P-51D that introduced a number of improvements in response to combat experience, including a cut-down rear fuselage and bubble canopy, plus an increase in the number of 0.5 inch machine guns from four to six. Over 8,000 P-51Ds were produced, more than any other Mustang variant. The Kit This is a new boxing of a 2015 tooling from KP, and it arrives in a small end-opening box with two sprues of grey styrene, a single sprue of clear parts, decal sheet and the instruction booklet, formed from a folded sheet of A4 that has been printed in colour. Detail is excellent for the scale, and the decal sheet includes items such as instrument dials and seatbelts to add more visual interest to your model. The instruction booklet is a multi-kit offering, covering other variants with the blown Malcolm Hood, and some versions of the F-6 reconnaissance Mustang, which you can safely ignore. Construction begins with the instrument panel that is shown being painted and decaled along with the gunsight, as are the sides of the cockpit within the fuselage, showing thorough painting guidance throughout the build. The curved cockpit floor has a lever and console fitted to it, before it is joined by the fuel tank with radio gear on top, the pilot’s seat with separate armour and head rest behind it, the control column with linkage, and front bulkhead in front of the instrument panel and coaming. The completed cockpit and rear radiator trunking are inserted into the port fuselage half along with the tail-wheel bay door and the bay with tail-wheel strut inserted into the roof of the bay. The fuselage is closed around the cockpit, adding one last lever to the starboard cockpit wall, then once the glue is dry, the lips on the chin and belly intakes are glued in place to give them a more finessed appearance. The lower wings are full span, and the well-detailed gear bay insert is placed inside before it is joined to the fuselage and the upper wing halves are laid over it, accompanied by the elevators and the rudder at the rear. The flying surfaces on the main planes are all separate, and can be offset as you see fit, with the instructions advising that the flaps can be posed with up to 50° downward deflection to depict an aircraft configured for landing or take-off. The prop is a four-bladed, cuffed part, which is trapped between the spinner cap and rear plate that has an axle on the rear to join it to the front of the nose at the same time as the single-part canopy is installed over the cockpit, with a rear-view mirror and radio mast at the rear, which includes a small portion of the fuselage to give the rear windows a smooth surface, and moves the seam further aft, just out of the way of the clear parts. An optional D/F loop is installed on the spine behind the canopy, which doesn’t seem to apply to the decal options below. The main landing gear comprises the struts with moulded-in scissor links, to which the wheels are attached, to be inserted into the outboard ends of the gear bays, adding the captive outer bay doors, and the two inner doors that often drop down as the hydraulic pressure bleeds away after parking up. Only the top drawing of the last page of the instructions apply to this boxing, adding a choice of two styles of exhaust stubs to the sides of the nose, and painting the lower frame of the diagonal windscreen panels. Markings There are two options included in this Club Kit, and although the text is written in Czech, Google gives us the following options, of which you can build one: P-51B-5-NA, 4th fighter squadron, 52nd fighter group pilot capt. James Otey "Tim" Tyler, Italy, September 1944 The aircraft crashed at Tri Duby Airport while escorting a B-17 piloted by Ethan A. Smith with Slovak National Uprising assistance. P-51C-10-NT, 5th fighter squadron, 52nd fighter group, pilot Lt. Alexander F. Watkins, Italy, September 1944 Due to a malfunction, the aircraft remained at the Tri Duby airport during the Slovak National Uprising. After a quick test that confirmed my suspicions with an earlier kit, the decals appear to be printed by Eduard or using the same digital printing techniques, 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, especially at this scale, and saves a good quantity of precious modelling time into the bargain. Conclusion The Mustang is well-loved in the aviation and modelling world, and these unusual markings options should appeal to many, as should the level of detail that’s included in the kit. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Another inspired build from the book Spitfires in the Sun. This is an oddball version of MA 368, a Spitfire Vc that served with the RIAF. I had earlier built the Airfix 1/72 kit as the final version of the plane as it was with 1 SFTS in Peshawar. This is MA 368 when it got its first interim paint job. It arrived in India in the Middle East scheme and painted in the RAF temperate land scheme soon after. However the azure blue underside was left as is and dark green and dark earth were transposed. Further, the original Type C1 roundel and fin flash were painted over with the ACSEA Blue/India white colors to the same dimensions. About the build and kit - this was a side build as I was building the Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Vc as the main build. This KP side build though took way longer as I went from disaster to disaster. See my link to the build thread. Happy to see this done finally. Colors are mainly Vallejo Air except for the Dark Green which is Tamiya. The Vallejo Dark Green sucks but the rest of the Vallejo colors are great. For the gloss and dull coats I used Ammo Mig's Lucky Varnishes for the first time and am very happy with it. The build thread is here Thanks for viewing. Always appreciate comments and suggestions 👍frame widget

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

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