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I know the plane in the foreground is a Messerchmitt, but I was - sort of - recreating this photo: http://www.cartula.ro/forum/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=142957 It shows the Romanian BF 109 E-3 no.1 next to Hurricane Mk.I no.1 in pre-Eastern Front markings. The Bf was destroyed in an accident on December 4 1940 so this picture was probably taken earlier that year. The first Emil was flown to Romania in December 1939 and the Hurricanes were delivered in crates at about the same time. In the summer of 1940 when the Soviet Union presented Romania with a 24 hours ultimatum to give up its eastern and northern provinces under the threat of invasion, these few Hurricanes and Messerschmitts were the most modern fighters Romanian had. I think it`s something of a poetry to see an 109 and a Hurricane next to each other under the same country colours. Indeed, the 12 Hurricanes that Romanian bought from Britain formed the 53rd Squadron, which initially was paired in the 7th Fighter Group with the 57th Squadron equipped with the first batch of 11 Bf 109 E-3. These acquisitions made after the war had already started in Europe created the situation where the British pilots and technicians sent to help press the Hurricanes (and Blenheims) into service found themselves neighbours at Pipera with the German personnel who was doing the same for the He-112s. The no.1 Hurricane was flown by Emil Georgescu, the 53rd Squadron`s commander. For anyone interested in the subject, the book under my model is a good starting place and I`ve reviewed it HERE, on BM, several years ago. My build is not the most fortunate and better modellers will notice quite a few things that could have been done better. The lighting conditions were not ideal either these days, being mostly cloudy, but somehow able to make both my models and the Coastal Kits base more shiny than in reality. Still, three photoshoots - and several sessions of fixing small issues and removing particles of dust virtually invisible to the naked eye, but popping up in pictures - later I`ll call it done for now. I`ve used the Arma Hobby 70021 Hurricane Mk I Trop kit (simply because that`s the one I found locally and the plastic is the same as in the other Mk.I boxes). The five spoke wheels characteristic of the L series Hurricanes that Romania had came with a decal set by Kora (Dec7269) dedicated to the Yugoslav Hurricanes. The De Havilland Spitfire Propeller is a Quickboost (72166) product. The cockpit ring gunsight is from an Eduard PE sheet (72403) and the bead on the cowling is from a Master set dedicated to British P-40 B/Cs (AM-72-123). I`ve replaced the kit`s antenna mast with a 0.9mm brass tube as the L series had the early, pole type. I`ve also removed the extra access panel on the right side of the fuselage that was not present on this series. The roundels and numbers are from a dedicated RB Productions decal sheet (RB-D72022); the stencils are from the Arma kit. I`ve also used the dedicated masks from Pmask (PK72154) which are great and Eduard`s Superfabric early RAF seatbelts (73025) - wish Eduard would still be making these. I`ve used Lifecolor`s UA 092 for Dark Earth as recommended by the RB decal`s instructions. The UA 091 that was recommended for Dark Green proved to be a rather bright and saturated green so I had to overpaint it with the only other Dark Green I had available, Italeri`s 4726AP. The Black (36108), White (36105), Aluminium (36199) and Blue (36156 - on the rudder) are from Revell`s Aqua range. The Yellow is also Revell (36115), but I`ve addded a bit of Carmine Red (36136) to try and match the RB Productions decal yellow and for once I think I`ve done it. The red on the rudder is Vallejo`s 70.817 and the interior grey green is Hataka`s B025. The model is brush painted so having to add a couple more layers of dark green was not fortunate. The white and yellow also do not brush easily and need several layers and this made it harder for the wash to settle in the panel lines. The wash is a combination of 4 parts Light Grey, 1 part White and 1 part European Dust from Vallejo. With half the underside being white and the other black I`ve tried to choose something light enough to show on black, but still dark enough for the white and the two colours on the upperside. I think it ended up too dark for the white wing. The plane would have been fairly new and well maintained at this point. The small bump between the antenna pole and the canopy was actually a light on the real thing and would have been better represented by a transparent piece, but I`ve realized this late so I`ve just painted it gloss white.

Henschel Hs 129 B-2 (vol.6 of the Illustrated History of Romanian Aeronautics) by Horia Stoica, Dan Antoniu and Vasile Radu I want to present to people here another volume that appeared in the "Illustrated History of Romanian Aeronautics" series, of which I have previously reviewed the titles dedicated to the Hawker Hurricane, Bf 109 E and Bloch M.B. 210. This one is dedicated to the Romanian career of the Henschel Hs 129 B-2 and, like previous titles in this series it is bilingual, with the text split between Romanian and English, and, as the series name suggests, tells its story mostly through photographs accompanied by commentary and relatively short sections of text. Following the heavy losses suffered by the Romanian Airforce during the battle of Stalingrad a program was started to get it back to strength using "new" German aircraft. One of these types was the Henshchel Hs 129 B-2. The planes received were actually used and only reconditioned by the Germans before delivery to Romania. The 8th Fighter Group was designated for conversion and it became the 8th Assault Group (Squadrons 41, 42 and 60). A first lot of 40 machines started to arrive on 11 May and the first series of pilots finished conversion training on 1 June 1943. The planes were basically German property and were to be replaced when lost. Records from 16 June 1943 to 23 August 1944 show a number of 241 machines used by the three squadrons of the Group. In addition to these, more were captured from the Germans starting with 23 August 1943 and pressed into service. The pilots of the 8th Group were experienced fighter pilots and before converting to Hs 129 B-2 they had achieved numerous aerial victories on I.A.R. 80 and 81 and Bf 109E. They also scored several more on the Henschel, fighting on both the Eastern and Western Fronts and were also involved in several dramatic landings in the first line, under fire, to save downed comrades. The Hs 129 B-2 was finally retired in 1949. Given the large number of Henschels that served with the Romanian Airforce, the book is not structured on a plane by plane chapter like other books in this series, but follows its service before and after August 1944, on the two Fronts it fought on. In addition to these two sections, there is also a chapter dedicated to the personnel of the Group. Close to the end of the book, a two pages chart details the status of the Hs 129 B-2 aircraft on 5.10.1943 detailing the "current" state of each plane number and its werk nr.. In a change from other titles in this series which featured large numbers of photos of various documents, this one has only two. The rest of the pictures (102 in all) depict the machines in Romanian service and their personnel. There are no colour photos of the aircraft, nor any profiles or illustrations, but, in addition to the many black and white photographs, some very useful information for modellers can be found, such as the number serials used for each Sqadron and the propeller spinner colour (red, yellow or blue) specific to each of them. I think this is another well chosen aircraft for this series that shades more light on a rather neglected subject and it should be useful to both modellers and people interested in aviation history. Nowadays, the books from this series seem to be available more widely for non Romanian buyers ( I saw them on aviationmegastore for example), but for anyone interested, I will note that the series has a facebook page, where you could also try to get in touch with one of the authors, Horia Stoica. That`s how I bought my copy and for the avoidance of any doubt I`ll note that I payed the full price advertised at that time. I`m told that a new title in this series is well underway and while I don`t know its subject yet I`m looking forward to it being announced. I`ll end with a few more shots to better illustrate the content of the book.

Bloch M.B. 210 (vol.3 of the Illustrated History of Romanian Aeronautics) by Horia Stoica, Dan Antoniu and Vasile Radu I`d like to bring to the attention of folks here a book on a rather niche subject: the career of the French Bloch M.B.210 bomber in the Romanian Air Force. It is part of the series "Illustrated History of Romanian Aeronautics", just like the titles dedicated to the Hurricane and Bf 109E which I have reviewed here before. Just as for the others, I have payed for my own copy of this book. The text is bilingual (Romanian and English) with every page being split between the two languages. Largely, this is an album that brings together many photos of the M.B.210 that I haven`t seen before, accompanied by commentary and chunks of text describing how the bomber came to be, how it was acquired by Romania and its service thereafter. Romania ordered 24 machines, but it only received and operated 10 which were flown in starting on the 3rd of May 1938. In Romania they equipped the 82nd Squadron which served on the Eastern front in 1941, executing bombing missions and even managing to down several enemy aircraft. In 1942 they were retired from the front and used for training and in 1944, the 3 remaining machines were designated for heavy transport. They were retired from service in 1946. Giving the small number of the machines that served with the Romanian Airforce (numbered from 1 to 10), the book is mainly structured, both in text and photos, to deal with each individual aircraft in order, which is handy for anyone wanting to model a particular machine. The sections of several aircraft also contain reports by crewmembers describing bombing missions and the downing of enemy fighters. The final chapter (a page worth of text) is a recollection made by a 18th Squadron (IAR-37) observer describing, from the ground of the airfield the two squadrons shared, the first day of the war of the Bloch M.B. 210. There are 62 black and white photos of aircraft and crew and 37 colour photos of various documents and newspaper articles of the time describing anything from missions to accidents. Unfortunately for non-Romanian readers, the actual text of these documents is not translated into English. Instead, each photo is accompanied by a brief description of its content. As far as the photos of the aircraft are concerned there are interesting things to note here, such as the use of the MG 15 machinegun instead of the 7.5mm MAC machinegun that was standard on the French machines and the two colours upperside camouflage (exactly which colours is a matter of debate between Romanian modellers). There are no colour photos of the aircraft, nor any profiles like there are in the Messerschmitt Bf 109E volume. All in all, this is a very useful book for aviation history enthusiasts and modellers alike. Here are a few more shots to get a better idea of what is included:

I`ve started this build three years ago and it`s finally done! The model represents the no.1 Bf 109 E-3 in Romanian service, as it appeared during the second half of 1940. I had long wanted a Romanian Emil in national/neutrality markings, but the earliest photos I could find were from the early 1941, when their cowling was already painted yellow to conform to the Axis identification markings. Then this beautiful photo appeared in a German language book who`s authors thought they were looking at a French captured Messerschmitt: http://www.cartula.ro/forum/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=142957 It actually shows the Romanian Emil yellow 1 next to the Hurricane yellow 1. Romania bought 50 Bf 109 E-3 in December 1939, but only one was flown in at the date of the contract signing. The Germans repeatedly delayed the delivery of the rest. Ten more aircraft arrived in crates during May-June 1940 and were assembled during the next two months. The rest were delivered until february 1941, but after Romania got dragged into the Axis sphere. That first batch of 11 aircraft was formed into the 57 squadron and together with the 53 squadron equipped with Romania`s 12 Hurricanes Mk.I it formed the newly constituted 7th Fighter Group. The no.1 aircraft, flown by the 57 squadron commander, Dumitru Popescu, was destroyed on 4 December 1940 in a tragic accident in which the pilot lost his life. During formation training it collided with a German 109 and the canopy failed to jettison properly. Popescu was an aerobatic champion and one the most appreciated military pilots. The subsequent enquiry found that both the squadrons` pilots and ground crew were unaware at that time that the canopy jettison lever was fited with a safety device. I started the model based on the photo and became aware of its history only after buying the book on top of which its seats, which I have thought to review here, on britmodeller: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235093077-messerschmitt-bf-109-e-3e-4e-7-vol4-of-the-illustrated-history-of-romanian-aeronautics/ Unfortunately, the photo on which I`ve based the model does not show the right wing. Many (but not all) of the Romanian aircraft of that time had the national markings placed assymetrically (Poland also did this) and unlike the Hurricanes, there doesn`t seem to be any rule for the assymetry on the 109 wings. I`ve painted the left wing stripe and cocard as they apear in the photo and I`ve extrapolated from a photo of no.24 for the right wing: https://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Bf-109E/FARR/pages/Messerschmitt-Bf-109E3-FARR-7-Grupul-Yellow-24-1941-01.html I`ve used the Tamiya kit (60750) with the correction tailwheel from Quickboost (QB 72 324) as the one from the kit is apparently undersized (left-Tamiya, right QB): http://www.cartula.ro/forum/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=148815 The Romanian 109 E-3 used the Oerlikon MG-FF wing cannons and the Tamiya kit (as well as all the other ones in this scale that I am aware of) only includes the Ikaria MG-FF/M. The Oerlikon FF cannon was also standard on the Yugoslav Emils and you can see it clearly on this Swiss plane:http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f5CrYmAZft0/TnJVnW9ZOlI/AAAAAAAAAYo/XJjfpxHpaI0/s1600/bf-109+3+copy.jpg The solution was to use the Japanese Type 99 20mm Mark 2 cannon barrels made by Master (AM-72-017). They`re pretty much the same. For the sake of consistency, I`ve removed the kit`s cowling mounted MG 17 and replaced them with the brass ones from the dedicated 109 set from Master (AM-72-009). I`ve also added Eduard`s PE seatbelts (SS 582). The roundels (with the large blue dot) come from a RB Production decal sheet (RB-D72014). They`re not thin and they proved pretty resistent to Micro Sol. I took the 1 number from another one of their decals (RB-D72013). The stencils are from Techmod (72055). They seem very much to scale (as opposed to the large and bolded ones that you generally find in 109 kits) and are also thin, but they also stick to the model immediately and are very fragile. I had to paint over some of them and start over. Their nicht betreten lines on the wings in particular have been a nightmare to place and I just gave up. Perhaps using Decal Film might help, but otherwise I think it`s impossible to place them correctly without breaking them in many pieces. My solution was to buy a decal sheet from Matho Models (80005 - Decal Solid Lines black) that contains nothing but black lines of various thickness and cut those to size. It says Printed by BEGEMOT on their sheet and the decals are awesome! They are both thin and very resistent. With enough Decal Set/Water, you can move them for ever until you are happy and then they conform beautifully. By the way, I chose to have the wing lines black and not red as is popular with model makers because that`s how they appear on the Swiss J-355 (supposedly correctly restored) and the wreck of the Yugoslav L-61, both of which are export E-3s from about the same period. I`ve pieced together the Me 109 E stencil on the vertical stabilizer (barely visible on the original photograph and in my photos) from Kora`s Yugoslav 109 decal sheet (KORDEC7234). The painting was done by brush, mainly with LifeColor paints: underside - RLM-65 - UA 503 upperside - RLM-71 - UA 502 propeller - RLM-70 - UA 501 interior, wheels bay and main landing gear - RLM-02 - UA 071 control panel - RLM-66 - UA 133 The yellow for the stripes, tricolor and propeller cone is the LifeColor UA 042. It was recommended by some of the RB Productions instructions as a good match for the accompanying decals, but it doesn`t seem identical to me. It was also hard to brush and after so many layers I lost some details. I am aware that my build has several issues, most of which are unforced errors. Hopefully I`ll do better next time.

Messerschmitt Bf 109 E-3/E-4/E-7 (vol.4 of the Illustrated History of Romanian Aeronautics) by Horia Stoica and Vasile Radu I`d like to point out - to those that haven`t found it yet - the publication of another title in the Illustrated History of Romanian Aeronautics series, this time dedicated to the Messerschmitt Bf 109 E in Romanian service. Much like the Hurricane title that I have reviewed here: https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235031176-hawker-hurricane-voli-of-the-illustrated-history-of-romanian-aeronautics/ this volume is also largelly an album, but with more text devoted to the subject and, this time, accompanied by several colour profiles. The book is bilingual (in Romanian and English). Romania bought its first Messerschmitt Bf 109E at the end of 1939 and the various versions (E-3, E-4 and E-7) served from 1940 until the end of the war. In total, there were 69 machines so, unlike the Hurricane volume which was structured around each individual aircraft (of which there were only 15), this title has its chapters arranged chronologically (Before June 1941; June 1941 - September 1944; After August 1944), followed by chapters dedicated to the pilots and their personal emblems and one of various details (guns, gunsight, control sticks and several shots from repair shops). Towards the end of the book there are 3 tables (one listing the Romanian ranks and corresponding English equivalents, another of all aircraft numbers and their respective Werk Nr and the third, dedicated to the 6 machines modified into E-4 after August 1943). These are followed by a recollection by Lieutenant Ioan Galea describing a mission from May 1944 against a large formation of American B-17 bombers and their accompanying Lightnings, while flying the BF 109 E-7 no.65. The Romanian text of this section is spread on five and a half pages, but unfortunately, it is not translated. Instead, there is a brief (less than half a page) description of it in English. All in all, there are 160 pages with - by my count - 75 black and white photos showing the aircraft, pilots and technicians, 3 priceless contemporary color photos of the Emil in Romanian service (that stir lively debates on Romanian modelling forums regarding the yellow paint used), 38 colour photos of various documents (the text of these is mostly in Romanian and is not translated, but there is an English caption explaining their contents) and 3 colour photos depicting a contemporaneous drawing of the famous 7th Fighter Group`s Donald Duck emblem, the text on that photo`s back and the original drawing on which the emblem was based. There are also 5 colour profiles plus top and bottom views of a Romanian 109 E by Teodor Liviu Morosanu (you might be familiar with his work from the Romanian Fighter Colors 1941-1945 title published by MMP). In conclusion, this is a very useful book for anyone wanting to model the Bf 109E and get a sense of its service in the Romanian Airforce. The series has a facebook page (noted in my review of the Hurricane title) where you could try to get in touch with one of the authors (Horia Stoica), but I see it`s available from various international sites and scale model shops so there`s no longer a need to give any directions of where it can be acquired from. To be clear, I bought mine a couple of years ago at an airshow and paid full price for it. I should note that, in the meantime, two more titles have appeared in this series, dedicated to the Henschel HS-129 B-2 and the Bloch M.B.210 in Romanian service. I`ll end with a couple exemplificative shots of the Messerschmitt volume:

Hawker Hurricane (vol.I of the Illustrated History of Romanian Aeronautics) by Horia Stoica and Vasile Radu I bought this recently published book and since it is a bilingual edition (text in English and Romanian) and the Hawker Hurricane is one of my favorite aircraft I thought I would do a review here. This is supposed to be the first number in a - hopefully - long series of titles devoted to aircraft in Romanian service so I guess it would be important for it to do well. The book is very much an album with its 88 pages devoted to showing the Hawker Hurricane in Romanian colours through 135 photos. It does not contain colour profiles or scale drawings. The text is kept to a minimum which means usually a commentary for each photo, a two pages (four pages actually, but they are split between the two languages) Preface which briefly describes the Romanian acquisition of the Hurricane and its service as part of the famous 53rd Squadron (it gave the first three aces of the Royal Romanian Air Force in WW2) and a Finale with a page worth of text. There is also a Glossary at the end providing the English translation to various Romanian terms and ranks. As far as the text is concerned I have one minor complaint regarding the fact that it starts so close to the binding and this makes it a bit difficult to read the words close to that. Most of the photos depict the aircraft, with some of them dedicated to the personnel and some showing documents (many are reports detailing various incidents). One minus here for a non-Romanian reader is that while the commentaries that accompany the documents` photos are available in English too, so you can get the main idea, the actual text of the document is not translated. Technically, the book is colour printed (which shows in the case of the documents), but the photographs of the planes and crews are all black and white. That said, the photographs chosen for this book are very clear, in my opinion, many are new to me (which makes sense given the claim of "previously unpublished photos" on the RB site - see bellow) and even for those that could be found online I think the detail quality included in this book is superior. As a modeller I found them most useful (among other things to see that my recently finished Hurricane model has an incorrect extra band on the propeller). The book itself is helpfully structured along the aircraft numbers of which Romania had a total of fifteen, conveniently numbered from no.1 to no.15. The first 12 of these were of the late Mk.I type (with metal wings) bought directly from Britain with the other 3 being Yugoslav built (early type with fabric wings), captured by the Germans in 1941 and sold to Romania. Each of the first twelve - British made - machines has its own short section showing photos of the aircraft in question, the men who flew it, documents where available and occasionally, photos of non identified aircraft to portray something relevant to the section. An exception to this is the no 10 for which there are no photos available as it crashed shortly after arriving in Romania resulting in the death of the pilot (Cpt. Av. Drăgănescu Gheorghe) and the destruction of the aircraft. The three ex Yugoslav planes are all presented at the end of the book with photos showing individually only the no 15 and no 14 (the single picture showing it in an original post-maintenance camouflage). The Romanian Hurricanes went from the neutrality markings to the Axis identification elements and some to post maintenance paint-jobs so in this respect there are various differences not just between them but also for each aircraft, depending on the period. This means that for a modeller it is quite convenient to have a photographic resource structured by plane number and I have to say that, overall, I personally liked this book. Based on the text from the back cover one of the following numbers will be devoted to the Bristol Blenheim in Romanian service so here`s hoping! From what I read at the end of the book, Radu Brînzan (of RB Productions and author of "Vânător - Romanian hunter: The I.A.R.80 and I.A.R.81 in Ultimate Detail") was responsible for the English translation and indeed, the book is available on his site: http://www.radubstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=118&products_id=719&zenid=b8b477f645e6d6133b44d94a1b8486d5 Incidentally, RB Productions has recently released a decal sheet for the Romanian Hurricanes in 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32 scales. The author of this Hawker Hurricane volume is on facebook and the series (Illustrated History of Romanian Aviation) has its own page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1285649678148929/ so one could also try to buy or inquire about the book that way.

Romanian Armoured Forces in WWII Library of Armed Conflicts 05 ISBN : 9788395157530 Kagero via Casemate UK Roumania officially opted for a neutral stance at the outset of WWII. However the Kingdom had traditionally looked to the UK and France as it allies in Europe. The developing situation in 1940 with the fall of France and maybe Britain, along with a rise in Fascism led the Kingdom to look for an alliance with Germany, however they were unaware that German had already promised parts of Roumania to the Russians. With things going badly for them at home they officially joined the Axis in November 1940. They would become the largest force from outside Germany to participate in the invasion of Russia. When the Allies started bombing Romania, and with the Russians closing in popular support for the Axis began to fail and King Michael lead a coup d'état in August 1944 to take back control of the country and switch sides to the Allied cause. Despite this the country was largely dismantled after the war. They lost territory to Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union, but regained Northern Transylvania from Hungary. As well as fielding some indigenous designs the Armoured force comprised of mainly captured equipment, or that imported from Germany. There is a wealth of black & white photos of the forces in action and details of equipment they used, most of it indigenous to the country. This indigenous Armour is also examined in the book. The book also examines foreign vehicles use. This volume is A5 soft back in format and an 125 pages. Conclusion This book should provide readers with a better understanding of the Armoured forces of Romania and they equipment they used. The wealth of photographs, together with drawings and colour plates will be of great use to the modeller, and of great interest to anyone studying one of the seemingly less well known Axis powers. Highly Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

IAR-POTEZ 25 by Dan Antoniu and George Cicoș This booklet (of 66 pages) was released as a supplement to the Romanian magazine Modelist, but it is being sold separately. I got mine a few years ago at an airshow, but I see it is still being sold on the site of the magazine. As I`ve said, it is not a recent release, being published in 2009, but I have been asked questions about its subject on this forum before and with the upcoming release by Azur-FRROM of a 1/72 scale kit of the Potez XXV (decal options for the Romanian air force seem likely) I thought it would be beneficial to do a review of this little book here as it was designed especially for modellers and the text is both in English and Romanian. You can find the book here: http://www.revista-modelist.ro/Suplimente-Revista.php and in this .pdf file from the same site you can see a couple of shots with the contents: http://www.revista-modelist.ro/documents/PrezentareIARPotez25.pdf The main body of the book starts at page 6 and ends on page 64. The short text is split between the two languages, on each page, but still manages to bring the aviation enthusiast and modeller quite a few bits of interesting information. The book begins with a Forward where it manages to trip on the second phrase of the English text. Aviation enthusiasts will be surprised to read that aircraft construction in Romania started on 20 November 2009, but a glance at the Romanian text on the left half of the page will show that the year was actually 1909. But, we fall so you can learn to pick ourselves up and that is what the book does from this point on. Moving on from the Forward, the book is broadly split into two parts, the first one describing the license acquisition of the Potez 25 by Romania, the creation of the IAR Brașov factory, the production of the IAR Potez 25 and its entry into service. The various Romanian improvements to the aircraft are also briefly discussed, including the adoption of the DC (Dublă Comandă - Double Command) version for training. This is followed by a short discussion of the creation of the IAR 37 reconnaissance aircraft starting from the adaptation of the Potez 25. This first section is supported by 41 (by my count) black and white photographs. A few of them show the IAR factory and the dignitaries present at its inauguration, but the rest are dedicated to the IAR Potez 25 aircraft and are a great source of information for modellers. There are photographs showing the assembling process, several photographs of engines, a close-up of the rudder so you can see in detail the inscriptions there, photographs of aircraft tipped over that show the detail of the underside of the plane, several shots that close in on some elements (like the machine guns or the camouflage smoke generators) and of course, plenty of photographs with the Potez 25 in active service. Three photographs show the cockpit (displaying the pilot`s cockpit and bombardier`s station) and they have the various visible elements numbered and named in the accompanying commentary. The book also contains a series of eight (by my count) photographs with contemporary drawings from the plane`s technical manual detailing various parts and aspects (like the landing gear) but these are presented without a commentary and the few words on them (in Romanian, naturally) are not translated. At this point in the book there is a section with 10 colour profiles of the aircraft in 1/72 scale plus a view from above and one from bellow in 1/100 scale, all made by the late Teodor Liviu Moroșanu (readers of MMP publications will be familiar with some of his excellent artwork from several titles, including "Romanian Fighter Colours 1941-1945"). These are followed by a page of line drawings showing profiles of the A2/B2 (reconnaissance/bomber) and the DC (trainer) versions, a front view of the aircraft and one from the above. No scale is mentioned for these. The second part of the book is dedicated to the Little Entente and Poland aerial military contest that took place in 1928. The participating teams (from Romania, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Poland) included seven Potez 25 aircraft and the text is accompanied by 23 back and white photographs depicting the event. Placed throughout the book there are three page sized tables, one being a detailed sheet of the technical specifications of the aircraft, another a list with the dates when each IAR Brașov produced Potez 25 entered service and the third is a list with the participants in the Little Entente and Poland aerial military contest of 1928. Overall, I think this is a very good reference material for anyone interested in the Romanian produced Potez 25.

Illustrated History of Romanian Aeronautics 1909 - 1948 by Dan Antoniu This title was published in 2014 and allegedly as a limited edition, but it seems it can still be found as I`ve recently bought mine new in a local modelling store. It is one of those titles from small/independent publishers that don`t appear in major online stores like amazon. Every so often, I see people here asking about this or that less known aircraft or operator and the information - when is not given by one poster to another - is not easy to find in mainstream aviation books and, in their turn, niche subject books are themselves not easy to come across. Since this is a bilingual edition, with text in Romanian and English, I thought that doing a review here might be a good thing. Maybe it helps a few people find an useful book and in turn generate more interest for subjects that aren`t otherwise often covered. Apart from this, as I`ve said, I payed for my own copy of the book and I have no connection to its authors, publishers or anyone selling it. The book is written by Dan Antoniu and translated into English by Radu Brînzan (of RB Productions and author of the book "Vânător - Romanian Hunter: The I.A.R.80 and I.A.R.81 in Ultimate Detail"). It is the result of Mr. Antoniu`s research of the national archives and his efforts to corroborate all the data found there, which as he notes, can sometimes be confusing (for example, the number of ordered aircraft was not always the same with the number of aircraft that were delivered and there`s an entire discussion to be had when it comes to the planes delivered by Germany in the later stages of World War 2). The book is quite large (A4 format) and good looking with its colour hardcover showing - on both front and back - photographs of Romanian aircraft. The quality of the paper and the clarity of the photographs is also good. It lists 268 pages and 434 photographs, all black-and-white. When you first open it you may have the impression that you`ve got an album, but I think a better way to view it is as a chronologically arranged encyclopedia. It does have photographs on each page of the main section, but the point of the book is actually to list, by the order in which they first entered Romanian service all the planes from the very beginnings up to 1948. And I do mean all the planes that however briefly entered Romanian service. This includes the one offs of the early years of aviation, prototypes, privately purchased planes that were later requisitioned by the military and even captured aircraft. For example, the B-24 Liberator that was brought down during Operation Tidal Wave, repaired with parts from the other downed Liberators, painted with Romanian markings and made fly-worthy does have its own page. The text starts with a 2 pages (all text in the book is split between English and Romanian) Forward section, followed by a 6 pages chapter titled "Brief History of the evolution of aeronautics in Romania 1909 - 1948". Then, the main section begins at page 20 and ends on page 237. As said, this is arranged chronologically depending on when a certain aircraft version entered service, with small notes marking the start of each year. As a rule, each plane is allocated a page consisting of two photographs - arranged top and bottom - and a text section in the middle, split between the two languages. The text is not a commentary for the specific photographs on that page but on the aircraft type depicted there. It will generally mention the complete name of the plane, the engine it used, the date when it entered service (usually mentioning the separate stages where there were batches of the same aircraft type procured at different times), the operators, the date when it was taken out of service and a few other bits of relevant information depending on the subject. Sub-versions of a certain aircraft type tend to have their own sections. For example the Bf 109E-3 has one page and the Bf 109E-7 has another. Likewise, there are separate entries for the PZL P.11a, PZL P.11b, PZL P.11c and PZL P.11f. In regards to the number of photos per plane there are some exceptions. A handful of aircraft only have one photo each and a few aircraft (the IAR 80, JRS 79B and Bf 109Ga-6) have more than the customary two. Concerning the text in Romanian it is a pity that the proofreading did not catch the considerable number of typos that went to printing, but this is not a problem for the English reader as Mr. Brînzan seems to have done a great job on the translation and the English section of the text seems faultless (notwithstanding the title of the very first chapter being spelled "Forevord"). The book ends with an Index (which is very useful if you want to go straight to a certain aircraft since in the book they are arranged chronologically, not alphabetically), a Glossary of the Romanian terms used in the English text (things like the names of institutions), a very interesting (for those who are into these things) annex listing the manufacturer`s serial numbers and the registrations of aircraft in service that have been identified and a selective bibliography. All in all, I am happy that I bought this book and for the price I payed - 80 lei, which at the current conversion rate means a little over 17 Euro or 15 sterling pounds - I think it was good value for money. As a conclusion, if you`re wondering whether a certain aircraft that you know about ever sported Romanian markings, when it entered service, in what numbers, when it was retired and how it looked in its service then this book is the very first place to check. And, I suppose, it could also be a very fine source of inspiration for modelling some rare subjects that you might never have considered otherwise. I`ll end with a few more shots showing the back-cover and a couple of pages:

I`m posting this not with the expectations that my model will impress anyone, but with the hope that the subject might inspire others. It was started as part of a GB here, but having to take a long break from modding I have only managed to complete it this month. I apologize for that! I did take pictures with the work in progress and kept some notes but posting in that GB section is no longer possible so I`ll skip right to the completed model. It represents Hurricane no.15 in Romanian service. This is one of three ex-Yugoslav machines captured by the Germans and sold to Romania. The other 12 Hurricanes in Romanian service were British built and of the late Mk.I type, with metal wings. Very soon after finishing the model I bought a new book on the Romanian Hurricanes (pity some of the information included in it reached me too late for this model) and since I took a picture of that for a review I thought it fun to pose the model on top of it for a few shots. You can find my review of the book here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235031176-hawker-hurricane-voli-of-the-illustrated-history-of-romanian-aviation/&do=getNewComment By the way, all Hurricanes served with the famous 53rd Squadron which gave the country its first three aces. Incidentally, the 53rd Squadron has been recently reformed and is now equipped with the first batch of F-16 to enter Romanian service (text in Romanian with a history of the squadron in WW2 and relevant photos to be found at page 28): http://www.roaf.ro/ro/cer_senin/arhiva_pdf/2016/CERSENIN_4(147)-2016.pdf I chose to largely follow the instructions from the old AZ model kit and the profile from Romanian Fighter Colours for the camouflage pattern instead of properly studying the available black and white pictures. When I finally did the latter I wished I had made some of the shapes and colour dispositions differently, but that`s that now. The kit used is Airfix`s A01010, but I`ve replaced the wheels with the 5 spoke resin ones from CMK. I`ve also replaced the mast with a 0.9mm brass tube because this particular kit did not contain the baton aerial that my subject required. Inside (not that visible) I`ve used Eduard`s Superfabric RAF early seatbelts (awesome product!). The crosses and emblems are from Radu Brinzan`s RB-072008 decal sheet (great quality decals!), but I`ve had to mask the tail numbers myself since there was no decal available for these when I started the project. In the meantime though, Radu has released a decal sheet for this very subject: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235028180-new-romanian-hurricane-decals-rb-productions-in-telford/ I`ve had problems masking the canopy (among other things) as the paint mostly lifted with the aftermarket mask and after masking it again with tape and achieving the same result I simply painted it by hand, hence the result. The model is - obviously, I suppose - entirely brush painted and for the camouflage I`ve used Italeri acrylic paints which I choose according to the FS codes listed here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234951133-yugoslav-hurricanes-recommended-schemes/?p=1524398 4709AP Flat Dark Tan 4726AP Flat Dark Green 4797AP Flat Pz. Schokobraun RAL 8017 4778AP Hellblau RLM 65 The interior is Vallejo`s 70.974 Green Sky. Happy Holidays to everyone!

Picked up from a show for a fiver. Against all odds this unloved, unwanted and forgotten old kit found itself completed, unfortunately the landing gear was missing so it had to be built wheels up. Like with most of my Matchbox builds the panel lines have been enhanced but other than that it was built mostly as nature intended. As I wanted the Matchbox scheme that I remember from childhood the original Matchbox decals were chosen over the better ones included in the recent Airfix kit. As with their Me109 kit a much lighter shade of blue was used by Matchbox for the Romanian national markings. The kit was a joy to build, but perhaps one is enough for the Matchbox collection. If you have enjoyed looking at these builds, have fond memories of Matchbox kits or just fancy a challenge then why not join the vote for the 2017 Matchbox group build.

1/72 scale Matchbox Messerschmitt Bf109-E in the colours of the Romanian Airforce, Russia 1943. Still a nice little kit even after all these years, the Matchbox 109 fits together well and with a little sharpening up makes a pleasing model. For this build I followed the new Airfix painting instructions rather than old Matchbox ones. The original Matchbox decals were used, unfortunately the blue in the national markings should be a lot darker but at least they went on easily. Part of the Great Patriotic War group build. /

Hello to anyone watching this! I am going to build - or try to anyway - the number 15 Hurricane in Romanian service as it appears in the early eastern front campaign. This particular aircraft is one of the Yugoslav built Hurricanes that was captured by the Germans during their Balkan campaign and sold to Romania afterwords. If I`m successful, it should look like the one on the cover of the Romanian Fighter Colours (but with the Mickey Mouse in the Romanian national colours and a more blueish underside). The actual kit is the 1/72 Airfix 01010 Hawker Hurricane MkI and I also got a few aftermarkets: - decal sheet from RB Productions containing the Romanian crosses and Mounted Mickey Mouse emblem (RB-D72008) - five spoke resin wheels by CMK (Q72197) - canopy masks by Peewit (M72001) - Eduard`s super fabric early RAF seatbelts will arrive later on. Radu Branzan`s decals contain only the crosses and the emblem so I`m gonna have to somehow improvise the 15 present on the tail. I`m leaning towards self-made masks at the moment, even though I`ve never done this before. The fact that the numbers go over a three colours camouflage doesn`t help matters either. On the other hand, home-made decals would also be tricky given the light colour of the numbers (yellow) and the dark camouflage on which they need to be applied. Lastly, apart from some kits glued with superglue and left unpainted many years ago, this would be only the third model that I start so you should not expect any spectacular results, apart from a finished model. Hopefully I`ll get some fun from this process. EDIT: I apologize for not finishing this in time! Since this GB is close for posting now I have posted the photos of the completed mode here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235031178-romanian-hurricane-mki-airfix-172/

Hi there, Some of you might remember LCAerodesign from their 1/48 IAR-81 and 1/32 Extra 300 kits. They have now released a conversion set in 1/48th scale allowing you to turn the Eduard MiG-21MF into a LanceR upgrade. The set contains the necessary bits and pieces, starting with the cockpit (there's a complete cockpit supplied, minus the ejection seat, which apparently has nothing special in comparison to a standard KM-1 as found on the classic MiG-21 and found in the Eduard kit as such), continuing with the various antennae (comm, RWR), other lumps and bumps and finishing with a nice decal sheet and a painting mask (for the roundels and aircraft reg.) should you consider paint would look better than decals in this scale (?): So, if you fancy, like every other item coming from LCAerodesign, this set can be purchased directly from the source. I bought a couple of these thinking to build a LanceR C (as directly possible from this set) and a LanceR A (delete the right hand MFD from the instrument panel and get some decals from Linden Hill or Parcmodels). Cheers, Niki

Calling this one done - earlier stuff can be seen here. Comments/thoughts/abuse appreciated! Have fun... Iain

Okay here goes! This arrived the other day winging it's way across the pond from Poland, with some rather fetching stamps on it that feature water boatmen. Nice. It took me awhile to decide which bird to do, Hurricane, 109 and PZL P-11 were all in the running but in the end I plumped for the IAR-80M. I've always had a soft spot for the lines of this plane. I was trying to get hold of the IAR-81 from Azur but they seem to be a little bit rare now, except for the dive bomber version which I didn't fancy so much. This the Parc kit which I believe is pretty similar to the Azur kit. They all have slightly different wings depending on which version is being done. I also have the old Pegasus kit, it's a little crude but does have nice white metal undercarriage. Last year I started 4 group builds but only completed one! Oh dear. Wasn't completely in my control as work had me galavanting all over the place so I wasn't home much. Fun but not conducive to model making! I don't foresee any travel in my near future so fingers crossed I get this puppy done. Gonna give her a wash and start test fitting the major bits tonight. Cheers Segan Rather nice stamps from Poland Boxtop The contents and the Pegasus kit

Hi Guys, I'm calling the Airfix 109E3 in 1/48 complete Yellow 64, flown by Adjutant aviator de reserva Tiberiu Vinc, Grupul 7 vanatoare, Stalingrad 1942/1943 I've gone to town on the weathering, as the photos I've got of contemporary airframes look battered! I've using various techniques and tools, with some new AK pigments. I hope you like her!

Bought these quite recently as I have a soft spot for the Hurricane but wanted to do something different than BoB. Hoping to make a start this weekend. Whilst there's some additional goodies that will find their way in to the builds, the main goal is to have some relatively simple sanity builds with the focus being on the paintwork and weathering rather than being crammed with every detail imaginable. To prevent Troy from telling me off , I've started to sand the panels on the sides which should have the corrugated form right across the join. Only done one side of one kit so far using a round file. Wasn't brilliant, but hope to improve for the others. Wasn't a disaster either!