The underwing gondolas were designed for the Bf-109 to replace some of the firepower lost when the F/G models were designed. The problem with the pods was that they adversely affected the handling of the aircraft. Still the addition of two 20mm cannons was desirable especially when dealing with enemy bombers.

The Eduard kit comes with two gondolas in the kit. They look nice but they are 2mm too long and don’t fit on the wing of the model. Well I’m glad to tell you that this is not the case with the Brassin ones. They fit the wing of the model perfectly.

Background

During the 1970’s Russia started the development of modern carrier borne fighter aircraft. The Sukhoi design team started with their basic Su-27 Flanker and added such carrier items as tail-hook, folding wings and structural improvements plus a set of forward canard wings to produce their proposed Su-33.

Twobobs Aviation Graphics have released a Typhoon D-Day 70th Anniversary decal set for the 1/48 scale Revell Eurofighter Typhoon. This decal set includes three sheets with markings for a single Typhoon (ZK308) in Royal Air Force service. The scheme features special markings honoring the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, including prominent black-and-white invasion stripes.

The instruction sheet is printed in full color and includes callouts for Testors Model Master, Humbrol, Gunze, and Xtracrylics paints, plus the Federal Standard (FS) color numbers.

The sheets are printed by Microscale and seem to be of high quality, with thin and opaque decals. They are very glossy on the sheet and they have very little transparent carrier film around them, thus minimizing the chances for silvering. They are in perfect register. The sheets include full stenciling and the D-Day invasion stripe bands.

I recently had a chance to review one of Eduard’s Big Sin sets, a collection of their Brassin-brand resin accessories, designed for Eduard’s own 1/48 scale Spitfire. For this task, I elected to use Eduard’s superb 1/48 scale Spitfire Mk.IXc early version ProfiPACK edition. While my full build of this kit, incorporating the Big Sin set, the ProfiPACK kit itself is reviewed below.

The ProfiPACK editions of Eduard’s model kits contain a nice selection of bells and whistles that can really enhance a finished model. Besides the actual kit, you are treated to world-class decals, colored photo-etch, and painting masks. These items are the things I always like to use on my models, so for me, this is the best deal for my money.

Attack’s 1/144 scale MiG-17s are nice little representations of the Fresco, but they are missing a key ingredient—a cockpit. Thanks to Brengun, the 1/144 scale community now has a two very nice photo-etch (PE) cockpit sets to correct this omission: one for the MiG-17F and one for the MiG-17PF.

Before starting, I will admit that my PE skills are not the greatest. However, the parts that required folding were clearly marked, and with the help of a couple razor blades, they were easy to bend and fold.