From 1936 to 1939, nearly 19,000 German ‘volunteers’ (some of whom actually did volunteer) made up an aviation group known as the Legion Condor. Number 99 in Osprey’s ‘Aircraft of the Aces’ series provides an interesting and well-researched story of how Germany’s involvement in the Spanish Civil war came about, what the Luftwaffe volunteers experienced as member of the Legion Condor and how many of the pilots eventually achieved ace status. It is a fascinating story about a significant time in history.

This is a simple replacement part that is substantially more detailed than the kit part. It is molded perfectly with no flash or bubbles to be seen. The pull handle is provided as a separate part on a common casting block with the seat. The parts must be separated from the casting block with a saw and the pull handles glued in the appropriate location for which a diagram is provided.

Pictured here with the Quickboost example are the kit seat and an example from the now out of production Cutting Edge offering for comparison. Obviously the difference is with the details including additional “plumbing” and safety belts. The Quickboost example is considerably more “strappy” than the older Cutting Edge product and any preference for one or the other may well be a matter of personal taste as both seem to be accurate depending on how the belts fall when left to rest. The busy look of the Quickboost seat dresses up the cockpit nicely with little fuss for the modeler.

The Panzerkampfwagen II, or Pzkfw. II for short, was a light tank produced as a stop gap measure by the German armaments industry for the German Armed Forces prior to and during the early stages of WW2. What the German High Command really wanted was the more powerfully armed Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks, but German industry found producing the more complex heavier tanks in any meaningful numbers beyond their capacity, at least initially. That said the Pzkfw. II series of light tanks went on to serve with distinction during the initial phases of the War, especially in the Polish and French Campaigns of 1939 and 1940, with nearly 1,900 vehicles of all marks eventually seeing production.