This is the fifth set of 1/72 decals from AOA Decals and the second set that I am reviewing. The decals look very nice, clear, and in-register. They are printed by Cartigraf of Italy and work very well. I was very impressed with the ease and smoothness with which they were able to be applied. They came off the sheet well and I was able to move them into place once I got them on. They reacted well with Microset and Microsol making the decals appear as if they were painted on.

There also needs to be a special note about their instruction sheets. There were eight 8 1/2 x 11 sheets detailing everything you would want to know to build one of these options. The profiles were in color and easy to understand. You can tell that a lot of work and research went into this. It’s really nice to see a company put this much care into a product.

The options included in this set are:

The Horten Ho 229 is one of the most striking aircraft designs to emerge from World War II. It was a German fighter/bomber prototype designed by the Horten brothers in response to Hermann Göring's call for a light bomber that could meet a 3x1000 requirement. Meaning that it could carry 1,000 kilograms of ordinance a distance of 1,000 kilometers at 1,000 kilometers per hour. Because only jet powered airframes could meet the speeds necessary to fulfill the requirement for the cruising speed the design became the first flying wing design to be powered by jet engines.

Zoukei-Mura first released a kit of this interesting aircraft in 1/32 and that kit is still an extremely popular masterpiece of design. However, they have recently been redesigning and releasing some of their 1/32 scale kits in 1/48 scale. The Horten HO 229 is their latest release in this series and it is the first new 1/48 scale HO 229 since the Dragon releases in the early 1990s.

History

The Mitsubishi T-2 was a jet trainer aircraft used by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. In 1967, Japanese aviation firms Fuji, Kawasaki, and Mitsubishi, each submitted proposals, and in September 1967, under lead designer Dr. Kenji Ikeda, Mitsubishi's design was selected. The official contract was issued for the development of the XT-2 was placed on 30 March 1968, with Mitsubishi as prime contractor and Fuji as Prime sub-contractor. Several other subcontracts with aerospace firms and other minor aviation manufacturers were also established.