The new website for Airscale (Model Aircraft Enhancements), out of the UK, describe the company as providing ‘High resolution cockpit detailing for aircraft modellers’. This is my first exposure to this company’s impressive products, which range from 1/48th through 1/24th scales and include highly detailed cockpit decals placards, and etched brass. The decals are offered as individual images as well as full panels, and products are offered for WWI, WWII and post-war, for RAF, USAF, USN and Luftwaffe, and for prop aircraft and jets. Their website is well designed, easy to navigate, and they take PayPal. ‘Comprehensive’ is the word that comes to mind, and I will be returning to their site often.

Those who have studied the collapse of the mighty French military machine in May 1940 at the hands of Germany’s armed forces know that it wasn’t a lack of quality fighting equipment as much as an inability to utilize it effectively that sunk the French cause. In a number of large and small battles between the two sides, effective French leadership together with the proper tactical use of the equipment at hand had the French blunting if not outright defeating their German counterparts. And when it came to tanks in particular, the French had some pretty formidable weaponry. One of the finest tanks of the day was the French Somua S35, weighing in at 20 tons, and carrying a 47mm main gun plus a coaxial machinegun. With frontal armor at 40mm, this was equal to anything the Germans had on hand at the time. It also had mobility, able to reach speeds of 29 mph on improved roads.

The AIRES 1/72 Mig-15 control surfaces aftermarket set gives you elevators and horizontal stabilizers for the Eduard 1/72 Mig-15 kit. The four piece set replaces the two single piece horizontal stabilizers and elevators. The difference is that with the AIRES parts you get separate elevators so you can position them. When I compared the kit parts to the aftermarket parts the resin parts were a bit finer in size and shape and the detail was slightly more refined. The biggest gain of the AIRES set is the positional elevators.