Normally I don’t build 1/72 scale. The armor is too small and my eyes are too old. There is a guy in our club named Scott who only builds 1/72 and because I thought how funny it would be to enter something into our upcoming contest in 1/72 scale to surprise him, I picked this kit to review.

It is a Village House, which is molded in color (although it still will need to be painted), and it is awesome. I’ll admit that building this kit was a lot of fun, my son helped me because it went together so easily, and it is going to look cool once I add in the extras.

The Fokker D.XXI single seat fighter was developed in the late thirties to replace the Fokker biplane fighters serving with the Dutch Army Aviation Branch. Although used in relatively small numbers by the Dutch, and quickly overwhelmed by the Luftwaffe during the German invasion, the type was also adopted by the Danes, but its major operational use was with the Finnish Air Force in the Winter War and afterwards . Faced with shortages of Bristol Mercury engines, the Finns also produced a variant powered by American Pratt & Whitney R-1535 Twin Wasp Junior engines. These aircraft had some additional modifications, and were operated on both wheels and skis, quite successfully against the Russians, who didn’t fare too well against the highly trained and experienced Finnish pilots.

Volume 111 in Osprey’s Aircraft of the Aces series presents the interesting story of Russian Aces of World War I. The 96-page soft cover book is the result of author Victor Kulikov’s lifelong interest in Imperial Russian aviation in WWI. He is a recognized expert, having written articles on the subject for Windsock International, Cross & Cockade, Avions, Aero Journal and Over the Front, and co-authored Flying Machine Press’ massive hard cover book Imperial Russian Air Forces. In Osprey’s Russian Aces of World War I, Kulikov draws from recently sourced Russian military and private archives to detail the exploits of each of the aces in a thoroughly researched and well-written narrative combined with a number of previously unpublished period photos.