Rockets Away! Revell’s new kit of what was essentially the first factory muscle car is a welcome nod to us “longer-lived” modeler-folks who can recall the marriage of GM’s first OHV V-8 and Oldsmobile’s clean styling as being either our first cars or someone in our family’s. The phrase “Not your Father’s Oldsmobile” comes to mind and no…this one wasn’t…exactly…but my Dad did have a ’51 Eighty-Eight which – even as a ten-year old – I recognized would go like the proverbial scalded ape.

Model Art Modeling Magazine is a Japanese publication that is released monthly. The text is mainly in Japanese with some English subtitles throughout. One selling point about these magazines is the high quality of the photographs and the models that are used.

History

The Polikarpov U-2 biplane was designed and built during 1928 as a primary trainer for the fledgling Soviet Air Force, and it seemed to possess all of the characteristics desired by that service, including rugged all-wood construction, a low-powered but reliable power plant, and excellent flying characteristics. It was produced in massive numbers, approximately 40,000 of them eventually being manufactured in the Soviet Union and foreign countries. The type was adaptable to many uses, including training, air ambulance, night bombing, crop dusting, and a few were even used as floatplanes. During the war, the plane was re-designated Po-2 in honor of the designer, Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov. A few were even used by the North Koreans during the Korean War for night harassment, as, having all-wood construction, they had a very low radar profile. There are still a few flying today, especially in Europe.