Modelers rejoice! Finally, a 2-seat F-16 in 1/32nd scale! Academy comes to the table with an F-16I Sufa. The Sufa (Storm) is the Israeli Air Forces advanced tactical aircraft based on the Block 52 F-16’s. Visual differences between standard F-16’s and the Sufa include the addition of avionics in an enhanced spine and conformal fuel tanks.

On to the kit. Many of the kits parts are shared with Academy’s first release. I know some modelers had issues with the cockpit/coaming and nose on the first kit and Academy has listened and addressed those issues.

I have acquired a few Airfix Spitfire Mk IX's recently and found the Quickboost product to be a sound rendition. The Airfix Spitfire provided the common standard issue flared or fishtail exhaust. Now with the new Quickboost round exhaust for the Spitfire Mk IX it is now possible to make other variants. Many post war variants used the simpler round exhaust such as Belgium and Dutch machines. Also many Mk IX e used these exhaust also. It would be a simple matter to relocate the wing gun blisters and re-position the cannons to the outboard. This will enable you to make make post war Mk IX e in Czech, and the above mentioned liveries using the round exhausts.

Background

Several months ago, I was asked to review an excellent publication dealing with the Brewster 339’s operated by the Netherlands East Indies Air Force in the Malaya-Dutch East Indies theatre of operations at the beginning of World War II. It was entitled Brewster B-339C/D/-23 History of Camouflage and Markings by Gerard Casius and Luuk Boerman, and appeared on the IPMS site a while back. There was a set of decals for Brewster Buffaloes in Dutch, RAAF, American and Japanese markings in both 1/72 and 1/48 scale. These looked very good, and John Ratzenberger wrote a review on the decal sheet, but I decided to actually build some of the models and use the decal sheet, and as usual, the project got a little bit out of hand, resulting in six new Buffalo models that I need to find space for in my model display cabinets.