Historical Background

The RWD-14 Czapla was a light, two seat observation aircraft designed during the middle thirties by the RWD Design Team for the Polish military forces. It was intended to replace the Lublin R-XIII. Due to its extended development time, and relatively low performance, it was viewed as a stopgap measure until the LWS-3 Mewa became available. Just over 65 RWD-14’s were built, and these equipped five Polish Air Force squadrons at the beginning of the war in 1939. Most were destroyed during the German invasion, but 14 survivors were passed on to the Rumanians, who used them during the war. Several were captured by the Germans and Russians, but these were not used by them. None survived the war.

MMP Books continues its Orange Series, this time with the 3rd Edition of the “Macchi C.202 Folgore” book by Przemysław Skulski.

The C.202 Folgore was probably the most significant aircraft of Italian design during WW2, given that is was one of the best performers of the bunch -maybe not the best, but among the best- and certainly the one produced in the larger numbers among those airframes competing for the “best of” title of Italian design.

The book describes the XVI series (or “Marks”) of this airframe, although some of the series were similar to each other, it only referred to which company manufactured the airplane. Some series were not built due to the armistice or other issues, meaning that only about 1200 airframes were ever completed.

Aires Models from Czech Republic specializes on aftermarket details; for the most part releasing “drop-in” resin replacement parts.

This set is intended to replace the wheels of the 1/48 Trumpeter L39Z0. The parts are molded in grey resin, free of bubbles or imperfections and with great surface detail, down to the manufacturer of the tires molded with enough raised detail that will take dry-brushing fantastically!

The attachment points of the wheels to the casting blocks are miniscule and removal and clean up should be an easy task. The resin wheels are of the “non-weighted” variety.

In addition to the resin parts, they include painting masks which are super-handy to have and use. The masks are pre-cut so it is as simple as peeling, placing and you are ready to airbrush.

Highly recommended.

I would like to thank Aires Models and IPMS/USA for the review sample.