History

The Breguet 690 series resulted from a French Air Ministry competition for a heavy twin-engine fighter. Similar aircraft were being developed in Germany – the Messerschmidt Bf-110 and in Holland – the Fokker G.1. The Br.693 was the most successful of the 690 series designs. Powered by the Gnome-Rhone 14M engine, over 200 were produced and in service against German forces. These ground-attack fighters were loved by their crews but many were lost to anti-aircraft fire and Luftwaffe fighters during the furious battles in May and June 1940.

Armament of the Br.693 consisted of six internally stored 50 kg bombs, a 20-mm fixed forward firing cannon and four 7.5-mm machine guns. Three of the machine guns were fixed and one was on a flexible rear firing mount. The Br.693 was a good looking, reasonable performing twin engine ground attack fighter but it was outnumbered and overwhelmed by the Luftwaffe.

I am 57 and as I write this and like many I have mourned and am mourning the demise of hobby paints thanks to Rustoleum. I remember many good paint lines that have come and gone and many due to consolidation under Testors and later Rustoleum, Names like Model Master, Testors, Floquil, Polly S and Pactra to name some. I am more of an Enamel and Lacquer based paint user than acrylic; but have also done my fair of painting with acrylics. There are a lot of other paints available – Gunze Sanyo, Tamiya, AK Interactive, Mig, and Vallejo, but like most modelers I am a creature of habit and change is hard. So, as I have watched a multitude of railroad, naval and now military colors go away, and am faced with change. I jumped at an opportunity to try a new line of paint that has more bite than standard acrylics.

The AIM-4D was the first operational guided missile in the USAF and entered service in 1956. Its limited maneuverability and non-proximity fuse made it ineffective against fast turning fighters and it saw limited duty due to those shortcomings. Eduard has released an excellent multimedia kit of these missiles in their Brassin line in 1/32^nd scale. Inside the package, there are parts for four complete missiles. There are four well cast missiles bodies, four seeker head covers, four clear lenses and a small fret of PE for detailing the engine section. There is also a nice set of markings for the one-color scheme.