Tony Buttler was born in 1956 and joined High Duty Alloys in Redditch in 1974 as a metallurgist. For nearly 20 years he was closely involved in the testing of aluminum and titanium airframe and engine components for many of the world’s most important airplanes. It was during this timeframe that his interest in military aircraft grew into a passion. Since 1995, Tony has been a freelance aviation historian, with this book being his twenty-sixth major release. He has also written many titles for the Warpaint series of monographs as well as many articles for most of the popular historical aviation magazines.

The German African campaign started with the landing by the Afrika Korps to help out the Italians. This harsh environment seesawed back and forth. This allowed the Bf-109 to evolve from the Emil and to the Gustav. Special Tropical variants were developed for the aircraft.

It is with this Eduard has released this boxing. This boxing includes the Friedrich and Gustav variants. The box top is a beautiful painting of Marseille’s F-4/Trop and a beautiful G-2 with mottled camouflage. Very motivational. The box itself is a sturdy cardboard box.

Inside the box are lots of light grey sprues. There are two of each sprue, I and H, which are the common sprues for the entire F and G line. There are two sprues that feature the unique fuselage and wings for the aircraft. You are able to build one F and one G model. You can’t build two Fs or two Gs. Two clear sprues are there as well for the canopy. There will be plenty of leftovers on the G sprue.

IPMS/USA thanks the Aires Aerobonus team once again for sending us this simple, excellent items for use in a diorama setting. And thanks to Phil and John for obtaining the sets for the team…

This set consists of one perfectly cast figure of a Kettenkraftrad driver. These vehicles were used on many German airfields later in the war to move smaller aircraft around the local flughafen. (One of these also served as a “Rabbit” decoy in the movie “Saving Private Ryan” in the last battle scene).

Not much to say here: It’s simple but can be done to excellent standard if you have the tools, time, and skills. With my painting ability, I could do a lot better, but I’m on deadlines. You get the idea. Paint, wash, highlight, done. I just love micro photography too: shows up every grain of resin dust that I can’t see with my old eyes…