Following the catastrophic loss at Stalingrad, Hitler was desperate to regain the initiative in Russia. The Russian army capitalized on their success at Stalingrad, with victories over the Hungarians and Italians, and pushed on to Kursk and Kharkov with relative ease. The Russians fully expected the German army, which was in disarray, to pull back beyond the Dniepr River. However, a timely arrival of German reinforcements allowed von Manstein to conduct a “Backhand Blow” counter offensive retaking Kharkov and Belgorod and driving the Russians back on their heels. As the Germans continued their advance the weather played out in the Russian’s favor once again, as the start of the ‘mud season’ forced both sides to put a temporary halt to operations. This halt gave the Germans time to regroup, and reinforce their armies. It also gave time to plan Unternehmen Zitadelle (Operation Citadel), a huge offensive planned to be launched near the city of Kursk.

As usual, IPMS USA are, as usual, appreciative to Eduard for kindly providing an outstanding example of one of their new items to review, and to the IPMS USA reviewer corps leaders for sending it to me..

This set is one of the few times I have opened a box and said “what HAVE I gotten myself into?” Yes, I asked for it, but the answer is because I thought it would be a cool addition to the kit. I didn’t realize how much there was to this set…

Enclosed are several pages of drawings and detailed instructions, and two complete engines along with cowling, hoses, and some wiring runs. Boxes galore, magnetos, supercharger with more defined details… it’s a true miniature of the Merlin.

The Mikoyan MiG-31 (NATO reporting name: Foxhound) is a supersonic interceptor aircraft developed for use by the Soviet Air Forces. The aircraft was designed by the Mikoyan design bureau as a replacement for the earlier MiG-25 "Foxbat"; the MiG-31 is based on, and shares design elements with the MiG-25. The MiG-31 has the distinction of being one of the fastest combat jets in the world.