Marco Mattioli was born January 1, 1966 in Rome. Marco has been interested in military history since he was a teenager. In 1992 he joined the Italian National Journalist Order, after which he was employed as a writer for several leading Italian history publishers. A contributor to many important Italian history and defense magazines, as well as the author of a number of books on Italian military aviation, he wrote Osprey Aviation Elite Units 38: 53° Stormo and Osprey Combat Aircraft 106: Savoia-Marchetti S.79 Sparviero Torpedo-Bomber Units.

Frog was one of the first manufacturers of all plastic model kits in the world, pre-dating most U.S. companies by almost 20 years. Unlike other manufacturers, they did not start off building toys or other items, but rather their first product was the “Interceptor”, a rubber band powered model aircraft. It was distinguished by two things. One is that when those gliders you knew as a kid were being made of balsa wood, the Interceptor was metal. The other is that you did not launch it or throw it, it took off from the ground. Mr. van Lune goes into an extensive discussion of this aspect as it led to the company’s name, FROG, which in various legends came from Flies Right Off the Ground.

Mr. van Lune is obviously devoted to Frog model kits and in this case the Penguin line of Frog kits. He has done meticulous research and has an extensive personal collection of Frog kits as well, so he knows that of which he speaks.

Jared A. Zichek is a freelance writer and illustrator specializing in aviation and automotive history. He lives in La Jolla, California. You can find him at on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/retromechanix, and on Twitter @retromechanix. RetroMechanix.com is devoted to innovative and unusual flying machines from earlier decades, with special emphasis on U.S. prototype and project aircraft from the 1930’s through the 1950’s. Featuring hundreds of previously unpublished high resolution photographs, drawings and artist’s impressions, along with original primary documents scanned directly from the U.S. National Archives, RetroMechanix.com is the definitive resource for yesterday’s wings of tomorrow.

The Beaufighter had two different types of air intakes on top of the engines, a short one and a long one. This set from Quickboost covers the short version. The resin parts are cast perfectly and should be easy to remove from the block. The short intakes in the new Airfix kits are made up of two halves so there will be a seam to take care of. The resin replacements are single parts with very thin edges and will be that much easier to use.

The other parts in the set are direct replacements for the kit parts and add a lot of detail with the thinness of the castings.

One thing I noticed is out of the 4 versions offered between the TF.X and the TF.10 kits, only one in the later kit uses the short intakes. That said, there are numerous aftermarket decal sets that will need these shorter ones.

Thanks to Aires and IPMS/USA for the review kit.

This is a brass replacement for the nose pitot on the 1/144 J35 Draken. But wait, there’s more… It’s also an add-on for a tail pitot. But you have to check. Some Drakens have the tail pitot, many don’t, so check a photo before adding the tail pitot.

The brass parts are always a welcome replacement for the plastic parts. All too often the plastic pitots prove to be fragile, and they break or bend. The Master pitots are fine turned brass, and they stand up to age and handling far better than the styrene kit parts.

In this case I had a Pit Road Draken I built last year. I replaced the nose pitot, and upgraded the tail with the new pitot there.