History

The Spitfire is probably one of the most famous fighters to emerge from the World War II era, combining performance, beauty, and reliability in one exceptional airframe. Its story has been told repeatedly over the years, so I won’t retell it here. The Mk. XVI was a development of the Mk. IX, a Merlin-powered variant, and the basic difference between the Mk. IX and the Mk. XVI was the American build Packard-Rolls Royce Merlin used in the later mark. Most Mk. XVI’s had “bubble” type canopies, although a few of the first had the standard Spitfire faired in type. Over 1,000 were built during the last year of the war, and the type was used by the tactical Air Force as well as Fighter Command. Many served postwar until replacement by jet fighters.

The B-239 Finnish Brewster Buffalo was an export version of the F2A-1 U.S. Navy Buffalo that was de-navalized by removing the tailhook, life-raft containers, cockpit armor and not having self-sealing fuel tanks. They were then equipped with a lower horsepower engine. All of these changes made for a lot lighter and maneuverable aircraft.

This kit is a re-release of their earlier kit and is the 2nd set from the original Finnish Aces combo, designated as Part 2. This time it includes 2 kits like Part 1 and a new set of decals with 3 different paint schemes from Aces of the Finnish Air Force. There are 8 sprues of parts with 12 extra parts that would be used for different versions; these are perfect for adding to the spares box. The decal options in this kit are:

These decals are intended for the Tamiya series of F-16 C Desert Storm Vipers of the 388^th TFW, Al Minhad AFB. The Tamiya Aggressor kits are preferred as these are mostly early Block 40 jets. Modeling notes are included so the decals can also be used on the Hasegawa kits as well.

10 marking options are provided:

Alexandre Guedes was born in 1975 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Alexandre has always had a love for drawing, painting, and building scale models where military and civil aviation has been his primary focus. He created a design company, Communication and Design Tentacle where he directs graphic design projects, signage projects, and advertising campaigns. His Facebook page, Alexandre.Guedes.Design Facebook, was initiated in January 2016. Be sure to check it out!

Alexandre Guedes begins with a one-page introduction to the Northrop Tiger II and then dives into the color illustrations. There are forty-two color side profiles depicting both sides of twenty-one Northrop Tiger II aircraft. Where appropriate, enlarged scrap views focus on unique markings. Where possible, camouflage colors are provided with FS numbers. The aircraft include examples from around the world as noted in the Table of Contents below.

Following up the first two in this series, The Russian Aviation Colours 1909-1922: Camouflage and Markings, Volume 1 Early Years and Volume 2 “Great War”, comes MMP’s latest tome. This book, focused on the ‘Red Stars’ is planned to be followed by at least one additional volume on ‘White Armies’ (Volume 4). The authors leaned heavily on Russian private archives, as well as archives, libraries, and museums.

The book is a nice hardbound unit, with a nice glossy cover, and 167 pages on high-quality stock with a matt finish. Mainly clear black and white period photos are supplemented with modern day color photos, color period posters and postcards, colour side and top views, and colour unit emblems and personal markings. The text is in English and quite readable. I counted 311 black and white photographs to go with an additional six color pictures. There were 99 color side profiles and another 132 color drawings highlighting markings details.