The latest title in the “Spot On” series published by Mushroom Model Publications focuses on Russia’s Yak-3 during World War II. The Yak-3 began development in the summer of 1942, with its first test flight conducted in early 1942. The plane was based on the Yak-1, with the Yak-1M eventually being replaced in production by the Yak-3 in March 1944. By 1946, approximately 4,800 of the aircraft had been built and the fighter distinguished itself as a fast and easy plane to fly, that was well suited for Russian operations in the late war.

The R-73 (NATO designation AA-11 Archer) was designed as a replacement for the R-60 (AA-8 Aphid) close-in dogfight missile. The R-73 is an infrared homing missile with thrust vectoring and has been exported to a number of air forces around the world.

As a follow-on to its previous release of the R-60/AA-8 Aphid missile set, Eduard has now released the R-73/AA-11 Archer. The set includes parts for 4 missiles, including seeker caps and engine covers as well as 4 P-72 missile rails. A nice touch by Eduard is that in addition to the missile rails, the set is designed in a modular fashion, much like the actual rails, so you can construct the appropriate pylons for both the MiG-29 and the Su-27 simply by installing different pylon mounts. The set includes enough of the pylon mounts for you to construct four of either type. I elected to construct two of each for illustration purposes.

Note: There is an additional photoetch set for this- BRL48081 (Product Link) which includes a much better seat, vents, and plates.

The Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka was one of Japans last ditch Kamikaze weapons. It was a purpose-built, rocket-powered human-guided aircraft. The model 22 was to be powered by a TSU-11 thermojet (pulse jet) engine that increased the effective range of previous Ohka’s. This also reduced the size of the warhead to 600kg. The intent was to launch this from a P1Y3 Frances bomber and sink shipping. These never saw action but were produced and one now sits in the NASM.

SAC once again provides a very nice set of cast metal gear to help your model stand out in public places.

This set is the usual SAC total replacement of the kit items, with improved assembly and ease of installation.

The major benefit In this case is the axle assemblies are metal verses plastic. No broken off axles after a hard landing (just bend the gear back into place)

Consisting of 9 cleanly-cast metal parts replacing the 9 structural parts for the kit, the SAC gear just requires a bit of inspection, a swipe or two with a sanding stick to clean up any mold parting marks, and painting. The detail is fantastic on today’s scale landing gear, and it’s obvious to me SAC have been listening to their customers. The only difficulty for just about ANY gear is the scale size can be a bit fragile, even for metal. Don’t try carrier landings with it… .

In recent years Italeri has been re-releasing their models with decals for special camouflages or retirement schemes. And I kind of like that. It is a way to get access to kits that otherwise is difficult to get and also to find special decal sheets as part of a regular box.

Italeri’s Tornado has been around for quite some time and the molds hold well. There is no flash anywhere to be found in the review copy and all the surface detail is very sharp and well defined. Panel lines are recessed and well defined. Cockpit detail is raised and will accept dry-brushing really well.

Opening the box you find 3 main sprues, a clear one and a small sprue with a couple of special drop tanks. One of the sprues includes some weapons, which are not applicable to this version of the model, so you get extra parts for the spares box. Total part count is a bit over 100. You also get two full decal sheets, which are glossy and in perfect register.