Kitty Hawk Models has already released a 1/48th scale kit of the French Super Etendard. They are now gracing the shelves of your local hobby shop with an earlier version of that aircraft: the Dassault Etendard IVP/IVM. This model represents the maritime strike (IVM) or photo reconnaissance (IVP) version of the aircraft.

Upon opening the box you will encounter five sprues of light gray parts and a sprue of clear bits for the canopy, clearance/anti-collision lights and photo-recon camera windows. There is a fret of photo etch parts for some of the finer details. Among those photo etch parts are seat belts, speed brake detail, flame holder for the Atar 8B engine, and wing spoilers.

The decal sheet has markings for five aircraft, one of which is for White 118. White 118 was the commemorative aircraft for the final flight ceremony of this mark with the French Navy. There is also a small decal sheet for the instrument panels and side consoles in the cockpit.

The AIM-9 Sidewinder has been a mainstay of the US Air-to-Air arsenal since the 1950s. The AIM-9G/H was used extensively in the Vietnam War by US Navy. Most of the Navy kills during the war were with the AIM-9G. The later AIM-9H was a navalized version of the AIM-9G and had the highest kill ratio of the Vietnam War. The difference between the two missiles were all internal with the H having solid state electronics. The AIM-9H missiles were used well into the 1970s when they were superseded by the AIM-9L.

Eduard has combined three wonderful resin sets into a combo set called the BigSin set for the Tamiya F-14A. I would think it would also work with other F-14’s but watch the variant so you could match it to the missile variants. The set comes in an excellent box with a full set of four AIM-54A Phoenix missiles, four AIM-7E Sparrow missiles and four AIM-9G/H Sidewinders with launch rails and seeker head covers. Each set comes with full stenciling and individual instructions in color including the color call outs for painting. Let’s look at the sets individually.

The Kit

This is a replacement or upgrade for the Brengun He-162 kits. There are two canopies on the Vac-Form plastic. I didn’t look at this item until I was ready to install the canopy, and I now wish I had looked closer and sooner. One of the canopies is a direct replacement for the kit item. The other one is the AMS version. It’s a little longer, and there’s an area between the windscreen and canopy which can be cut out so you can build your He-162 with the canopy open.

Of course this will require quite a bit of interior detailing for the cockpit. The Brengun kit comes with a seat, a stick and a blank instrument panel. Obviously it would require seat belts, instruments, rudder pedals, a throttle, and the open canopy support rod. As I said, AMS version.

The Kfir entered service with the Israel Air Force in 1975, modeled after the Dassault Mirage 5. The Kfir is currently in service in Colombia, Ecuador, and Sri Lanka and was retired from the Israel Air Force in the 1990s. A total of roughly 220 were built over that time frame.

Like most kits, you have the ability to build 2 different squadrons, one from the first fighters squadron Kfir C2 #874 that has a mostly gray scale paint scheme, and one from The Arava Guardians Squadron Kfir C7 #555. Both options come with two different types of armament and the instructions are very easy to follow showing distinctions in the planes. The detail in the rest of the kit is extremely well done. The fuselage comes together very nicely and I only had to do some slight sanding on the top to get it to look like one piece. There were definitely a lot of decals to work with on this model, as I’ll get into later.