Like many aviation enthusiasts and modelers, I have always admired the beauty of Supermarine’s Spitfire design. Although I am admittedly no expert on the type, when Eduard announced their 1/72 version of an already well received 1/48 family of this aircraft, I jumped at the chance to do a review build. The aircraft’s history is well known and extensively documented, so let’s get on with my impressions of this 1/72 scale plastic version.

This kit issue (#70-121) is a completely new mould tooling. It is significantly more detailed than nearly every other 1/72 Spitfire kit out there, and the resulting high parts count will take me some time to build. As there are already some reviews posted out there on other modeling related sites, I wanted to get this in-the-box look out to our membership ASAP. So, I’ll give you my initial impressions in case you’re considering a purchase sooner, rather than later.

The Mc.202 "Folgore" was the first fully modern (by WWII standards) Italian fighter, and from 1941 onwards, was the best Italian fighter until the arrival of the superb Mc.205 in 1943.

The lines of the aircraft, together with the variety of camouflages it wore, makes it an interesting subject for modelers. Having accurate line drawings, showing panel lines and rivet detail is a good resource for those modelers looking to super detail their next project.

This booklet has 4 pages, all of them fold out (given the size of them, I had to take some pictures in addition to some scans), printed double side with the following line drawings:

One page A3 size for 72^nd scale drawings:

Many thanks to the Hauler Brengun Company and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to review this excellent detailing accessory set. Hauler Brengun is a recent contributor to the IPMS Reviewer system and I am very pleased to report on my experience with these very nice detailing accessories: cross-type tie-down points for flight decks of all kinds.

Tie-down points are a ubiquitous feature anywhere on a wide ship’s deck where anchor points are required. The points are often difficult to scratch build and detail effectively, making Brengun’s photoetch tie-down points a welcome addition for anyone building display platforms.

The tie downs arrived in a 5.5 x 2.75 inch plastic pouch with a 4 x 2 inch photoetched brass sheet with 110 tie-downs. No instruction sheet is needed, but a full-sized example image is included. The image is also available on the product website. The photoetched sheet is bright brass with flat tie-downs.

History

The J2M2 Raiden (Jack) was designed to achieve a high rate of climb in order to intercept incoming bombers. The aircraft went into full scale production in 1943 and early models included two cowl 7.7mm machine guns and 20mm wing cannons. Later versions omitted the cowl guns and relied on the heavy wing armament instead. It was used extensively late in the war as a bomber interceptor and proved to be one of favorite aircraft of Japanese pilots for this task. There were a total of about 500 aircraft built by the end of World War II and only one surviving example of this aircraft today located at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, CA.

This is a nice photoetch set for the ICM Ju 88A-4. This set adds a lot of addition detail to the exterior and make it look even better.

The photo etch parts are for the:

• Landing gear details
• Engine and engine mount details
• Land gear bay details
• Engine bay doors

In the packet is:

• 1 large photoetch sheet
• 1 clear film sheet
• 1 instruction sheet

Summary

This is great photoetch set to bring a lot of additional details to this very good kit. The engine parts are great as the engine access panels can be left open. The only issues I found was with the rear wheel bay parts which need to be carefully installed. Also the side brackets that install in the land gear bay are trick when you mount the engine and gear bays to the wing and can pop out.

With that being said the set adds some realistic detail.