Seats and seatbelts are the two biggest things that are visible in the cockpit. Eduard has been trying to get the look of seatbelts to look like the real thing with the minimal amount of effort for the modeler. They’ve gone from having unpainted photo etch belts, then they were pre-painted, then there was Fabric and lately the Super Fabric. Well enter the latest addition to the seatbelt line, STEEL.

This set contains EIGHT sets of seatbelts for aircraft such as the Bf-109, FW-190 or Me-262. But what is so special about them? Well to start out the belts are .1mm thick at the thickest, such as areas around the buckles. The ‘fabric’ portion is actually only .04mm thick making this realistically thin and easy to shape. They are slightly weathered to make them less stark.

AOA Decals has been releasing some great decal sheets for Vietnam era subjects. Their latest is for the T-28 Trojan. In this particular scale, these decals can be used on either the old Monogram or newer Roden kits.

Yellow Wings is well known for their thorough research and excellent decals of traditionally Navy subjects, in particular from the ‘Golden Era’ of aviation. This particular sheet covers the time Kingfisher during the immediate pre-war timeframe.

Packaged as most decals are nowadays in a ziplock baggie, these decals are further protected by a heavy card stock title card. The instructions are included on three double sided 8.5 x 11 sheets.

The instructions cover all three aircraft. Each sheet contains a profile view, split view of the plan views and a head on shot. The specifications are included. These sheets look very much like the historical data from the National Archives.

Like many aviation enthusiasts and modelers, I have always admired the beauty of Supermarine’s Spitfire design. I am admittedly no expert on the type, but 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. I also asked for a couple of the supplemental accessories Eduard has issued for the kit. The aircraft’s history is well known and extensively documented, so let’s get on with impressions of this 1/72 scale plastic version.

This kit issue (#70-121) is a completely new mould tooling. This kit 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. So, I’ll give you my initial impressions in case you’re considering a purchase sooner, rather than later.

Greg Van Wyngarden has taken a new look at the Pfalz D.IIIa service in WWI. This is but the first volume of a two volume set. Datafile number 21 by Peter M. Grosz came out in1995 so it is about time that Windsock revisited the Pfalz D.IIIa! The initial Pfalz D.III aircraft received a poor reception amongst German pilots as it was regarded as inferior to the Albatros D.V. That doesn’t negate the fact that it was still superior to most of the Allied opposition of the time. The Pflaz firm, however, did listen to the pilot’s concerns over the D.III and soon offered improvements in the form of the D.IIIa.