From the publisher: Once Nazi Germany had conquered Norway in 1940, just a handful of Luftwaffe Gruppen flying Bf 109 and Bf 110 fighters were able to dominate the air in the Arctic Circle. Yet as the dual threats of the Royal Air Force and Soviet air force grew, the Luftwaffe was forced to increase its fighter presence to full Geschwader strength with the formation of Jg 5 Eismeer (ice-sea) in early 1942. The struggle produced some of Germany’s leading aces, with pilots such as Theodor Weissenberger, Heinrich Ehrler, Walter Schuck, Franz Dörr, and Jakob Norz all achieving more than 100 victories.

PJ Production has jumped in to help 1/48 Mirage III series model builders. This new release provides two AIM-9B Sidewinders along with the Aero 3 missile rails and the CES-3 pylons featured on the Dassault fighter. This set is probably focused on the new Kinetic 1/48 Mirage III kits, but it should also work well on the Academy, Eduard, Fonderie Minatures, Heller, and Hobby Boss kits; along with the older ESCI kit that has also been re-boxed by Revell and Italeri.

Notable is the re-sealable packaging that PJ Production uses that makes the parts easy to review and then stuff back into the package securely. You will want to be careful handling the resin fins as their small size makes them an easy sacrifice to the carpet monster. Painting instructions are included with the small instruction sheet. I found several air-bubbles in the resin parts, on the nose and the tail fins. Gap filling super glue with baking soda quickly solved the issue.

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.