If you were a British student pilot during the late 1930’s through the end of WW II, you, most likely, spent many hours in the de Havilland D.H. 82 Tiger Moth. It was the basic training aircraft for the RAF, RN, as well as the air forces of all the British Commonwealth nations. USAAF fighter pilots in England flew 11 of them as squadron “hacks” – utility planes – until the war ended. Evidently it was not that easy to fly and demanded close attention during acrobatic maneuvers to prevent a stall and possible spin. As such, however, it was deemed suitable for future fighter pilots. Though long retired from military use, over 200 are still flying today with warbird groups and other enthusiasts. This “Warpaint Series” book by Adrian M. Balch covers these stories and much more.

Mushroom Model Publication has released the second volume of the Finnish Fighter Color series. You can find a review of Volume 1 here on the reviews site.

This book, as Volume 1, is structured by aircraft type. Each aircraft type has two chapters. The first one is devoted to the historical introduction on each type including how it was procured and how it did perform in Finnish service. In many cases there are plenty of historical details on different missions including date, location, number of airplanes involved and mission kills/losses. There are no first-hand narratives of pilots involved in the action, so I suppose the information is coming from squadron records.

Introduction

Since late in the Korean war, into the Vietnam War, and even more importantly today, one of the most important missions within the United States Air Force and Navy is the suppression of enemy air defense systems. Blinding the enemy air defenses was and still is crucial to clearing the road for massive bombing campaigns and air superiority. In the United States Air Force, this mission went to a group aptly named the wild weasels. Much like a weasel, the job of these aircraft is to stick their head up and get the enemy air defense systems to see and lock their radar on the aircraft. When the electronic systems in the weasel aircraft indicate the enemy is locked on you, you would launch your anti-radiation missile to ride the enemy radar beam back to the antenna it was broadcasting from. Once in proximity of the antenna, the missile would detonate releasing thousands of bits of steel shrapnel, shredding the enemy radar antenna thus blinding the enemy.

This set replaces parts B6,B7, B44 and B45 from Kitty Hawk Kit number KH80115. The detail quality is to the normal high standard of the Quickboost products. As usual there is no flash or other imperfections. The parts, once removed from the mold base, are ready to install. The parts will make a great improvement on the kit parts, which have no fine details as these do. A great price for such fine additional details for this kit.

Thanks to Aires for providing the review sample.

This set replaces parts 28 and 30 from Kitty Hawk Kit number KH80115. The detail quality is to the normal high standard of the Quickboost products. As usual there is no flash or other imperfections. The parts, once removed from the mold base, are ready to install. The parts will make a great improvement on the kit parts, which have no fine details as these do. A great price for this kit with such fine additional details.

Thanks to Aires/Quickboost for providing the review sample.