Having built the Royal Class Spitfire kits, I had an idea of what to expect from Eduard’s 1/48 scale Spitfire Mk.IXc: a perfect fitting kit from a maker at the pinnacle of their craft. The Spitfire Mk.IX kits are literally perfect models of the real thing. Building the kit out of the box, there is no need for filler anywhere. However, I wondered what would happen if I added some of the many available Eduard Brassin items to this baby?

Big Sin

Eduard’s 1/48 scale Big Sin Spitfire Mk. IX Advanced set has given me just the opportunity I was looking for. The Advanced Big Sin set includes a collection of four Eduard Brassin items: engine, gun bay, radio compartment, and photo-etch flaps.

Caracal Models has released a decal sheet for the 1/48 Hasegawa A-4M. This decal set includes three sheets with markings for two airframes in Brazilian Navy service. One option is a special scheme to celebrate the Skyhawk’s 15 years of service in the Brazilian Navy. The sheet provides the full markings and enough stencils to build both of the two options:

• Brazilian Navy, N-1004 (Special Scheme)
• Brazilian Navy, N-1017

As the AF-1s are former Kuwaiti A-4KUs, the instruction sheet describes how to convert the standard A-4M or A-4KU kits into the AF-1. In most cases, the conversion process is just using alternate parts already provided with the kit.

The B-29 is probably best known as the aircraft that dropped the atom bomb, putting an end to WWII in the Pacific. The reissue of the Academy kit comes in a nice sturdy box, and is molded in a light grey plastic, with light recessed panel lines and good surface detail. The interior detail is very good for the scale, but unfortunately, you can’t see much of it. Crew bunks are even included for the aft section but there’s no way to see them. I decided to leave out some of these pieces in the rear section so less weight would need to be added to the nose to ensure my model sat on its nose wheel.

Fit is good, but the lead I added in the nose kept me from getting a tight fit on the forward fuselage. This caused me to shim the canopy then sand and blend the nose glass - I feel this was my error. The wings have a double spar which goes through the fuselage and makes for a nice wing-to-fuselage joint.

MMP Books has released Vol 1 (more to come!) in their “Inside” series, entitled, “German Aircraft Instrument Panels”

Volume 1 features instrument faces and instrument panel illustrations for six Luftwaffe aircraft, those being the Bf-109F-4, Bf-110E, Fi-156 Storch, Fw-190A-3, Hs-123, and the Ju-88A-4. In North America, Casemate is the distributor for MMP.

“To commemorate the 70th Anniversary of World War II’s D-Day landings, the Royal Air Force (RAF) unveiled a specially-painted Typhoon jet with D-Day invasion stripes at RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire. The Typhoon has been adorned with the iconic black and white invasion markings in a tribute to the significant role of the crews of the Hawker Typhoon, its WWII namesake – particularly during D-Day operations. Technicians painted the jet, tail number ZK308, in April 2014, so that it could be ready to take part in UK-wide air shows this summer. The aircraft also completed a dual flypast with a similarly adorned Spitfire, part of the RAF’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.”