Eduard is planning to release a pre-painted injected plastic PSP base. The base has a copyright of 1999 in the back, so I think it is the “old” PSP base which now gets a pre-painted treatment.

What about the pre-painting? It is great. Deep browns and grey shades, with a touch of lighter spots and rusty shades. This is not just pre-painted, it is weathered, too!! Now, be aware that the sides of the base are left in bare plastic (white). You might want to consider painting the sides to match the colors of the top and maybe to apply a wash to the overall base to bring out detail.

What is the quality and detail of the plastic? It is outstanding as we became used from Eduard. No flash or molding flaws. Clean and crisp details. The dimensions are 164 mm x 234 mm. It will fit a P-51 just fine, but it might be a bit tight for a P-47, as it is shown in the pictures.

Beechcraft has built many multi-engined airplanes over its long and successful history, but when anybody in aviation mentions a "Twin Beech", they don't mean a Baron, a Duke, or even a Super King Air – they mean a Model 18. Designed at the end of the 1930s as a competitor to Lockheed's Electra 10, it soon eclipsed that type in production with demand for light transports and aircrew trainers during WW2 (with Lockheed busy with building P-38 Lightning fighters, Hudson bombers, and bigger transport planes, Beech was in the perfect position for the business!). Thousands built, they served second-line military roles all over the world with all the Allied nations, and Beech kept the type in production afterwards for the growth of postwar air travel. Many are still in flying condition today and they are often seen at warbird airshows.

While meandering through the vendors rooms at the Omaha Nationals, I bumped into Ernie Gee while visiting with Gordon Kwan of Sprue Brothers. For those of you who don’t know, I consider Ernie to be the living GrandMaster of lost brass castings such as landing gear, boat propellers, and a multitude of other stuff. He handed these to me and asked if I might review them. Well…here is the review. EXQUISITE! There really isn’t much more to say about the absolutely beautiful work this guy does. (The last Fisher kit I reviewed, the RB-51 Red Baron Racer, had Ernie’s landing gear included, as does the F7U Cutlass I’m currently knee deep into). There can’t be enough good said about the quality of these products. If you haven’t tried any G Factor products, it’s past time. These can be ordered in the U.S. at https://spruebrothers.com and in the United Kingdom at https://www.hannants.co.uk.

This is the second volume that deals with the Polish Air Force after the German invasion in 1939. Pictures of Polish aircraft are very rare, especially before the pre-war period. This was a security protocol implemented by the Polish government. Because of the success of this protocol, there are very few photos of the aircraft used by the Polish Air Force. The conquering Germans are therefore the best reference for the airplanes. Needless to say, most of these pictures are previously unpublished.

The Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LAGG-3 was an important fighter aircraft for the Soviet Air Force at the time of the German "Barbarossa" invasion in 1941, and a technological parallel to the British Hawker Hurricane, French Dewoitine D.520, and the American Curtiss P-40 Tomahawk of the time. With a mostly wooden construction and a relatively powerful engine and adequate firepower, it held the line while giving the Russians time to develop more advanced combat machines to fight the Luftwaffe.

This model kit is part of Zvezda's "Art of Tactic" wargame model series, which also includes ground vehicles and figures as game pieces. In that role, this kit is engineered more for ease of assembly and sturdiness than surface detail, although it does quite well in that regard for the size and scale.