I am tempted to re-title this book "Albatros D.I - D.Va: Legendary Polish Fighter" because it really takes a more Eastern European perspective on this iconic family of aircraft. This is refreshing because too often books on WWI German aircraft present a Western Front perspective. The Eastern Front was a different theater with differing imperatives, challenges and solutions. Complicating the war effort was the polyglot force that made up the Austrian-Hungarian military forces, of which Poland was a part.

The book takes a narrative approach to the subject, being more about the stories than technical specifications while still including the latter. It covers all of the Albatros fighters including: D.1, D.II, D.III, D.III Oeffag, D.V, D.Va, Dr.II and W.4. But the emphasis really is on the most successful aircraft - the D.III (including the Oeffag built version) and the D.V. The chapter organization is as follows:

The Reich Air Ministry (RLM) issued requirements for a single-seat fighter powered by a single BMW 003 jet engine on September 10, 1944. From the many German aircraft manufacturers interested, Heinkel’s proposal was selected. Heinkel designed and built The He-162 very quickly. The final design was chosen on September 25th and the He162 flew for the first time on December 6th, less than 90 days later.

It was made primarily of wood due to the short supply of metals. In early test parts came unglued in flight with one such event resulting in the death of the test pilot. As a result, parts were strengthened and some redesign was needed. The glue for the wood parts was found to be defective in many cases. The aircraft was the fastest jet aircraft in the air hitting 550 mph at sea level and speeds reaching 562 mph at 19,000 feet.

Once again, aircraft from “My era”, the early 1980’s, are starting to appear on decal sheets. RAF Alconbury was a busy place; Not only for the RF-4C’s that were stationed there, but the U-2R (TR-1 at the time) was a common sight. And in between all that activity, the dart-shaped F-5E’s of the 527^th Aggressor squadron claimed AR as home. They were frequently deployed to other locations such as Deccimommano, Italy, and USAFE bases in Germany and Spain to practice their trade on our local USAFE fighter pilots.

These sheets from Twobobs are excellent historical references. If you are independently wealthy enough to own several of the new F-5’s from AFV, you could easily make an entire squadron of Warsaw-pact look-alikes. I’m certain these decals will work with the Monogram and Italieri 1/48 F-5E’s if you have them in your stash.

The fit on this model had me working very hard from every direction. For example, on the tailplane, there was a locator tab that didn’t seem to have a matching hole. The result was that I accidentally mounted the horizontal stabilizer inverted. I had to carefully prize it off and clean the parts before remounting it and adding the vertical stabilizer and tail struts.

I applied most of the paint scheme before final assembly. A second-line R.A.F. type, (post-1941) called for a medium gray/olive green upper surfaces (Testors 1163 Flat Gray for the gray and my suicide stew bottle of mostly Pactra olive greens for the green) and “Sky” undersides (a mix of Testors 1162 Flat Blue and Model Master FS36375 Light Ghost Gray).

Hello fellow IPMS Brothers and Sisters, Today we have the beautiful new Eduard 1/32 109 in the affordable “Weekend Edition” box…I hear choir music. OK, let’s see what we have inside the box, drum roll please. We have 152 khaki colored and clear plastic parts packaged in the typical standard Eduard resealable bags, a single option decal sheet and good ol' black and white instructions. Overwhelmed by the seven large parts sprue, I found inspiration in the decal option Red 1 flown by Knight’s Cross recipient, Hptm. Trautloft

The Bf-109 is an interesting subject, with a rich and fascinating history. Several incarnations and variants make it a very popular aircraft and the darling of a lot of fellow modelers. The first prototype flew in late 1936 Bf 109 V4 (D-IOQY, Werk Nr 878) followed by V5, V6 and V7 in early 1937. The latter prototype was pretty much the production version of the Bf 109B.