Background

Several months ago, I was asked to review an excellent publication dealing with the Brewster 339’s operated by the Netherlands East Indies Air Force in the Malaya-Dutch East Indies theatre of operations at the beginning of World War II. It was entitled Brewster B-339C/D/-23 History of Camouflage and Markings by Gerard Casius and Luuk Boerman, and appeared on the IPMS site a while back. There was a set of decals for Brewster Buffaloes in Dutch, RAAF, American and Japanese markings in both 1/72 and 1/48 scale. These looked very good, and John Ratzenberger wrote a review on the decal sheet, but I decided to actually build some of the models and use the decal sheet, and as usual, the project got a little bit out of hand, resulting in six new Buffalo models that I need to find space for in my model display cabinets.

Background

Arguably one of Germany’s premier fighters in World War I, the Fokker D.VII quickly became won acceptance by its adoptive aircrews as it began to enter service in the summer of 1918. A well-balanced and stable gun platform, with exceptional maneuverability and reliability, the D.VII demonstrated significant performance improvement over prior Germany types, including its famed older brother, the Fokker Dr.1 triplane.

In order to meet wartime demand, Fokker licensed production of the D.VII to Albatross. Albatross cranked out the D.VII at its Ostdeutsche Albatros Werke (OAW) facility. Multiple models were manufactured, incorporating running changes and three distinct powerplants – two of Mercedes origin and one from BMW.

By war’s end 2,800 D.VII’s rolled off of the production lines.

Eduard is right on par with this Photo Etch Set for Tamiya’s Mk. IX Spitfire. The Tamiya kit is just about the best Spitfire kit out there in any scale and they have already done a superb job with the cockpit. So how does Eduard come back with a product that adds a little more detail to this well thought out cockpit? They’ve done it buy adding just a little extra to Tamiya’s parts by pushing up the detail a few notches. The instrument panel is as superb as always and is done in the usual Eduard manor. But parts, such as the gun sight mounting bracket, are exchanged for Eduard’s more realistic holding bracket. This detail adds a realistic subtleness that wouldn’t be noticed until both parts are compared. The throttle boxes are made more realistic just by the fact that less is more. Instead of a clump of plastic formed to have the general outline, it’s made to look like the throttles can actually be moved back and forth.

Aptly titled, this decade in the history of commercial aviation was initially dominated by “luxury airliners” like the Douglas DC-7C, Boeing Stratocruiser, and Lockheed Constellation. That was until the arrival of jets - the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8. The authors, Proctor, Machat, and Kodera who have long been associated with the U.S. airline industry take us back to this transitional period through their personal experiences, photographs and paintings.

Part I

Wingnut Wings has released two 1/32 scale Sopwith Pup kits, one containing parts and multiple markings for the Royal Navy version and one containing parts and markings for the Royal Flying Corps version. The subject of this review is the RFC version.

If you build plastic model airplanes and have not heard of this kit manufacturer before, you must have been spending a year or so under a rock somewhere. Wingnut Wings is a New Zealand-based company with a passion for World War I subjects in general and aircraft in particular. This new company made a big splash in the hobby last year when they released their first four World War I kits and created an even bigger wave this year when they released four more. Everything is 1/32 scale and produced at a level that leaves most other kits in the dust. The almost overwhelming response to the release of the first kits was a wide-eyed Wow andthe latest kits deserve the same response.