C'est une magnifique publication, riche en prose et en photographie. Présentée en français, mon manque de maîtrise du français me fait passer à côté de la qualité de la prose, mais la photographie ne nécessite pas de traduction précise.

In English - This is a magnificent publication, rich in prose and photography. Presented in the French language, my lack of command of French means that I am missing out on the quality of the prose, but the photography and the captions for the images does not require precise translation.

While the book is in the French language, some ability to read and understand French would be extremely helpful. My command of French is, at best, that of a six-year old. But even with a remarkably disappointing ability to speak and write in French, I found that the captions of the photographs were not at all difficult to roughly translate and to understand. When all else fails, one can seek an online translation tool.

History

The Yakovlev UT-3 was designed as a training aircraft to offer instruction to pilots of multi-engined aircraft, gunners, bombardiers, and radio operators. Construction was mainly of wood, with fabric covering and some steel tubing. Imported French Renault 6Q engines were used on the prototypes, but production models probably had a Voronezh MV-6, a Russian copy of the French powerplant. The prototypes first flew in 1938, and some were equipped with armament, 7.62 mm machine guns and bombs, but production models were unarmed. Production began at two plants, No. 272 at Kazan, and No. 135 at Leningrad. Only a small number, around thirty, had been produced when the authorities decided to use combat aircraft for this type of training, so further production was cancelled.

A little background about the car the kit represents:

It was the MP4/2C that McLaren introduced to the 1986 F1 Grand Prix. The McLaren MP4/2 was designed by John Barnard for the 1984 season. The McLaren MP4/2C was the updated version powered by a TAG-Porsche 1.5 litre V6 twin turbo engine with carbon monocoque chassis. A. Prost and K. Rosberg were the drivers. Rosberg ran a one-off livery in yellow/white, different from the common red/white livery, and was successful in attracting the attention of the fans and had a huge promotion effect.

The kit gives you markings to make the car driven by either driver. Looking at the kit, there are 80% new tooled parts to produce the car as in the 1986 Portuguese Gran Prix and includes details such as the suspension and cockpit, as well as the TAG-Porsche V6 twin turbo engine.

In my stash are a couple of old ESCI 1/48 Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jets along with the newer Kinetic issue. The Alpha Jet is a beautiful aircraft reminiscent of a dolphin in mid-air, having launched from the water in a playful breach of the surface. The craft was developed as a European trainer jointly by France and Germany. It was perfectly suited for that mission: forgiving, fast, agile and excellent overall vision from the cockpit. The type has served for over 40 years in the training role. Germany used the type as a close support platform. France still uses the Alpha Jet for their colorful demonstration team (Patrouille de France) aircraft, as does Portugal (Asas de Portugal). The Alpha Jet was also used by QinetiQ in the UK by the Test Pilots School, and Top Aces, the German based contract adversary company.

Brengun Models is a scale model and detailing parts manufacturer located in the Czech Republic. Their lines include limited production run multi-media kits and exquisitely detailed photo-etched, turned brass and white metal replacement parts for aircraft in the most commonly produced scales.

Brengun has produced a set of wheels for any 1/72 scale F/A-18E/F or G Super Hornet kit. There are no instructions, but any modeler familiar with resin parts will have no issues installing these wheels in lieu of the kit parts. A close-up evaluation of the parts (see photos), indicates a simple cut and replace installation that provides realistic scale-detailed wheels with significantly improved appearance to molded plastic kit parts. The photo comparison is to the Hasegawa kit. The Brengun wheels have superior hub, brake and tread detail to those supplied in the Hasegawa kit.