Marcelo Riberiro’s biography is displayed on the rear cover below. He is a 41 year old Brazilian journalist who specializes in digital and content marketing. Marcelo began creating aircraft profiles as a hobby in 2003 and has continued to this day where it is now his ‘second’ job. His favorite subjects are Cold War era aircraft from the Vietnam War to Desert Storm.

The Grumman F-14 Tomcat is an American supersonic, twin-engine, two-seat, twin-tail, variable-sweep wing fighter aircraft that first flew on December 21, 1970. The Tomcat requirement came after the collapse of the General Dynamics F-111B for the United States Navy. Designed to incorporate the air combat experience against MiG fighters during the Vietnam War, 712 F-14s were produced with the primary users being the US Navy and the Iran Air Force. The US Navy retired the F-14 on 09/22/06 while the Tomcat remains in service in the Iranian Air Force.

Eduard’s extensive new “Riders in the Sky 1944’ B-24 coastal command Liberator Special Edition comes packed to the gills with extras. Besides the two new sprues, photoetch, and standard Hasegawa B-24D kit. you get a book full of photos and information, though the wording in mine was in Czech(There is an English translation available in PDF format). You get an Eduard print of the cover image on the box that it all comes in.

Construction

The main kit here is the venerable B-24D by Hasegawa. IPMS/USA has reviewed the standard kit.

History

The Fieseler Fi-156 “Storch” was one of the first STOL aircraft developed for military use. Appearing first in 1935, it went into Luftwaffe service in 1937, and served throughout World War II, both in the Luftwaffe, and in the armed forces of Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Hungary, Rumania, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. In addition, they were also manufactured in Czechoslovakia and France, where production continued after the war. Many postwar models had different engines, and some wartime models are still flying. Some Fi-156’s were captured by the Allies, and were used by the Americans, British, and French.

Brief History

The AIDC F-CK-1 Ching-kuo, commonly known as the Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF), is a multi-role combat aicraft named after Chiang Ching-kuo, the late President of the Republic of China (Taiwan). The aircraft made its first flight in 1989. It was delivered to Republic of China Air Force in January 1994 and entered service in 1997. All 130 production aircraft had been manufactured by 1999.

The IDF program was initiated when the United States refused to sell F-20 Tigershark and F-16 Fighting Falcon jet fighters to Taiwan following diplomatic pressure from China. Taiwan therefore decided to develop an advanced indigenous jet fighter. The IDF jet fighter project was designed and built by the Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) based in Taichung, Taiwan.

Brengun has released the Me-163B 1/144th scale kit before but this new boxing has markings for some “War Prizes” or captured aircraft. The kit parts are molded in gray plastic and comprise only ten parts per airplane. Did I mention that there are two complete models in each box? If not, let me tell you now that there are two complete models in each box.

The box also contains markings for three separate War Prizes: one British, a Russian, and a Me-163B still in German markings that was taken to the United States for evaluation. Fun Fact: The War Prize that was flown to the U.S. was flight tested by Major Gustav Lundquist. Major Lundquist, was later a Brigadier General and commanding officer at the Arnold Engineering Development Center, the U.S. Air Forces flight test facility.