Russian aerial rockets have a fascinating history, and this little creature is very much a part of that history. Design work on this range of weapons began in the 1930s, and they were first deployed operationally during the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, part of the early war animosity between the Soviet Union and the expanding Japanese empire. During this engagement, RS-82 rockets were fired against Japanese aircraft from I-16 fighters, bringing down 16 fighters and 3 bombers – certainly one of the earliest instances of successful air-to-air missile attacks. Later, these same weapons were used in Air-to-ground attacks against hardened targets, such as armor. Investigating further, I’ve found pictorial instances of these being mounted on the I-16 Polikarpov, the Il-2 Sturmovik, as well as Lend-Lease aircraft such as the P-40 Warhawk and Hawker Hurricane. In fact, these little stingers were mounted on virtually every Russian aircraft used during the Great Patriotic War.

Aerobonus has provided a great figure accessory for the Airfix Bedford MWD, although I think it could be used with other 1/48 RAF vehicles.

The detail quality is extremely high; there was no flash or other imperfection. The parts once removed from the mold base are ready to assembly.

The Assembly is quick and easy. They will look great as an addition to the Airfix Bedford MWD.

Thanks go to Aires for providing this kit to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). The B-17 was primarily employed by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the daylight strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial and military targets. The United States Eighth Air Force, based at many airfields in central and southern England, and the Fifteenth Air Force, based in Italy, complemented the RAF Bomber Command's nighttime area bombing in the Combined Bomber Offensive to help secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for the invasion of France in 1944. The B-17 also participated to a lesser extent in the War in the Pacific, early in World War II, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields.

THANK YOU to our friends and suppliers at Aires/Quickboost for another improvement set, in this case for the Revell DE Tornado IDS/GR-4 undercarriage doors. And thanks also to the reviewer corps leaders for making them available to me to review.

This set improves the kit components by replacing them with fine, pressure-molded resin parts. These are very thin and fragile. Included are five doors in gray resin, (two main, three nose gear) and two clear taxi lights.

Remove the parts from their pour stub, and superglue in place. These fit in place of the kit items, no additional sanding or kit plastic removal required. Quick and improved kit appearance with scale size and thickness.

The kit parts are good; the Aires parts are better. Improved, more “scale” detail, more finesse on the doors (and no mold seam to deal with), and “sharper” molding on the parts overall.

THANK YOU to our friends and suppliers at Aires / Quickboost for another improvement set, in this case for the Roden He 51b series biplane (which was also released by Eduard in a double set along with their ME-109 for the 1936 Spanish civil war. And thanks also to the reviewer corps leaders for making this set available to me to review….

This set provides seven antennas to directly replace the kit items. The detail provided is an improvement in that the antennas are more scale in size than the kit items, are very fine in appearance, and you don’t have to clean up mold lines, etc. on these antennas.

Quick installation: Remove the parts from their pour stub, clean up with a sanding stick, and superglue the antennas in place. Paint and move on!

This set is a most welcome addition to the line, thanks again to Aires and IPMS USA for providing these items!