The SAAB JA 37 Viggen was designed during the Cold war to be a rugged short take-off and landing interceptor for the Swedish Air Force. It first flew in early 1967 and production ended in 1990 after 149 airframes were delivered. It has always been a favorite of aircraft enthusiasts and modelers due the distinctive delta wing and canard design. This highly anticipated new kit from the Swedish company Tarangus is the first new kit of this awesome fighter in 1/48 scale since the old ESCI kit from the 80s.

Tarangus is a small Swedish company that specializes in new, beautiful kits of very interesting Swedish subjects. Most of their kits are short run kits but this new Viggen is not. The kit was taken back into development for nearly a year to make mainstream moldings that would be more durable. I am a huge fan of the Viggen so I had high hopes for this kit and it did not disappoint.

A newer addition to Scale Aircraft Conversions ever-expanding line of metal landing gear is this set for the Zoukei-Mura 1/48 scale Focke Wulf Ta 152.

Like most of SAC’s sets, this is meant as a drop-fit replacement for the kit’s plastic landing gear. The set comprises of both main gear legs, the tail gear (with molded-in wheel/tire), and the accompanying actuators. All are made out of sturdy, white metal.

I could see no appreciable difference in the detail between the kit items and those in this set. They look to be almost exactly the same. All the brake lines and other details present on SAC’s gear are there on the original kit items as well. The kit and SAC both include the tail wheel molded onto its strut, something I am not a fan of.

The long awaited Kinetic Mirage IIIE was released a few months ago. It is a full package meal as with the parts in the box you can build the IIIE/OE/EE/EA/R/RD/ and very likely the RS version too, although the last one is not listed in the instructions.

The box is full with parts (15 sprues) including a fair amount of offensive ordinance (bombs and missiles) plus different drop tanks. The markings include French, Spanish and Australian airframes. Among the French markings there is the option of finishing your model as the airplane flown by Jaqueline Auriol when she broke the feminine speed record.

If you never heard of Jaqueline Auriol, you should read about her. She was a female French aviator and test pilot. She set 5 speed records and won the Harmon International Trophy 4 times among other professional achievements, not to mention having been the daughter-in-law of a French president, with all the political and State duties that it implies.

The set consists of two finely cast reproductions of the F-16’s speed brakes in the extended position. Installation of the speed brakes is very straight forward once they are removed from their respective casting blocks. I labeled the gluing edge of mine with a ‘L’ and a ‘R’ as they are not interchangeable. To install each one, you will need to cut off the molded speed brakes once the fuselage halves are together. As the actuator housing for each speed brake is on the bottom of the aircraft, I removed the kit part from the bottom up by cutting at the seam on the actuator housing. As a result the top is cut off just forward of the top hinge, which is good as it gives you some space to blend in the new piece without interfering with the top hinge.

While most pictures show the speed brakes fully retracted when the jet is parked, the set looks great and will help your F-16 stand out from the crowd.

Highly recommended.

The Hermes Program was a post WW-II American program which utilized German missile designs. Best known of this series was the Hermes A2, which was the A-4 (V-2) copy. The Hermes A1 was based on the Wasserfall, a surface to air missile developed at Peenemunde in 1942, but which never reached production. General Electric developed an built the Hermes A1, which was about ¼ the size of the Hermes A2.

The other big difference between the A1 and A2 was that the A1 had 4 extra fins on the sides of the rocket body. This was to allow greater maneuverability when the rocket was being guided to a target aircraft. The guidance was done visually during daylight and with radar assist at night. Steering from the ground was done with a joystick.

Five A1s were successfully tested at White Sands Range in New Mexico in 1950 and 51. The entire Hermes program was canceled in 1954.