The Vixen was originally developed for the RAF, but was turned down in favor of the Javelin for a missile-armed interceptor. The Fleet Air Arm picked it up and it was tailored to their needs, replacing the Sea Venom. The later versions, the FAW 2 (FAW=Fighter, All Weather) had saddle tanks added to the two booms to increase fuel capacity and thus range as well as better electronics. At the time, it was the heaviest aircraft ever operated by the FAA and was twice the size of the Venom it replaced. Due to all that weight, it only managed to be about 75 mph faster than the Venom, but it did carry the Red Top missile for air-to-air combat, which the Venom could not, as well as the Bull Pup air-to-ground missile. It served with the FAA from 1959 'til 1974.

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941, Hitler expected the whole country to fold quickly after the magnificent show of force of the German War Machine. But it was the Russian winter that slowed the German advance and forced them to go on the defensive. Unable to capture key cities like Mosow and Leningrad, and clad in their summer uniforms, the Germans faltered as the Soviets took the offensive, and served up Hitler’s first major defeat.

Anyone who has peaked inside the box of a WingNut Wings 1/32nd WW1 aircraft kit knows the potential joys that await the builder of such a kit. If you are at all familiar with WW1 aircraft modeling, you will undoubtedly have heard of Ray Rimell’s Albatros Productions Ltd., publishers of Windsock International modeling magazine and Windsock Datafiles etc. So imagine my delight when IPMS USA gave me the opportunity to review a publication that combines the two: a Ray Rimell publication covering the building and detailing of WingNut Wings’ four 1/32nd Fokker D.VII kits! Read on……….

For modelers building scale models of the Space Shuttle one of the more difficult challenges has been to replicate the thermal shielding on the spacecraft, whether the tiles or the blankets. In the smaller scales, this can be a real challenge and as a result one of the most sought after after-market sets has been thermal tile decals. Meteor Productions, in their Cutting Edge decal line, was the first company to offer tile decals. These deals proved extremely popular. That company has been gone for nearly 5 years and the decals have become very hard to find, usually commanding high prices. Enter Warbird Decals, a new company in the real space market. They have introduced a new line of thermal tile decals in the scales of 1/72, 1/100, and 1/144 to meet the ongoing demand.

Thunderbirds are GO!!!!! For those of my generation, that was a great call tag! For the younger crowd, I am sure they have still heard about International Rescue. Gerry and Sylvia Anderson created one of the greatest series ever to be broadcast! There were only two 50 episode seasons created. However, those two seasons spawned two movies and tons of different merchandising items to include plastic and die-cast models. Bandai, Imex and Aoshima are the ones I can remember. I have seen several others over the years adding their twist to the old classic which just proves the greatness of the original models used in the series.

Aoshima’s website is not super user friendly but as near as I can tell they offer at least 12 different Thunderbird models. Six are part of their MINI series and six in their other line. The mole has currently two different versions in their inventory. One of the kits is in 1/72 and I believe is a copy of the older Imex kit and this other MINI mole.