FESTIVE RELEASES
While Airfix's December/ January releases will see the return of several favourites, the highlights are the arrival of newly tooled 1/72 Sherman Firefly VC, Tiger I and Spitfire Mk.Vc kits.
Both Firefly schemes depict Normandy-deployed machines during 1944: a camouflaged Staffordshire Yeomanry vehicle named ‘Belvedere’ and an overall Olive Drab Northamptonshire Yeomanry Sherman. On the German side, the famous Tiger I takes a bow, with markings for panzer ace Michael Wittmann’s Yellow 007 (as it appeared at the Battle of Villers-Bocage in June 1944) and a white-washed Heavy Panzer Battalion 501 tank in Byelorussia in 1943/44.
Chief among the returning kits are three of the firm’s 1/24 ‘super kits’ under the Vintage Classics label, with the Spitfire Mk.I, Bf 109E and Hurricane Mk.I all repackaged with original box artwork. Two equally old gems are back in 1/72, with the Bristol Bulldog and Henschel Hs 123, while the firm’s Bristol Beaufighter TF.X comes with markings for a D-Day-liveried 404 Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force airframe and a Portuguese Air Force machine.
Further 1/35 releases include a desert-based M3 Grant, so there's much for military modellers to savour. Visit: www.airfix.com