The TS-11 Iskra (“Spark”) is a single engine two-seat primary jet trainer designed and constructed in Poland for the Polish Air Force. It was also used by the Indian Air Force. As the aircraft was not used by many countries, it was mostly overlooked by model manufacturers until recently. I am aware of two kits in 1/72 scale, the recent Arma Models kit and an older kit by Master Craft models. I picked up the Master Craft kit last spring at a model show as I like odd looking aircraft, so of course shortly thereafter Arma released its new kit of the Iskra. As I have not yet acquired the Arma kit, the comparison photos are to the Master Craft kit.

Tony Buttler was born in 1956 and joined High Duty Alloys in Redditch in 1974 as a metallurgist. For nearly 20 years he was closely involved in the testing of aluminum and titanium airframe and engine components for many of the world’s most important airplanes. It was during this timeframe that his interest in military aircraft grew into a passion. Since 1995, Tony has been a freelance aviation historian, with this book being his twenty-sixth major release. He has also written many titles for the Warpaint series of monographs as well as many articles for most of the popular historical aviation magazines.

The cover painting by Daniel Uhr depicts the Miles M.52 in flight ahead of its chase plane, a Gloster Meteor. This painting is reproduced again after the title page, pristine, without all the titles. I counted 112 black and white photographs, 18 color pictures, 20 tables, and 16 tables on 160 glossy pages.

THANK YOU to our friends and suppliers at Aires for this excellent improvement set for the new Revell 1/48 Tornado! And thanks also to the reviewer corps leaders for making the set available to me to review.

This resin upgrade takes the kit and adds a simple electronics bay improvement. Included in this six-part set are two electronic bays, two bay brackets, and two doors. Detail on everything is superb, and is just the thing for a diorama or servicing display on the Tornado.

Use of this set requires the modeler to remove the avionics bay doors molded on the side of the model, and install the bays. As the kit was already assembled, I had to devise a way to Install the bays from outside the opening and cement the doors in place afterward.