One of the most tedious, but necessary tasks to aircraft modelers is masking canopies for painting. This is further complicated with modern aircraft, as many have an additional light yellow or gray rubber seal around the canopy glass. Trying to cut strips of tape, parafilm, or foil is tedious and time consuming to line everything up just right.

Eduard has come to the rescue for the past several years with sets of canopy masks made of Kabuki tape that is thin, flexible, and very easy to apply. Tamiya tape is the same material. Keeping up with the latest releases, Eduard put out a set for the new AFV Club 1/48 F-5E. This set would also work for the recent F-5N release as well.

For those of you that do any scratch building or those that super detail kits, you are well aware of punch sets. For the rest of us, a quick explanation is needed. Roll Models Sub-Miniature Punch and Die set includes a series of series of metal punches and a guide to allow you to replicate small discs. The Sub-Miniature set comes in sizes 0.063, 0.058, 0.053, 0.048, 0.043, 0.038, 0.033, 0.028, 0.023, 0.018 inches. It can be used for punching out plastic card to replicate bolt heads or used to punch paper to make masks.

The process is simplicity itself. You select the size punch you need. Slip your material to be punched between the guide bars, insert the punch and strike sharply. Out the other side comes a perfect little disk. You can do this over and over and it remains the same size.

At the risk of sounding like a “one string banjo”, Darn! These Fisher kits are really the car’s meow. I’ve lost track of how many of these outstanding kits from Paul I’ve had the pleasure to review, but this one is, as are all the others, an outstanding example of the pinnacle of Resin casting technology. The build is as simple as pie with the one piece wing, and a hollow-cast, nearly one piece fuselage (the belly scoop being the minor second part). With a couple of passes with the sanding sticks the fit is pure “click, click”. A minimum of glazing putty was used during the construction and finishing process.