The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, or colloquially known as the Evo is a high-performance sports car manufactured by Mitsubishi Motors that is based on the Lancer. There have been ten official versions to date, our subject review kit is the forth generation of the series. All EVO’s use two litre, turbocharged and four wheel drive systems. EVO’s were not officially imported into the American market until 2003; therefore this model represents the “home-market” version of this car,

The Kit

Our subject kit comes from Hasagawa imported by Hobbico and is part of their extensive line of the Lancer GSR series. All of the kit parts are crisply molded; since this is an EVO, there are additional standard Lancer parts included in the kit that would not nessarily be used but are available. The kit comes with a complete set of decals, window painting masks and mesh material for the front intercooler intake.

Osprey Publishing continuous to expand the fledging series “Air Vanguard”. This new series is focused on a specific airframe, different versions/models and a brief detail of operational service of the aircraft under scrutiny. This volume (number 7 of the series) focuses on the USAF F-4 Phantom II.

Based on the premise of this series, there are sections devoted to the airframe, engine, fuel system and armament. Specifically there are sections devoted to the F-4C, F-4D, F-4E, F-4F, and F-4G. It also includes sections on the reconnaissance versions of the above marks and special sections for license build/modifications for the Israeli and Japanese air forces. There are also a few short sections on special prototypes and test-bed airframes.

Each section is well written and has plenty of color pictures. The author is very objective, emphasizing both the strengths and weaknesses of the airplane.

Prominent on the underside of the Mig-23 is the twin GSH-23 twin barrel 23mm cannon which can be used air to air or air to ground. The Trumpeter 1/48 Mig-23M and Mig-23MF kits provide multiple parts to create the cannon – the L34 for the fairing, PE parts 2 and 3 for the shell ejection chutes and part C2 which consists of the twin cannon barrel. Once covered by the fairing, the only portion of the GSH-23 are the muzzles of thee barrels with their distinctive finned shaped. This offering by Quickboost is a one for one drop in replacement for kit part C2, providing a more accurate pair of muzzles that are physically separated, unlike the kit part which has the muzzles connected. My guess is that the kit muzzles are that way for easy of injection molding. The resin replacement is not only separate provides smaller more realistically sized gun bores.