When Eduard released its MiG-21MF kit last summer it also released an overtree set of just the sprues from the MiG-21MF kit. This set depicts the MiG-21MF (NATO reporting name - “Fishbed J”) aircraft that were built at the Gorky factory.

As this is an overtrees set, the box only includes the four sprues (3 medium gray and one clear). There are no decals, photo-etch, masks, or instructions. The circular clear sprue contains the canopies, lights and instrument panels. Two of the gray sprues are for the airframe and the third one provides the pylons, weapons and external tanks. The molding on all of the parts is superb, but some of them suffer from a slight molding seam. This is easily removed by scraping it with a hobby knife or using a sanding stick, but beware of it as the tolerances in the kit are so tight, sometimes the molding seam gets in the way.

Background

(from The Battleship Bismarck, By Stefan Draminski

German battleships and heavy cruisers were equipped with seven searchlights for illumination at night or in poor visibility conditions. They were produced by Siemens-Schuckertwerke and had a diameter of 1500 mm. Three signal lamps were also provided: one on either side of the admiral’s bridge, and one on a platform at the base of the mainmast.

Veteran Models Searchlight Set provides seven 1540 mm searchlights and three signal lamps, both with transparent plastic lenses. The kit includes extremely finely cast resin parts with amazing detail, and a small photoetch fret, also with amazing detail. The resin pieces are exquisitely cast with virtually no imperfections. There is some minor flash on the parts, but no bubbles or voids. Some of the resin and photoetch pieces are extremely small and delicate.

The Boeing (formerly McDonnel-Douglas) F/A-18C is an improved version of McDonnel-Douglas’ F/A-18A, which in itself was developed from the Northrop YF-17 lightweight fighter prototype.

Academy’s 1/72 F/A-18C is a faithful reproduction of the actual aircraft, although the details in the cockpit and the gear wells is sparse. The fit is generally excellent, with several seams, notably around the intakes (parts B16 and B17). Be careful when assembling the sides of the fuselage (parts B1 and B2), as it is very easy to misalign these parts. One other tricky assembly is the main landing gears, as each main gear leg has a smaller actuating cylinder that needs to be installed at the same time, and the best way to do this is to dry fit both pieces and once the alignment is correct, apply glue.