With the recent releases of the special edition F-104 kits from Eduard in 1/48 using Hasegawa plastic, Eduard has released the F-104 C2 ejection seat as a separate kit. The Lockheed C2 ejection seat was the most commonly used ejection seat for the F-104 in US service. It is a downward firing rocket propelled ejection seat.

This seat set is very simple. It contains the main seat frame, two seat options, rails, a small photo etch set and a small decal set. As this is a drop in replacement seat for the kit seat the assembly is very straight forward. Everything in the kit replaces the equivalently parts in the F-104 kit. The first step in the assembly is to remove the three large resin parts from the casting blocks, use a razor saw for this step. If you are careful minimal clean will be needed. After clean up, wash the parts to remove the mold release agent that is often on resin parts.

With the recent releases of the special edition F-104 kits from Eduard in 1/48 using Hasegawa plastic, Eduard has released the F-104 MB. 7 ejection seat as a separate kit. The Martin-Baker Mk. Q7(A) ejection seat was a replacement ejection seat for the F-104 in European service. It replaced the original downward firing seats with the newer upward firing design. The reason for this change is that in foreign service the role of the F-104 was expanded and in low altitude flight with heavy wing loads there was a very high rate of failure with the original downward firing seats.

Croco Models is a small model manufacturer from the Republic of Latvia. They’ve recently begun developing small kits of rare vehicles, and various model building accessories. Their first model kit is of an early Japanese cavalry tank, the Type 92 Jyu-Sokosha. As far as I can tell from a quick internet search, this is the only 1/72 kit of this tank available.