The master metalworker of Poland, Piotr, just keeps cranking these things out… THANKS VERY MUCH for sending IPMS USA another of your growing line of turned metal Pitot tubes, and thanks also to IPMS USA leadership for sending it on to me to review….

This is the now-expected, much improved upgrade to the kit plastic. Consisting of 1 metal pitot tube and a radome adaptor directly replacing the kit pitot probe, this is an easy addition to improve the longevity of your kits’ appearance… The usual warning about being careful with the needle-like probe applies.

The Mirage III pitot tube is a multiple- angle, different diameter item; look at the finished product to get what I am saying. There is just no way for us mortals to turn a needle into a tube looking like this with the boundary-layer differences of the actual item. It’s really interesting how this all works, but that’s a physics lesson for others to teach.

THANKS VERY MUCH to our friends at Eduard for providing IPMS USA another of your huge line of resin aftermarket kit improvements, and thanks also to IPMS USA leadership for sending it on to me to review….

This is a simple upgrade to the kit plastic that makes a HUGE difference in the blood pressure of the builder. The Hasegaga GR7 and 9 kits’ Harrier hot and cool air exhaust duct nozzles are molded in halves, with an almost-impossible-to-fill centerline assembly seam. These Brassin nozzles come complete as single-cast, seamless ducts with all the appropriate depth and detail we have come to expect from Brassin. The nozzle vanes themselves are EXTREMELY thin and look like the real thing.

The latest title in the “Spot On” series published by Mushroom Model Publications focuses on a variety of special camouflage schemes featured on F-104 Starfighters from around the world. The Lockheed F-104 Starfighter was a single-engine, supersonic jet interceptor developed for the U.S. Air Force in the late 1950s. The plane was remarkable for its speed and set a number of word records; however, it was more notable for its controversial safety record and the Lockheed bribery scandal. Despite these misgivings, the F-104 family of planes was flown by U.S. pilots into the mid-70s, and with more than a dozen countries around the world until 2004, when Italy retired the last of their F-104S planes.