WOW! These figures are top-notch, high quality beauties. The set comes in a printed end-opening box. On the front side you see a scene of a young Soviet officer leading his stumbling squad across an open wheat field while under artillery fire, very inspiring to say the least. On the reverse side you’ll find the instructions, sprue charts and a Vallejo color guide. A. Karaschuk did the colorful illustrations.

Inside the box you will find 2 sprues in a light shade of brown. Each figure comes with a selection of equipment, and some of them offer alternate heads, arms and weapons choices. Sculptor A. Gagarin is a true master of his art. The high quality soft plastic makes separating the parts a breeze. The majority of the figure parts follow the part numbers in sequence, making it easier to keep building each figure in a next up order.

I don't know too much about the history of this vehicle, but being an avid model railroader, it looked like something fun and different to build. Now that the bug has bitten I want to collect the whole series of Armored Rail Cars and make a complete train. This is a typical Trumpeter kit: well packed, with each parts sprue in an individual bag. You get three sheets of photoetch and one sheet of decals. Also included is a section of track to place the finished model on.

I must be one of the few modelers left that hasn’t built at least one of these since this kit was introduced more than thirty years ago. The 1/48^th F-4, along with the Century Series and Naval Aviation jet aircraft molded by Revell and Monogram back in the 1970s and 80s are truly classic models: exemplified by outstanding detail throughout (for their day), but particularly in the cockpit and wheel wells; finely raised panel lines, and the sometimes less than stellar fit of some of the component parts. All of this offered at a consistently affordable price.

This particular version of the venerable F-4 has been in and out of production a number of times since 1979. This kit represents the latest incarnation. A quick glance at the inside of the wing or the underside of the tailplane will confirm this kit’s ancient lineage, as well as something new about this particular molding’s place of birth.