My, but I do love a good Stuka. I’ve been playing with 1/32^nd scale Stukas ever since Revell first released their kit back in the 1970’s. I’ve built theirs dozens of times, then the 21^st Century version, and now finally Trumpeter’s kits, which have filled in important gaps in the history of this fascinating aircraft.

One slight problem with the Trumpeter kit, however is the exhausts, which are molded as a solid piece. The exhaust outlets are tiny indeed, and having frustrated myself with trying to ream these out with miniature drill bits, I must admit I was quite pleased to receive the Quickboost replacement parts.

As simple, drop-in resin replacements, these really can’t be beat. They feature the relatively miniscule exhausts and are beautifully molded with excellent resolution and no molding flaws which I could detect. No modifications to the kit parts need to be made – just slap them in place when you’re ready for them.

The TS-11 Iskra (“Spark”) is a single engine two-seat primary jet trainer designed and constructed in Poland for the Polish Air Force. It was also used by the Indian Air Force. As the aircraft was not used by many countries, it was mostly overlooked by model manufacturers until recently. I am aware of two kits in 1/72 scale, the recent Arma Models kit and an older kit by Master Craft models. I picked up the Master Craft kit last spring at a model show as I like odd looking aircraft, so of course shortly thereafter Arma released its new kit of the Iskra. As I have not yet acquired the Arma kit, the comparison photos are to the Master Craft kit.

Tony Buttler was born in 1956 and joined High Duty Alloys in Redditch in 1974 as a metallurgist. For nearly 20 years he was closely involved in the testing of aluminum and titanium airframe and engine components for many of the world’s most important airplanes. It was during this timeframe that his interest in military aircraft grew into a passion. Since 1995, Tony has been a freelance aviation historian, with this book being his twenty-sixth major release. He has also written many titles for the Warpaint series of monographs as well as many articles for most of the popular historical aviation magazines.

The cover painting by Daniel Uhr depicts the Miles M.52 in flight ahead of its chase plane, a Gloster Meteor. This painting is reproduced again after the title page, pristine, without all the titles. I counted 112 black and white photographs, 18 color pictures, 20 tables, and 16 tables on 160 glossy pages.