Reviews of products for scale aircraft models.

Review Author
Jarrod Booth
Published on
Company
Airfix
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$29.99

From the Airfix product page: As the only all-British built Mach 2 plus capable fighter aircraft, the English Electric Lightning occupies a unique place in aviation history and remains one of the finest achievements of the British aviation industry. Possessing incredible performance, this Cold War warrior entered service in 1960 and became Britain’s primary interceptor for the following two decades.

The 1/72 Airfix Lightning F.6 is a reissued kit with new decals and parts. The compact red box that has become synonymous with the “new” Airfix is packed full. A single bag containing all grey plastic sprues, a clear sprue within its own bag, Instruction manual and decal sheet.

The grey plastic parts were all in good shape, but there was some flash on a few parts and a couple of items had separated from their sprue.

Book Author(s)
Dariusz Karnas
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$11.98

MMP was founded in 1996 by Roger Wallsgrove, to publish "Mushroom Model Magazine". This quarterly modelling magazine was developed from "Mushroom Monthly”, a club newsletter which ran from 1985 to 1995, achieving a world-wide reputation for quality articles, fearless and honest reviews, and a great sense of humor. From 1997 the magazine was produced in collaboration with Robert Peczkowski and Artur Juszczak (Stratus), which meant a big leap in print quality and design. MMP expanded into book publication in 1999, and since then they have built up a list of books on aircraft and aviation, naval, military vehicles, and military history. MMP Books are distributed in North America by Casemate Publications.

Book Author(s)
Franciszek Strzelczyk and Tomasz Bobkowski
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$11.98

MMP was founded in 1996 by Roger Wallsgrove, to publish "Mushroom Model Magazine". This quarterly modelling magazine was developed from "Mushroom Monthly”, a club newsletter which ran from 1985 to 1995, achieving a world-wide reputation for quality articles, fearless and honest reviews, and a great sense of humor. From 1997 the magazine was produced in collaboration with Robert Peczkowski and Artur Juszczak (Stratus), which meant a big leap in print quality and design. MMP expanded into book publication in 1999, and since then they have built up a list of books on aircraft and aviation, naval, military vehicles, and military history. MMP Books are distributed in North America by Casemate Publications.

Review Author
Gino Dykstra
Published on
Company
ICM
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$19.99

Recently I had the pleasure of tackling ICM’s new Gloster Gladiator aircraft kit in 1/32nd scale. As is, the kit comes with a couple of British Air Service options for early World War 2 campaigns, but if you want something a bit more exotic, ICM has answered the call with a new decal sheet offering markings for four different nations which also used the Mk. 1 – China, Greece, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$9.95

This Master Model set provides a huge leap over any of the injected molded parts available on any 1/32 kit. The older kits, being vacuform kits, didn’t even include a pitot tube. The modern injection kit that does offer a pitot tube is clearly not on par due to the limits of injection modeling.

Notable is the thin re-sealable pouches that Master Model uses that makes the parts easy to review and then stuff back into the re-sealable package securely. You will want to be careful handling this brass part due to its small size, it makes it an easy sacrifice to the carpet monster. Another caveat is that the point is really thin and can be accidently bent. I’ve had this happen on one pitot in 1/144 scale, but not to worry, it can be fixed. Placing the pitot tube in between a smooth flat set of tweezers will straighten out the tip. Just be extremely gentle so you don't break off the tip when you gently roll it so that it is straight once again.

Review Author
Brian R. Baker
Published on
Company
Brengun
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$30.28

The Kit and Assembly

The kit consists of 23 gray resin parts, 3 injection molded plastic rotor blades, and two sheets of photo etch metal, altogether containing approximately 50 parts, of varying size and complexity. None of the parts is named, but most are identifiable. One thing to remember is that this is not a kit designed for beginners, and wondered while I was assembling the kit whether it was really intended for experienced modelers. There are a LOT of parts to this kit, especially considering its size, and you will have to be very careful cutting the PE parts off of the sheet, as they will do their best to escape. Some are so small that if some reason they should become lost, they will be gone forever. Use of a magnifying glass is highly recommended, both for assembly and for looking for parts on the floor.

Book Author(s)
Jakub Fojtik
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$45.00

MMP was founded in 1996 by Roger Wallsgrove, to publish "Mushroom Model Magazine". This quarterly modelling magazine was developed from "Mushroom Monthly”, a club newsletter which ran from 1985 to 1995, achieving a world-wide reputation for quality articles, fearless and honest reviews, and a great sense of humor. From 1997 the magazine was produced in collaboration with Robert Peczkowski and Artur Juszczak (Stratus), which meant a big leap in print quality and design. MMP expanded into book publication in 1999, and since then they have built up a list of books on aircraft and aviation, naval, military vehicles, and military history. MMP Books are distributed in North America by Casemate Publications.

Book Author(s)
MMP Books, Casemate Publishers
Review Author
Brian R. Baker
Published on
Company
Mushroom Model Publications - MMP Books
MSRP
$11.99

The Book

This book provides a lot of information on the P-38L-5-LO. This variant was only marginally different in detail from other P-38’s in the “L” series, so it would probably be useful for anyone wanting detail information on any of the later P-38’s. The book consists entirely of scale drawings in 1/72 and 1/48 scale, a series of captioned color and black and white photos of entire airplanes and details, and a set of color drawings in back. It would serve as a very good reference for anyone wanting to build a model in either of those scales. The detail photos are from existing warbirds or from actual maintenance manuals, and there are even some interior views of the cockpit and engine compartments.

Recommendation

If you are doing a late model P-38 in either of those scales, this book is the one to get. Highly recommended.

Review Author
Doug Hamilton
Published on
Company
Iliad Design
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$12.00

Iliad Decals is a firm based in Canada that produces decals for many subjects in both 1/48 and 1/72 scales. Printing is nicely done with all colors in register and true. They’re traditional water slide configuration, are thin and look good.

The sheet carries markings for seven F-104s. All aircraft depicted are combat aircraft.. There are a variety of schemes worn by these warriors, so there is a nice selection of colors and nationalities present. There are three USAF birds, two of which that were flown in the Southeast Asia scheme that were based at Udorn Thailand in 1966-67 during the Viet Nam war and escorted F-105s into action. The third one is a sleek looking bird in white over ADC gray that has an interesting back story, with the pilot being held as a POW in China for about 8 years!!

Review Author
Will Kuhrt
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$13.95

Thank you to Phil and Bill for all that you do managing and providing review opportunities!

Recommended kit: 1/72 F-35B Lightning II STOVAL (1425) from Italeri

Reviewer’s Comments

This landing gear set from SAC is a direct replacement for the kit parts. The only exception being is that you will add some plastic kits parts to the nose landing gear. The white metal casting is superb as is usual for SAC. The kit consists of seven parts: a replacement cockpit tub and six landing gear parts.

Instructions are not provided, but they are not required as they are intended to be direct replacements for the kit parts. Only three pieces need to be removed from the pour runners, and these came off easily with a nipper.