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.

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.

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.

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!!

Part 3 of the 1/32 Nick build is the wings, painting, and final assembly

Construction of the wings began at the very beginning when the full span spar was added but now we’ll flesh them out. The first steps are adding the landing gear well walls and then the fuel tanks and aileron linkage rods. Then attach the lower wing panels. Make sure you drill out the holes in the bottom of each wing before doing so.