Reviews of products for scale aircraft models.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$5.50

This is the second detailing set from Quickboost for the new Trumpeter Su-24 Fencer kits and focuses on the external antennas. The set includes replacements for 3 of the antennas in the kit and provides 5 others that are not in the kit. As the set is market simply for the Trumpeter Su-24, you may need to alter the antenna locations a little bit depending on whether you are building the Su-24MR or the Su-24M.

The antennas are sharply cast in Quickboost’s standard resin and the castings not only include the individual antennas, but also the mounting plate by which the antenna is attached to the aircraft. The antennas are easily separated from the cast block, either with a razor saw or even with sprue nippers. I removed the antennas one at a time, sanded down the mounting plate and then attached the antenna with superglue before moving on to the next antenna.

Review Author
Rob Benson
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$74.95

Thank you to the great folks at Eduard for reissuing and upgrading a kit of a unique Sikorsky flying boat for the scale modeling world. Thank you also to the IPMS Reviewer Corps staff members who do the hard work in getting us kits to review, the reviews posted, and the news spread to the world.

The Sikorsky JRS-1, or S-43, is similar in appearance to the famous Pan Am Clipper, the S-42. I did not know that several of these planes survived the Pearl Harbor attack, and went in search of the Japanese fleet immediately afterward.

Review Author
Scott Hollingshead
Published on
Company
PJ Production
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$12.32

Are you looking to add a little life to your 1/32 scale F-16 Fighting Falcon? If so, you may want to consider the latest release in this scale from the folks at PJ Production. This is the third PJ Production figure that I have had the pleasure of reviewing, and like the other two, assembly was easy, with minimal part clean-up being required. The detail is reasonable for this scale, and the figure can be used with the Tamiya, Hasegawa, or Academy kit. The only modeling skill required involves painting a figure; otherwise, I would recommend this as an item manageable by modelers of nearly any skill level.

Book Author(s)
Bert Kinzey and Rock Roszak
Review Author
Rob Benson
Published on
Company
Detail & Scale, Inc.
MSRP
$9.99

Thank you to Bert Kinzey and Rock Roszak for continuing to bring back a tremendous resource for the modeler, exclusively in a digital format. Thank you to the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to test out this new and exciting method of researching history, details, versions and markings of the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger. The official title is F-102 Delta Dagger in Detail & Scale, Digital Volume 6.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$7.00

Last year Trumpeter released a pair of very nice Su-24 kits, replacing the old Dragon kits. This set is one of two released by Aires/Quickboost to upgrade some of the Trumpeter parts. The set consists of five parts: the inflight refueling probe, the refueling probe door that covers part of the probe when it is retracted, the bay into which the probe retracts and the two fuel dump pipes under the engines.

Book Author(s)
William A. Flanagan, Lt. Col., USAF (Ret)
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
Company
Specialty Press
MSRP
$39.95

Lt. Col. William A. Flanagan, aka Bill “Flaps” Flanagan, was an SR-71 RSO for five years, flying out of Palmdale. Bill was inspired to join the US Air Force due to a Northrop YB-49 trading card. Later on in his career, he became the 14th pilot to fly the Northrop B-2. He flew combat McDonnell F-4 Phantom IIs in Vietnam followed by an assignment in Europe under NATO. Next up for Bill was his experience as a test pilot for Lockheed where he was part of a task force for upgrades to the SR-71 Blackbird. Now he is a docent at Blackbird Airpark, in Palmdale, California, currently home to not only a SR-71A, a D-21B, a unique Lockheed U-2D, but a Lockheed A-12 Blackbird. Bill has been done a multitude of videos, including:

Review Author
Jim Pearsall
Published on
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/144
MSRP
$2.60

Master Model of Poland produces small brass parts for detailing models, be they aircraft or ships. They have parts for aircraft in 1/32, 1/35, 1/48, 1/72, and 1/144, mostly pitot tubes, refueling probes and gun barrels.

This product is a single pitot tube for a Revell 1/144 F-106. The instructions are quite simple. 1) Cut off the kit pitot. 2) Drill a hole for the brass part. 3) Install the brass part, using CA glue. 4) Paint the part.

This Master Model pitot was welcome because I had broken the pitot on my F-106, and replaced it with a piece cut from a straight pin. The replacement was too short and way too thick. The Master part fixes both of these shortcomings.

I was able to bypass part of the instructions because I pulled the pin replacement out with a pair of fine nosed pliers. This left a hole in the nose which was slightly larger than I needed to put the Master Model part in. I used gel-type CA, which also acted as a filler for the oversized hole.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Academy Models
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$27.00

The Me 262 continues to be a popular aircraft, both with modelers and with model manufacturers. I admit to being a fan of the aircraft and its sleek lines, so I was excited to see that last fall Academy released a special edition of its Me 262 kit with markings for 7 different aircraft. The kit is marketed as the Me 262A-1/2 and unlike some other kits, it actually does contain the parts necessary to build either of these variants of the jet.

Review Author
James Corley
Published on
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$22.95

Having awaited the Tamiya Tomcat since they were at the museum - measuring the real things (and having to keep quiet about it until they announced it) I was very satisified with the excellent kit they produced. FANTASTIC!! I was even luckier when I found that the Eduard instrument set was available for review.

This set is designed for the Tamiya Tomcat and it fits the kit parts wonderfully. The instructions call for minimal scraping of the raised details Tamiya provides. The only part I had to actually remove was the RIO radar sunshield, but I used a brand new #11 blade and was able to use it instead of the etch piece Eduard provided.

The only part that didn't look quite right, when compared to photos, was #8. The triple fold worked fine, but the part seemed to be larger than the kit part (H34) it went on, and the edges overhang some.

Review Author
Mark Costello
Published on
Company
Hasegawa
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$54.99

This kit is a special edition, re-release of the SR-71A Blackbird. This kit has markings for aircraft 17964, "Bododian Express", a SR-71A from the USAF 9th SRW Det.4 at Mildenhall Air Base England in 1981. This particular aircraft had to make a landing at the emergency recovery base for European flights, Bodo, Norway in 1981. I found the full story of the emergency at the following website - http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/bodo.html