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.

This is a thin book with only 44 pages, but they are very high quality, and full of profile pictures of many striking color schemes used on various air force Phantoms.

The detailed color profiles are a joy to look at and present very unusual F-4E Phantom II camouflage and markings for 15 different aircraft.

I found this book fascinating and will be building at least five of the featured aircraft. This will be a fantastic reference for me to use.

I recommend this book to everyone who likes and or builds Phantom’s

Thanks go to MMP Books for providing this book to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it.

For those of you who love aircraft and their details, Reid Air Publications is the gold standard for reference. This series of books is a glorious full color run through some of the greatest planes in the US armory. The latest book reviewed here covers the A-7 II Corsair, commonly called the SLUF (short little ugly fella or some derivative!). This is an in-depth photo journal of the plane from top to bottom and front to back. It covers variants including A-7 D-H, TA-7C, TA-7H, A-7K as well as all the needed under wing ordnance. Looking at the general chapter headings will give you a good start to the depth this book has:

Mikael Forslund was born on June 7, 1960 and currently lives in Falun, Sweden. He has worked as a press photographer since 1978 both as a freelancer and as a staff photographer and currently uses Nikon cameras. He has authored over twenty-one books with his latest book on Saab 29 ‘Flygande Tunnan’ that achieved its first flight on September 1, 1948.

This is the second set of steel seat belts and harnesses for the Martin-Baker MK. H-7 ejection seat as installed in the F-4 Phantom II. The set includes four complete sets of seatbelts and harnesses, allowing you to detail four seats, or two kits worth. The other set #73050 provides 4 sets of green belts and harnesses, while this set provides 4 sets of light grey belts and harnesses. As many of the older F-4 kits have a very generic ejection seat that does not even resemble the actual seat, these sets are intended for new kits. I used a seat from a Hasegawa F-4S kit as it has the correct configuration with the upper parachute container that is missing on many earlier kits. I assume that the new Academy kit seats are the correct shape as well, but I have not actually seen them yet. Before you decide which set to purchase, be sure to look at the aircraft that you will be installing the seats in, and check your references to determine which set is appropriate for your model.