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.

The L-29 Delfin was a jet-powered trainer airplane that was designed by the Aero Company of Czechoslovakia. An excellent kit of the Delfin has recently been released in 1/72 scale by AMK. Although this kit, in my opinion, is very good, our friends at Aires/Quickboost have found some areas where the accuracy of various parts can be improved.

This set from Quickboost provides replacement Antennas. The AMK kit provides a small “T” shaped antenna for under the left wing and a reasonable swept antenna for the top of the fuselage. The picture of my completed review model shows the kit upper fuselage antenna after painting.

The MiG-21 (NATO code name “Fishbed”) has the distinction of being the most-produced supersonic jet aircraft in history. It has served in the Air Forces of more than 60 countries around the world and continues to fly for a number of countries even today. Early versions of the MiG-21 were equipped with the SK-1 ejection seat while later versions were equipped with the KM-1 ejection seat.

One of Eduard’s newest lines of photo-etch is a series of seat belts and harnesses for a number of aircraft made out of photo-etched steel instead of brass. This set provides complete harnesses and ejection handles for two ejection seats. Based on the instructions for this set, it appears it is designed for the later KM-1 seat, so it would be appropriate for later versions of the MiG-21.