Eduard extends it Brassin range of excellent resin parts with a replacement exhaust for their Mig21MF and SMT kits. This resin and photoetch set is comprised of seven perfectly cast resin parts and one photoetch piece.

There are some minor casting blocks to remove which may take up to 3 minutes to get done. Detail is excellent on all the parts. There are two resin parts which are installed inside the actual exhaust. These fit together and one has a series of 10 arms that stick out from the center hub. This was very difficult to get loose without breaking the resin. In the end I did break three and have to replace with styrene scrap. This part then aligns on top of the other which takes a little patience.

This book answered a question that has nagged me for many years, since Frog first came out with their Spitfire 14 kit back in 1968. Why would Supermarine want to go away from the fabulous Merlin engine and try something new? Well, this book answered that question early on. The answer is 1700 hp for the Griffon vs 1030 hp for the Merlin.

The contents are:
History

1. Enter the Griffon
2. Super Spitfire
3. The Spitfire in Belgium
4. High Flying Spy
5. Last of the Spitfires
6. The First Griffon Seafires
7. The F Mk 21 at Sea
8. Spiteful and Seafang, the Last of the Line Modeling
   • Colour Side Views
   • Colour Interior Artwork
9. The Basics
10. Understanding the Subject
11. Detailing
12. Building the Spitfire and Seafire
13. Camouflage and Markings

Appendices

I don't know how many models I have snapped pitot tubes off of – dozens? They seem to always be in the way. Put them on early to make sure they fit and risk breaking them completely, or put them on late and they don't seem to blend in well.

One trend lately is for manufacturers and the aftermarket companies to make these fragile parts out of metal – either turned brass or aluminum. For this set, the pitot tube is aluminum and the AOA probe is brass. Both are exquisite in their detail when compared to the kit parts.

Once installed, they will resist breaking for a long period of time.

For those of us with growing collections or having moved several times, parts like this are a godsend as they prevent breaking.

The parts are accurate, well made, very reasonably priced, and a snap to use. Recommended with no reservations!

My thanks to IPMS/USA and the fine people at Master-Models.

Quickboost.net just keeps adding to their great line of quality resin aircraft accessories. The latest addition is for the Hasegawa F4F Wildcat. It is up to their usual standards; molded in grayish cream colored resin, smooth, seamless and bubble free. One thing of note is that they are really easy to remove from the mold block with just a few passes from a hobby saw.

The stabilizers that come in the Hasegawa kit are okay and are molded as one piece but the Quickboost.net parts are molded as two pieces so that they can be modeled in the down position. The Quickboost stabilizers are superior and add just that much more realism to the finished kit. The resin parts are very easy to install and fit in place perfectly.

Aires continues to add to its line of resin detail sets for 1/32 aircraft kits. One of the latest is a resin and P/E detail set for detailing the cockpit of Trumpeter’s new Bf109F kits. Aires’ product name, Bf109GF-2/F-4 indicates that some of the parts also can be used to detail the cockpit of a Trumpeter Bf109G. The detail in the resin components is crisp, delicate and busy enough to make the cockpit quite convincing. No clean up is required and, as usual, with Aires resin there are no pinholes to worry about. The resin is not brittle, but reasonable care should be exercised when removing the small parts from the casting block. A #11 blade or razor saw can be used to remove most parts, and a swipe with a sanding stick will work to smooth the cut edges.