I like the Mirage family of jets, they just look fast. An interesting feature is the bulbous nose probe out in front of the radome. In plastic this is a hard part to clean up – I have suffered these trials with the Heller Mirage 2000 and the Italeri Mirage F.1. The Mirage 2000 was the Eduard re-release that I built for IPMS review. Well, the nose probe was a casualty of the road on my way to its first contest entry! I made the repair, but it looked a bit short and then it was subsequently lost. The Model Master probe is far more petite and prototypical, so I was eager to try this brass replacement and restore my Mirage to its visual glory!

If you have not dealt with “Zactoman”, and you are in to 1/32 Soviet aircraft, visit his website. Your wallet will automatically open… In this case, Chris graciously provided review items.

When I built the Trumpeter SU-25 back about three months ago, I noted the outboard pylons were not included in the kit. Serious sadness, as I had never seen an SU-25 without these pylons. The holes for the pylon mounts were in the wing, but the pylons were not on the runners anywhere…. Who could figure out why? Cost cutting over 1/100 of a dime…

In steps Chris at Zactomodels. He’s about as crazy about cold war Soviet aircraft as I am… and he has provided a 1 or so-hour solution to the missing pylon. The PD-62-8 Pylon and APU-60-1 launch rail he provides, along with the detail parts to make it more realistic, are for lack of words, perfect resin castings. Suddenly my SU was about to be complete…

Wash the parts with 409 or similar degreaser, let dry, and get busy.

Description

Another excellent issue from the folks at Happy Medium Press with high quality production materials and a variety of articles to suit to suit many themes and interests of the Sci-Fi and Fantasy modeler. Between the heavyweight glossy covers are 98 color glossy pages containing 13 articles. There are fewer than 6 advertisements so the content is very high.

The articles are well researched and relevant to the topics they cover.

What I like about the articles is the balance of Sci-fi and fantasy along with a lot of subject matter variety within each genre. Also, there are OOB builds, kit-bashing, scratch building (both partial and complete), painting, in-depth background articles and enlightening interviews.

Editor's note: Dragon Models USA is the Fine Molds Models Importer in the USofA but this review author provided his own kit, out of pocket, for this review. The kit is currently very difficult to find on the retail market.

Pros:

• Superbly engineered kit, very little filling or correcting will be needed.
• Best kit of this subject ever released.

Cons:

• Expensive, now increasingly hard to acquire. (I apologise for teasing you with the review)
• Instructions in Japanese (note: may not actually be a con if you *are* Japanese)

Overall

A pricy kit but you get what you pay for in this case. Given the cost and the fact that viable alternatives are around, this not for a casual SW fan or model builder. Instead, this kit is for somebody who wants to do a really nice job on a Y-Wing fighter with a maximum of detail and a minimum of grief.

After producing several 1/400^th U-boats, Mirage is now offering U-boats in the increasingly popular 1/350^th scale. The U-511 was a Kriegsmarine long-range IX-C type submarine. The Turm-I variant included trial installation of a six tube Wurfkörper 42 artillery rocket launcher rack and improved 37mm and 20mm anti-aircraft armament. The kit features a 2-piece full hull, detailed exterior surfaces, conning tower with 2 periscopes and wintergarten, 10.5cm deck gun, display base, photo-etch parts (railings for all deck levels, anchor, cable cutter, WGr42 launcher base, ladders, screw blades and nameplate), and decals (U-511 bow placards and ensign). The completed model is approximately 8.6" long.