For those who want to try something different, Hauler has created a series of accessories that can be used to complement models of different eras and interests. This set is an old fashioned phone booth that was probably modeled after a 1930s English phone booth as the phone included is the old style phone with a hand held cone shaped earpiece with the cone shaped receiver on the front of the phone itself. The kit is composed of 3 resin pieces (floor, roof and phone) and a photo-etch fret with the four sides of the box, the door, a four-sided roof sign, a two part roof decoration, 2 dials, 2 handles and 4 hinges.

Eduard continues to expand its Brassin weapons range with this set of Mk. 84 2,000 lb. bomb set. The set includes two bomb bodies with standard low drag fins for normal drops, and three options for the nose – a fuse extender, a standard fuse or a nose cap, and a small photo-etch brass ring for the tail.

As with most US bombs, painting is easy – olive drab overall with a little silver or steel for the fuse. An option not noted in the instructions would be to paint the bomb blue to represent a cement filled training bomb. I left the fuses off until painting was complete so as not to knock them off. I sealed the paint with a nice coat of Future to prepare the bombs for decaling.

Background

In the mid-fifties, Northrop Corporation started the development of a lower cost, light weight, high performance fighter airplane. The impetus for the program was potential sales to allies under the Military Assistance Program. Initial US interest was in the trainer version of the program. This resulted in the T-38 Talon supersonic trainer. This was a great looking, high performance airplane. I loved watching them fly out of Luke AFB. The initial fighter version, the F-5A followed in the early sixties and had significant commonality with the T-38. This aircraft was sold to various allies and in fact, was built in some of the countries – Canada, Spain and the Netherlands. In the early seventies, the upgraded F-5E was developed.

At this year's National Convention in Columbus, master modeler John Vojtech provided us with a number of new product samples from his company UMM-USA. UMM, Unique Master Models, lives up to its name by offering an extensive variety of tools, aftermarket detailing supplies, decal sets and the like. (Be sure to peruse John's National Award winning models when you enter the site) .

The Multi-Shape Punch Set is a unique approach to manufacturing small detail shapes with multiple modeling applications. The set comes with a beautifully machined, truncated cone aluminum base that incorporates a soft rubber pad used as the striking surface. Several brass punches (one each of square, round and hexagonal cross section) and a sample sheet of soft, 3mm thick aluminum. At the time this review is being written, John is offering the Punch Set for $20.95, a substantial discount from the $29.99 list price – but I don't know how long this pricing will last).

This is Eduard’s third release of their 1/144 MiG-15. The first was the Czechoslovak MiGs, the second was the MiG-15 bis, which used a different engine, but is generally the same.

The MiG-15 has been used by 44 different countries, including the US Air Force (!) and such world powers as Albania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Sri Lanka, and Yemen.

The aircraft on the decal sheet this time are from North Korea, China, USSR, Poland, and two Czechs.

I decided to do the Soviet MiG after checking out the histories of the aircraft. The pilot of this aircraft was Major Alexi Mikoyan. His uncle was Anastas Mikoyan, who was Khrushchev’s number 2 man for many years. His father was Artem Mikoyan, one of the founders of Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG) design bureau. I think the pilot was pretty well connected.