As usual, IPMS USA are eternally grateful to Eduard for kindly providing yet another magnificent example of their new items to review, and to the IPMS USA reviewer corps leaders for sending it to me.

Eduard are rightfully proud of their Mig 21 series; the 1/48 kits are the best in the market, and cover the majority of the available Migs in service. This particular boxing is of their new 1/144 dual kit featuring eight Czech-marked examples with nose art, display schemes, etc. Bare metal, brown and green over gray, winter camo, all are there. The whole kit exudes quality and value.

All through the build I was thinking “This is fun and I don’t want to screw it up!” Contest models coming out of this region contain some of the finest details out there in my opinion, and I constantly wonder at the surgical skills demonstrated during E-day and other events as reported in modeling magazines. This review gave me appreciation for their skills…

Tamiya masking tape (yellow) has been known to modelers for many years and it is still one of my favorite tools in the bench. This tape for curves is made of a different material; it has a plastic feeling to it so it is not the typical Tamiya tape trimmed to a few millimeters.

This tape is designed to mask curves. It easily “bends” for a curve, but it does not stretch as well as it bends. I like that property of the tape actually as it ensures its width is kept as constant as possible.

In this test I used a scrap wing –which I used for some paint tests- and placed both the 2 mm (Stock 87177) and 3 mm versions (Stock 87178) of the tape on the wing, as you can see in the pictures.

I’ve found that the best way to “bend” the tape is to actually anchor it –I use my thumb- where I want to have a bend and with the other hand twist the tape left or right, while burnishing the tape against the plastic.

There have been many incarnations of the Batmobile from the 1940’s until the latest entry, the Dawn of Justice Batmobile. All of them are cool but this latest is sleeker, armed to the teeth and looks the part. Moebius has replicated this with this kit so let’s jump in and get it built.

Looking through the instructions (gasp!), there are four major parts to the assembly- the chassis and wheels, the upper body, the cockpit and the spoilers/wings.

Robert R. “Boom” Powell grew up in Long Island, New York, the son of a World War II B-24 Liberator navigator who later became known as a comic book artist (Sheena, Mr. Mystic, Tales From the Crypt, etc.). He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania on an ROTC scholarship before going to Naval flight training. He flew Douglas A-4 Skyhawks in Vietnam and later as an instructor pilot in the Skyhawk. Robert transitioned to the RA-5C Vigilante and ended up as an adversary pilot based at NAS Oceana. He also spent time as an LSO for an RA-5C training squadron for three years. Robert retired as a Commander and transitioned to civilian life flying Boeing 747s for Pan American. He remains an active flier today and often flies WWI replicas at the Virginia Beach Military Aviation Museum. It was in the Navy that Robert began writing where he had a regular column in The Hook. His first book was Ben Drew: The Katzenjammer Ace (2001).

This Master Model set provides a quantum leap over the respective parts in the eighties era ESCI, Matchbox, Monogram, and even the nineties era Tamiya series of 1/48 kits. This set is specifically for 20mm cannon barrels without flash hiders. If you are looking for a set with flash hiders, Master, again, is to your rescue as they have released their set 48-128 that features the four 20mm cannon barrels with flash hiders. As it is, this set gives you two muzzle versions of the 20mm cannon barrels sported by the Douglas Skyraider.