The TS-11 Iskra (“Spark”) is a single engine two-seat primary jet trainer designed and constructed in Poland for the Polish Air Force. It was also used by the Indian Air Force. As the aircraft was not used by many countries, it was mostly overlooked by model manufacturers until recently. I am aware of two kits in 1/72 scale, the recent Arma Models kit and an older kit by Master Craft models. I picked up the Master Craft kit last spring at a model show as I like odd looking aircraft, so of course shortly thereafter Arma released its new kit of the Iskra. As I have not yet acquired the Arma kit, the comparison photos are to the Master Craft kit.

The set consists of seven brass replacement parts, two pitot tube tips, two tiny wheels down indicators (plus two spares) and a barrel for the aircraft’s 23 mm gun. As is expected, the parts are delightfully detailed, but delicate. In fact the wheels down indicators are so tiny, I could not get close enough to get a good photo of them without it being blurry. The Master Model webpage for the set has an excellent photo of all of the parts and show these indicators very well. They look like what would be large nails/spikes in 1/72 scale. The instructions are very helpful in showing the location of these indicators and advise you to drill a .3 mm hole for the installation.

The pitot tube parts appear to be replacements for the tips of the wingtip mounted pitots (molded as part of the single piece wings on the Master Craft kit), so careful measurement will be needed when trimming back the existing kit parts to ensure that the finished pitot tubes are the correct length. These are also installed by drilling a .3mm hole in the tip of the trimmed up kit parts.

The final item is the replacement barrel for the aircraft’s 23 mm gun. The gun is located on the aircraft centerline under the nose of the aircraft. Master Model’s replacement part even has a hollowed out tip, emphazing that it is a gun barrel. It replaces what appears to be a simple rounded styrene part, but is welcome inclusion for me as the kit part disappeared before I purchased my Master Craft kit.

I have drilled the holes for the wheels down indicators and the gun barrel, but I will wait to install these until post decaling assembly to avoid knocking them off during painting and decaling. The pitots will be modified before the wings are added to the fuselage to allow me to blend in the new tips.

This set will add some neat details to your Iskra and I highly recommend it, regardless of which Iskra kit you have. Thank you to Master Model for the review sample and to IPMS USA for letting me review it.