It comes as no surprise that I love the Eduard Fw-190A series of kits. Having had the pleasure of building quite a few of them, I have often remarked at the quality of the decals. These decals are printed by Eduard and typical of Eduard’s quality; these decals are actually as good as any other aftermarket decal in the world. They rival the quality of Cartograf.

The stencil decal themselves are all contained on a 4” x 3 ¾” decal sheet. The decals are crisp, perfectly printed, and in perfect register. They are suitably thin with minimal carrier film. One of the nice things is that the decals have wing walk areas in grey and black. There are options throughout the sheet, like the two different versions of black and two white versions of Nicht anfassen on the sheet. The landing gear servicing stencil is also provided in two styles.

It seems amazing to me that Trumpeter is the fourth model company to market a 1/48 scale plastic kit of the Supermarine Attacker F.1 (the others being Classic Airframes, Falcon, and Magna Models). Amazing because this aircraft’s single most significant reason for mention in the history of aviation is the fact that it was the Fleet Air Arm‘s first jet fighter. It was not particularly successful in that role…it was just the first.

History

Introduced in November of 1987, the NSR 250R was the second generation of the NSR line. In what many would call the best year for the NSR line, that model year introduced many innovations that made it a race winning performer. The most significant advance was the PGM module that controlled the carburetor performance, based on input from the throttle and speedometer to adjust the carbs in real time. This was the first computer control of its kind on a Honda motorcycle. This was in conjunction with the Honda RC, or” revolution control” system, an adjustable exhaust valve that constricted outflow at low RPM and opened at high RPM to produce optimum power at any throttle setting. Added to coated pistons to reduce friction wear were larger tires to keep the bike on the road and a powerful 249cc engine producing 49 hp. I’ve never ridden a motorcycle over 125cc and I thought that was impressive!

This review is of the MiniArt Diorama with Park Wall, part of their diorama series of bases for armor models. It was a pretty easy build, and it looks nice when finished, but it did take some work and some modifications to make it look good.

First of you get a sheet of very soft plastic to use as the base. This has some very nicely done details with the pathway and some small rocks in the road. The base is marked off for where you will put the wall.

The Aircraft

The TR-1A is/was a development of the famous U-2. The U-2 is a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft with multiple sensor arrays, allowing photo, radar, electronic, and signals intelligence. The original U-2A was developed for the CIA by Lockheed, using a fuselage from the F-104 and extra-long, glider-like wings. This allowed the U-2 to fly at altitudes well above those which could be reached by any other jet aircraft. The U-2’s ability to fly over any area with impunity ended with the development of the Soviet SA-2 Guideline SAM, which shot down Francis Gary Powers over the Soviet Union in 1960 and Major Rudolf Anderson Jr. over Cuba in 1962.

The TR-1A was put into production in the 1980s as a tactical reconnaissance aircraft. It is identifiable by the two large sensor “superpods”, one on each wing. It is identical with the U-2R, and all TR-1s have been redesignated as U-2Rs. The U-2R is larger than the original U-2.