SAM Publications is an independent publisher based in Bedford UK. Established over 25 years ago, they have gone onto become a household name in the hobby sector. SAM Publications prides itself on producing quality publications, well researched and affordable to customers. SAM Publications is noted for their magazines, Scale Aviation Modeller International and Scale Military Modeler International magazines, as well as their series of monographs with Modellers Datafiles and Modellers Datafile – Scaled Down.. SAM has not stood still over the past 25 years and has adopted to the ever-changing publishing industry. Technology has played a big part in this and has only enhanced the quality of their publications by allowing them to reach out to authors and researchers all over the world. You can see that most evident in this issue of SAMI, with a contribution from American Floyd Werner (although he will always be a Texan) and his review of the Eduard 1/48 Phantom II.

Packaged in a thin, heat sealed pouch with three parts, two gun barrels, and one pitot tube. Compared to the Academy parts, the Master parts are very fine and detail is the finest I have ever seen and directions are very clear and easy to follow. The gun barrels are very precise and retain concentricity where the kit parts seem thick and may appear warped. As for the pitot tube, I wish I had a 1/32 scale T-38 to compare to but the crisp and consistent shape that is spot on to reference photos. The pitot tube is plenty long for any kit with adjustments to each kit a simple procedure.

Master details is known for exquisite detail on all of their update sets and this review sample is no exception. I am hopeful there will be an injected molded 1/32 scale T-38 released so I can use the pitot tube. I would like to thank Master Models for this review sample.

During the IPMS USA Nationals this year, John Vojtech was kind enough to provide several of his tools from Unique Master Models (UMM) to the IPMS Review Corps, and this was one of the items I was fortunate enough to receive. Consisting of an ergonomic plastic handle, eight drill bits, and a bit removal tool, everything you need for drilling small holes is provided in one convenient set.

Measuring 120mm in length, the handle is quite comfortable to hold and the drill bits easily slide into an opening in the end. The drill bits are designed with a grooved base that securely locks into the handle. The bits are 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, and 1.0mm in size, which are sizes commonly called out in kit instructions, and UMM recommends this set for fine detail work. The wedge-shaped removal tool aids in quickly changing out the bits.

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) manufactures white metal landing gear that is a direct replacement for the kits plastic landing gear. The metal landing gear offer greater strength over the kit parts as well as having most of the mold lines removed. At times the metal will be bent out of shape but that is easily corrected by bending it back to the correct shape.

This set includes twelve parts, the two centerline main gear struts (front and rear), retract and bracing arms, landing light, and outrigger gear. All the main gear, various linkages, and outriggers are exact copies of the kit parts with most of the mold lined cleaned up.

I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t used a lot of Brengun products over the years. This has nothing to do with their quality – more like modeling inertia. Often by the time I see a need for additional detail on an aircraft kit, I’ve reached the point of impatience where I simply want to get the thing done. This has not always worked in my favor.

An area where 1/32^nd scale kits, especially older ones, often let the modeler down is in the area of the gun sight – one of the most visible aspects of any cockpit from the era. Due to the limitations of injection molding, these are often represented by little more than lumps of plastic with only the faintest resemblance to the real article. Brengun has done something to fix this problem.