The Academy Mig-21 kit is a nice kit. However, the parts breakdown of certain pieces is a pain. This is apparent especially on the kit gun pods. The kit part has a seam right down the middle which will be difficult to fill. The kit pod also has minimal detail and some shape issues. The Quickboost resin cannon pod has exquisite detail. The vents and fasteners are perfectly represented, but the best feature is the drilled-out gun barrels. I’m sure I could not drill them as well as Quickboost because these things are so small that I’m sure I would have just made a mess of it.

The single piece is molded perfectly in light grey resin. Removal is quite easy and adding it to the belly is easy enough as long as you don’t cut off the mounting stubs. The Quickboost pod has a more accurate shape, especially around the front portion.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review sample.

Seeing laser guided bombs in action seems to be a staple of the western news stations. What we don’t get to see is the employment of the Soviet equivalent. Well, of course the Soviets have the same technology.

These bombs are molded on a single light grey resin pour block with two large bombs and the laser guidance warhead. There is also a very small clear pour block with the laser detectors. Aerobonus also provides you with decals for the bombs. In this case, they were perfect and did not stick to the protective paper.

Removal of the bombs from the pour blocks shouldn’t prove too difficult as long as you take care on the bomb fins. Because the laser trackers are separate, you can articulate them if you’d like.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Aires and IPMS/USA for the review copy.

Over the past year or so, we have seen a new supply of USS Arizona kits in all scales from Trumpeter, Dragon, and Hobby Boss. A popular scale seems to be 1/700 scale, where we have also seen a kit of the USS Pennsylvania. While both ships had generally the same look up till Pearl Harbor, the Penn later underwent extensive changes. My great uncle had the privilege of serving his country with the United States Navy, and was assigned to the USS Pennsylvania. On December 7th, he was at Pearl Harbor while the Penn was in drydock. He survived Pearl and continued on the Penn through the entire war, and was still with her up until she was scuttled after being used as a target ship for nuclear tests. (My uncle was actually part of the skeleton/scuttling crew and was the 4th to last person to set foot on the mighty ship.) With my family’s ties to the Pennsylvania class, I naturally purchased all of the recent model releases.

I love the looks of the F-16 and, in particular, the Israeli versions with its unique paint schemes. This new set by Aires is for the Kinetic’s F-16C Barak Block 40.

The majority of the cockpit set is the five molded resin pieces, with four of them in light grey and one in light caramel. The detail is exquisite, especially the one-piece cockpit tub with ejector seat rails and side controls. How were they ever able to mold and pull that? I have no idea, but it is some of the finest casting I’ve ever seen anywhere. This is the typical quality that I’ve come to expect from Aires. Well, even if your control stick is broken off, Aires provides you with another one, so don’t fret if it is loose in the packaging.

I’ve come to expect that Ultracast puts out some of the finest figures available anywhere. This latest release is just that. Sculpted by world renowned artist Mike Good, this piece is typically perfect. Molded in light cream-colored resin, the castings are blemish-free and perfectly cast. All the pour blocks are easily removed.

You get a body with a very thin film between the legs that is easily removed. The pose is very natural looking. You get a single arm for each side that is keyed to ensure alignment. The other thing is that they fall on a natural line so you can paint them separately if you’d like. The left hand is nicely molded with a cigarette between the fingers.