In southeastern Poland runs the beautiful, but powerful San River. The San winds its way through the steep mountain gorges on its way to the Vistula River. Before it gets there, the river widens and is used by a number of hamlets along its banks to power various watermills and all manner of machinery. Some of that machinery is diminutive lathes and the other assorted machines common to a tool and die maker. It is within this environment that we find ourselves in the company of a number of gnomes working diligently on various tasks. It is this skilled work force that Master Model of Poland utilizes to manufacture their ever-expanding line of small scale, after-market brass replacement parts.

Master Model of Poland is becoming as prolific as Eduard when it comes to supplying modelers with after-market brass bits to enhance their latest projects. One of the latest offerings from Master Model is a brass replacement pitot tube for any 1/144thscale MiG-21. While this part will do nicely with any kit, you'd be hard pressed to find a finer example of a small scale (1/144) MiG-21 than those produced by Eduard.

This brass pitot tube is a straightforward replacement for the kit-supplied part. All you need do is snip off the forward section of the kit part, drill a hole in the mounting bracket to accept the new part, and attach the pitot tube (All of this, courtesy some well-drawn instructions). Exercise some caution because I managed to bend the thing just getting it out if the packaging. But don't fret too much as the brass pitot tube will need to be bent slightly (see instructions) to conform to the curve of the fuselage.

Thanks first off to Hornby/Airfix for sending IPMS/USA this kit, and keeping the brand alive! If you have not built one of the new Airfix kits, you need to get over to the store and buy one, or several. HELP KEEP THEM IN BUSINESS, as Airfix has many economical and fantastic kits. Kudos to John and Phil to providing it to me to review.

Airfix’s re-release of their venerable 1/48 English Electric Lightning kit is a welcome return of an old friend, not one of their newest molds. When originally released in 1997, the kit was considered ground-breaking with "state-of-the-art" molding technology. The parts fit was lauded as best available, with detail impeccable for the time. This kit and the Spitfire Mk 22/24 and Seafire FR46 were the "new Airfix" in the late 1990’s for a short time, but this kit was one of the best at the time.

Eduard has released a great Brassin Cockpit set for its new tooled Tempest Mk.V which in its self is a great kit. This Brassin set is full of Resin parts, a Photoetch sheet, and Decals.

In the box is:

• Approx. 55 resin parts
• 1 film sheet
• 1 small decal sheet
• 1 photoetch detail set
• 1 instruction booklet

Construction

First is the assembly of the side frames of the cockpit and the detail controls. I did find the removal of the side frames from the pour stub to be a bit hard and the frames are very thin and fragile. Apart from that, no issues were encountered during the stages on page 2 of the instructions.

IPMS/USA again thanks Piotr for supporting the IPMS USA reviewer corps with one more of many monthly releases, with an extremely useful and well-thought out 1/144 Pitot tube probe for any of the 1/144 kits of the Mirage III.

1 part (ONE) is included, along with a detailed instruction sheet on what size hole to drill and where to insert the probe. I find these probes more useful than pins to address the issues of scale size, appearance, and flexibility without incurring personal injury. Steel pins are more durable, but tend to not “flex” or give, and the effect of driving a staple into one’s eye or hand or whatever is not so traumatic if the brass probe deflects off to one side. Even Nurses wince with needles….

The base kit I used was a relatively new release from Mark 1 Models in the Czech Republic…they have an excellent range of kits, and the Mirage was no exception. Assembly was swift and it was ready for painting and pitot installation...