The story of the Lockheed A-12 began with a bright orange fireball 70,000 feet over Sverdlovsk in the Soviet Union. This explosion, 1500 miles deep into Russian territory, would start a diplomatic crisis with repercussions that directly impacted the A-12 and SR-71 operations for the rest of their service lives. That explosion severed the tail from a Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft and sent the pilot, Francis Gary Powers, plummeting into the hands of the Soviet authorities. After the U.S. broadcasted a cover story assuming Powers had died, the Soviets revealed they had parts of the plane and Powers in their custody. This caused then U.S. President Eisenhower to do two things, stop all over flights and find a way to make the U-2 invisible to radar. While some efforts where made to reduce the U-2 radar signature, it was just not possible to cloak a jet-powered glider with long straight wings. Enter Lockheed’s Kelly Johnson.

Thank you very much to Nichole at Quayside Publishing Group, the parent corporation of Zenith Press for providing this book for review. Thanks are also due to the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me the opportunity to explore a wonderful documentation and fascinating historical description. Author Bill Yenne has struck an excellent balance of historical facts and data woven together in a great story. I found the entire book to be engaging at all times. The book is not just a valuable reference; it is a great read as well. I remember building the Testors F-19 stealth fighter a long time ago when it first came out. I was disappointed when the F-117 Nighthawk became public a few years later, but after reading this book and seeing prototype photos I believe that Testors was not as far off as many may think, nor were Tom Clancy and Larry Bond in their description of the Frisbee in Red Storm Rising.

While growing up, I always had a soft spot for street cars, so I jumped at the chance of building and reviewing one as soon as I had the opportunity. MiniArt provides you with a “full meal” model of a European Tram: over 600 parts (on 25 sprues), including a very nicely detailed vacuform base with tracks, and two power poles. Before you open the box, just know that it is fully packed with parts. As soon as I opened the box, it was impossible for me to get all the sprues back in. I ended up using an empty model box for storage of some extra sprues.

This detail set from Scale Aircraft Conversions is for the Hasegawa 1/72^nd scale A-3 Skywarrior. The kit has been around for some time and although not a newer rerelease it is still available. This set is a direct replacement for the kits landing gear and has a few modifications that help improve the Hasegawa kit. This conversion set has 7 parts, which includes the main landing gear legs, the nose gear and the oleo scissors and retraction struts for the main gear. The nose gear comes complete with the wheel molded in place. This appears to be a direct copy of the kit gear. As a result you will be required to open up and clean the space between the nose gear fork and the tire.

This set of finely turned stainless steel and brass gun barrels for is designed for the new Academy USS Indianapolis kit. It does not include a styrene turret face, as is included in the set designed for the Trumpeter kit, but could undoubtedly be used to augment the Trumpeter San Francisco class cruisers as well.

Each of the 8” barrels are slightly tapered with very finely defined segmentations. The short stubs at the end of the barrel allows for easy insertion into the kit’s turret face. Although the barrel openings are not as pronounced as compared to other Master barrel sets (or the kit’s barrels), these barrels are noticeably longer, more even and, no doubt, more accurate than the kit parts. A couple of my kit’s barrel ends were noticeably uneven. That’s not an issue with the Master barrels.