Master
Details is a new aftermarket company headed up by Stephen
Venters, a
sculptor and illustrator who is an active
member of the United States Air Force Art Group.
Having been involved with aviation art for many years, he has decided to enter
the aftermarket industry, and his first release is a resin 1/32 USAF/ANG jet
pilot from the late 1970s to the 1990s. His hard work and detailed
sculpting has paid off, yielding an excellent resin figure to kick off the
product line.
Click on
images below to see larger images
WHAT YOU GET:
The pilot figure in
thirteen parts, which includes two sets of arms, and four separate heads.
The parts are all cleanly cast in pale tan resin, and my sample showed no signs
of air bubbles or casting flaws; the only thing you'll have to do is clean up a
little flash here and there. It's interesting to note that, with the
exception of the bottom of the boots, there are no resin gates to separate (and
truth be told, if you're installing the pilot into a cockpit, you'll never see
the extra resin on the bottom of the boots). There are two very small
pieces of resin to clip off of one pair of the arms, but this shouldn't take
much more than a minute or two. In addition, you get a sheet of decals for
the pilot's name tags and squadron badges. You also get an exploded view
of the figure to assist in construction, a front/back reference photo, and a
detailed painting guide.
The figure comes
with a number of different options, and in addition to the optional arms, you
also get a total of four heads wearing helmets. The options are:
mask on, visor up, mask on, visor down, mask off, visor up, and mask off, visor
down. In addition, you also get an oxygen mask and hose. According
to the instructions, the hose can be softened with heat applied with a hair
dryer. This way, you can adjust the shape of the the oxygen hose to suit
your needs. There is a little bit of flash on the heads, but this is
easily cleaned up with a #11 blade.
The figure is well proportioned,
and will look very nice in your A-7D, A-10 (pre-Desert Storm), F-4, F-16, and
any number of other 1/32 USAF jets from the time frame. This is a welcome
addition to any large scale jet modeler's stash, and I look forward to future
releases from Master Details. I hope that they'll continue this excellent
line of figures to include ground crew, and current pilots with Combat Edge
helmets as well. Please visit Stephen's site, Venters
Aerospace for further information on his product line, as well as his line
of aviation art.
Steve
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