I'll leave the history lesson to others as I've repeated it more times than I'd care to mention.

It is rare to find a new 1/144 military kit. In the past, they have not done well in the market. However, several years ago. DML made a big jump into kits of this scale and they seem to have taken off and done quite well. Because of their small size, they generally are what kids buy with pocket money as rarely are they more expensive than $5-8.00 (US). They are also pretty well detailed and relatively easy to build. 1/144 has the added benefit of fitting a lot of planes in a small space. Biggest downside to the scale is the lack of subjects (most tend to be modern military), and an almost total absence of aftermarket bits and decals.

OzMods recently issued a couple of 1/144 kits; a DHC-4 Caribou and Mig-15 UTI. Both have been given good press. This is the third kit in this scale and it is aimed not at the kids and pocket money, but at the enthusiast who wants more detail in the kits. Unlike the Dragon kits, with their trench-like panel lines, the OzMod kit has finer lines that are more in scale. It also offers amenities such as an actual cockpit with a proper tub, instrument panel, control stick and two piece bang seat. There are also drop tanks and two vacuform canopies, one for the open position and one closed.

As you can see from the image above, the kit is a short run variety, but has reasonably small sprue attachment points. It is molded in a dark olive plastic and quite complete for a kit of this size. The small parts are really small and have some flash on them, though I suspect that these are really just mold seams! The control stick is extremely small and fragile looking; removing it without damage will be a challenge to say the least! Overall molding is good, though I must honestly report that two of the parts on my kit, the tailfin and the wing, each had a rather large depression that will have to be filled with putty and sanded smooth.

The instructions are printed on the inside of the header card and consist of basically an exploded view of the kit. This is more than adequate for a kit in this scale. Decals are offered for two aircraft. A US Korean War bird and an RAF 92 Squadron Sabre 4/5. With a kit of this size, painting the RAF version will probably be best done with brushes as masking the camo scheme could be hard on the eyes and hands! The USAF one can easily be sprayed overall aluminum. The decals that come with the kit are adequate for the models and offer basic markings. If you want data markings, you'll have to hand paint those! Not sure how opaque the yellow and white are and the yellow is actually a bit lighter than is shown in the image to the right. The sheet also has a single carrier film over the whole thing so you'll need to cut out each individual decal prior to application. There is a card included with the kit that shows decal placement. Though they are a bit small, it may be possible to replace the kit decals with those from a Modeldecal or Superscale insignia sheet as these sheets offer some pretty small insignia.

The OzMods Mig-15UTI got good marks from builders and there is no reason why this one should be any different. It offers a subject that has been lacking of a good kit in this scale for many years and detail that other kits in this scale do not have. Though the price may seem high, I need only remind you that the current exchange rate between Australia and the US is quite favorable to the US so this kit is actually only about $7.00 USD.

For more information on this and other kits and detail sets from OzMods, you may e-mail them at the link below.

Kit courtesy of OZMODS. Thank you for your support.

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