Many thanks to Mr. Ross MacMillan of Scale Aircraft Conversions and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to try this neat substitute and replacement set for the Special Hobby AF-2 Guardian. I am pleased to report on another sweet add-on and upgrade. The Guardian has a somewhat spindly appearance and having skinny but strong metal “legs” really helps!

The white-metal parts arrived in a blister pack, backed by the distinctive SAC company logo. The weight of the parts is very noticeable. All parts are free of sprues with the exception of two retractor struts. The parts require very little buffing, cleanup and polishing. I did use a Dremel tool to buff some of the parts and brought a very nice natural metal tone to them. But blue paint covers all of that shine.

Want an easy upgrade the new tool Airfix kits of the Gloster Gladiator? Step right up to the new Aires Gloster Gladiator horizontal control surface that provides a beautiful replacement to the kit parts. The Aires parts not only allow you to alter the position of the elevators, but the stabilizer hinges and the elevator torque tube really stand out. There are no supplied instructions; you simply swap out the kit provided plastic parts with the new Aires replacements.

Aires has molded the stabilizer and elevator perfectly in light grey resin with no apparent bubbles. The Aires stabilizer and elevator are supplied on a single resin sprue with thin resin attachments to the parts that should minimize any cleanup.

This is another of SAC’s marvelous landing gear replacements for 1/144 scale aircraft. One of the worst things to fix on a finished aircraft is the broken landing gear which occurs from either a move or less than careful handling, usually by a friend of spouse. I was at a display when a spectator started to pick up one of Brian Baker’s planes. I tried to stop him, but he said “I know what I’m doing!!” and then proceeded to remove the antenna, landing gear and rigging in one grab.

The Kit

You get two sets of nicely cast metal gear legs. This is cool, because Eduard has two Spitfires in their 1/144 kits. Well, there IS a single kit, but I haven’t seen that one yet.

I show in the photos below that the SAC parts match the Eduard parts pretty closely. In 1/144, it’d be hard to say exactly. Even with a magnifier, I’m not that good.

British aircraft have a hard edged camouflage. Getting those hard edges in the proper position is difficult. How do you make that hard edge? If you are like me you’ll be using the Eduard masks. They are made of highly flexible Kabuki tape. This set includes two large masking sheets. One for the fuselage and tail surfaces and the other for the wings.

How do you know if you need Scheme A or B? The only real way to know is to look at photos of the real aircraft. It has been postulated that even serial numbered aircraft had scheme A and odd serial numbered aircraft had scheme B. This is not always correct. It seems to me more of a guideline than a rule.

Thank you to Aires-Quickboost and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for the privilege of reviewing this excellent aftermarket resin details set. The ICM C-45 kit is very nice in its own right, but the replacement engine cooling gills add an eye-catching detail in a highly visible part of the kit.

A single casting plug with 4 replacement engine gills is in the package, molded in medium brownish-gray color polyurethane resin. The application is very simple; use the appropriate Quick Boost engine gills to replace kit parts D35/36 and D24/43. This is nearly a direct drop-in replacement; all you need to do is carefully remove the gills from the casting plug. The gill have very thin edges, warranting special care when removing them from the casting plug. No directions are provided and none are needed. However, be careful to use the correct part. The number 2 part of the plug that replaces parts D24/43 is slightly wider.