The Academy kit is a nice kit but could benefit from some resin upgrades. Quickboost offers an easy way to upgrade the exhausts with this little set. The set is molded in light grey resin and contains two exhaust stubs. The ends are hollowed out and include the molded on weld seems. These are drop in replacements for the kit parts so adding them is easy.

Because of the size of the parts these will not fit the Hasegawa kit without some modification, but on the Academy kit they will fit perfectly. Just some paint and these will be ready to go.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review copy

You can obtain your copy from your local hobby shop or by contacting Quickboost at www.quickboost.net.

Now here is something you don’t see everyday, a life raft for an aircraft. Designed for the Hasegawa SBD you have to open up a hole in the side of the kit. This should be fairly straight forward as it is a round access panel. This set is ideal for a diorama idea.

The set contains three pieces of light grey resin. One is the life raft itself, the receptacle in the fuselage and the access panel. Drill the hole and a quick paint job later and your SBD will stand apart from the others. I’m sure you could add this to the Accurate Miniatures kit as well.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review copy

You can obtain your copy from your local hobby shop or by contacting Quickboost at www.quickboost.net.

The P-51B is one of my favorite aircraft. One of the problems is the exhaust stacks are small. The Trumpeter kit was one kit I was waiting for a long time. Quickboost’s offering features hollowed out ends and are direct replacements for the kit items. I can’t drill out the exhausts on the kit plastic with any precision so the only thing to do is to use the Quickboost set.
Removal is quite easy with a few swipes of the saw or knife blade. Painting is all that is required to make this update set perfect for your model.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review copy

You can obtain your copy from your local hobby shop or by contacting Quickboost at www.quickboost.net.

Aires has release a number of resin detail parts for Macchi WWII fighters in 1/48 scale. Among them is a set of wheels (with paint masks) for the Macchi C.202/205. The wheels are molded in the familiar medium density gray resin that Aires uses and they come on a common casting block. The wheels can be removed easily from the casting block with an x-acto knife or a small saw blade. The detail is crisp, delicate and convincing. No clean up is required and there are no pinholes to worry about. If care is exercised when removing the wheels from the casting block, the subtle tread pattern can be preserved.

The paint masks are a bit rigid and do not actually conform to the deep radius of the tire sidewall near the wheel hub. However, they do a good job of protecting the tires (that the instructions will have you paint first) before you airbrush color on the hubs.

Anyone who knows me knows I love the Bf-109 so when given the opportunity to review this set I jumped. Aimed at the Academy G-14 this is molded in light grey and clear resin, the cockpit set consists of ten grey resin pieces, one clear resin piece, a fret of PE and a clear acetate film. The level of detail is exquisite.

The resin side walls contain some of the best looking detail I’ve ever seen in a 109 cockpit. The modeler will have to do very little to get a great looking cockpit. Simply adding some PE parts and a good paint job would make this a good first upgrade for someone breaking into the aftermarket for the first time. One unique thing is the inclusion of a clear resin piece for the head armor. This ensures that the thickness of the armor panel is quite appropriately thick. Simply add a piece of PE to the top of it and the look is complete.