I never expected to see another injection molded plastic Ar-196 but Italeri and Tamiya recently surprised me with their releases. While nice looking kits there are some issues. Quickboost makes a several upgrades for the kit.
Helicopter gunships evolved from the need to provide close quarters combat for the Army. While we think this is a natural thing, the earliest attempts to arm helicopters were frowned upon. It wasn’t until the French started to put guns on some of their aircraft that the US Army took notice. What followed was nothing short of phenomenal culminating with the first purpose built armed helicopter then onto a battlefield essential tool.
I love the Hawker Hurricane even more than the Spitfire. The Hasegawa kit is a very nice kit but the wheel well is pretty basic. Aires provides a very nice upgrade.
The Aires wheel well comes on two pour blocks. In my example, the larger major assembly is molded perfectly in light grey resin. The detail is impressive and far superior to the kit offering. The pour block will be a little bit of a pain to remove but some simple sanding will take care of that. The other pour block is molded in light caramel with remarkable detail on the eight pieces. Removal of these pieces will be easy enough and clean up will be a breeze.
The instructions are simple enough to understand and should be no problem for most. Online references are easy enough to find if your library is lacking or you need to clarify anything.
I love the way Quickboost attacks a subject. If something is bothering you and you just want to upgrade that component you don’t need to buy a whole set, just what you want. It is with that philosophy that Quickboost releases these gun barrels for the Hasegawa Stuka. On the heels of their exhaust, propeller blades, control sticks and wing guns for the Stuka, come these MG-81Z barrels.
Perfectly formed in light grey resin, these barrels are very delicately molded with no mold lines. In addition to the hollowed out barrels, the barrels themselves have some beautifully molded cooling fins. Simply remove the kit barrels, paint the QB barrels and add. Did I mention there are enough barrels to do two kits?
Highly recommended
Thanks to Aires for the review copy. You can obtain your copy from your local hobby shop, online retailer or directly from Aires.
Many of us dream about finding a warbird in a garage and being able to restore it. Well at least I do. Well, that is pretty much what happened to Peter Vacher while traveling in India in the 90s. Not only did he find a warbird, but it was a veteran of the Battle of Britain. A Hurricane Mk.I! This is the story of how he acquired the airplane and ultimately restored it to flying condition.
Do you think that the antenna on any of the Spitfire kits looks a little too thick? If you are like me, do you hate to remove the mold lines? Well Quickboost fixes both of these issues. Molded in light caramel color these little gems are bubble and blemish free. You get three antennas for use on any model of the Spitfire. Adding them is so simple; each antenna has a mounting peg which will fit directly into the kit spot.
Highly recommended
You can obtain your copy at your local hobby shop or online.
Our thanks to Quickboost and Aires for the review sample.
These simple, yet effective, exhausts are typical of Quickboost exhausts, perfectly formed with hollowed ends. The parts are molded in light grey, blemish free resin. The Hs-126 has two very small exhausts and these are easy enough to add to your ICM Henschel.
Highly recommended
You can obtain your copy at your local hobby shop or online.
Our thanks to Quickboost and Aires for the review sample.
Designed for the Hasegawa family of Dora model Stukas, these little gems are typical of the Quickboost line, simple and inexpensive upgrades for the modeler. Molded in light grey resin these exhausts are beautiful and flaw free. There is the aerodynamic cover on the front but then there is the exhausts themselves. They are beautiful. The exhausts feature the weld seam on the outside and the hollow end which makes these priceless. I can never get the ends to thin out. Well, I can but, they never look great or uniform. Quickboost does all the hard work for you.
Highly recommended
You can obtain your copy at your local hobby shop or online.
Our thanks to Quickboost and Aires for the review sample.
The Curtiss-Wright AT-9 Jeep was a twin engine advanced trainer aircraft used by the United States during World War II to bridge the gap between single engine trainers and twin engine combat aircraft. The AT-9 was a low wing cantilever monoplane configuration with retractable landing gear and two Lycoming R-680-8 radial engines.
The folks at Quickboost now offer builders a set of cast resin fenders to enhance the landing gear details of any 1/48 Tamiya B IV or FB IV Mosquito kit. The fenders are cast in the same grey resin used for all other Quickboost aftermarket parts and come on a single casting block. Also typical of other Quickboost resin detail parts, they are crisply molded with no flash to remove and are free of pinholes. They offer better detail than the kit parts (the photo below shows the Quickboost part on the left and the kit part on the right).
They are easy to install. After removing them from the casting block and dressing up the edge with a couple of swipes with a sanding stick, they literally drop in place with no modification required. Because they are resin, they must be attached to the kit parts with super glue.
This set is recommended. My thanks to Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review sample.
