Quickbost has produced a replacement “football” radar antenna housing for the Academy 1/72 PBY Catalina kits. The resin replacement is a simple drop-in for the kit’s plastic parts. There is no modification required to the kit parts to use these resin replacements.

A side by side evaluation (see photos) indicates a replacement of superior detail that will provide a more accurate rendition of the radar antenna housing assembly. Check your references for the appropriate seat to use. Be sure to wash the parts in soapy water to remove mold release agents and prime prior to using your favorite modeling paints.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to the IPMS Reviewer Corps and Quickboost for the opportunity to review this item.

Overall Summary

I recommend this kit for any collection of USN submarine models. This kit is for intermediate-skill modelers, and will result in very nice representation of any of the short-hull Sturgeon class attack submarines that served in the U. S. Navy. Assembly was straight forward, with no major problems. No alignment pins or sockets are present in the kit design, and many parts may require addition of pins or wire for positive location. This is not a detraction from the kit, but something to think about when you start assembly. The resulting model looks proper in comparison to photographs and references.

PJ Production does an interesting selection of items in resin including aircraft related figures in the more popular scales.

This set includes 4 figures designed to fit a Black Hawk of choice, though I am sure you could use them with any modern US chopper. You get a pilot, copilot and two air crew. They are molded as one-piece items in a light tan resin, except the pilot which has a separate arm to help position on the controls.

There were no air bubbles on the figures but there was a bit of flash and some mold marks that needed attention. The pilots have the regular bone dome while the aircrew get the added facial mask which makes painting them a breeze if you aren’t into painting flesh tones. They also have molded-on seat belts which doesn’t extend to their back making it easier to fit them into a seat.

The GBU (Guided Bomb Unit)-43/B, MOAB was released by Eduard in 1/72 scale (kit 672160) late last year, and was followed up by this release in 1/48 scale. In U.S. Air Force terminology, MOAB is a Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, which is often referred to as the Mother of All Bombs, and for those who build this kit, you will likely refer to it as I do as the Mother of All Brass. The kit looks great built up, but you will want some experience with photoetched brass if you decide to construct one for your collection. I will mention here that it is a good idea to spend some money on your tools from time to time, as I do not know how I would have completed such a project without the Mission Models Etch Mate that I purchased several years ago.

This kit is a modified re-release of the Monogram GMC High Roller kit from 1981 (the parts have a 1978 copyright on them) with differences being different decals and the “Ground Hawg” sidewall markings are missing from the tires.

Kit

The kit comes packaged in the usual Revell 1/24/25 size cardboard box with 5 bags of white, clear, and chrome molded parts as well as the rubber tires. The tires were floating around in my box, as the bag they were in doesn’t look like it was sealed all the way. The clear parts are bagged separately. There is a total of 5 sprues of white plastic plus the separate cab, 1 sprue of chrome, 1 sprue of clear, and the 4 rubber tires. All this adds up to a total of 92 plastic parts. The parts are molded with good detail and some flash. There are some ejector pin marks that will need to be addressed. I am hoping my kit was a one-off as some of the ejector pin marks were extremely deep, almost all the way through the part.