The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). The B-17 was primarily employed by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the daylight strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial and military targets. The United States Eighth Air Force, based at many airfields in central and southern England, and the Fifteenth Air Force, based in Italy, complemented the RAF Bomber Command's nighttime area bombing in the Combined Bomber Offensive to help secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for the invasion of France in 1944. The B-17 also participated to a lesser extent in the War in the Pacific, early in World War II, where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields.

THANK YOU to our friends and suppliers at Aires/Quickboost for another improvement set, in this case for the Revell DE Tornado IDS/GR-4 undercarriage doors. And thanks also to the reviewer corps leaders for making them available to me to review.

This set improves the kit components by replacing them with fine, pressure-molded resin parts. These are very thin and fragile. Included are five doors in gray resin, (two main, three nose gear) and two clear taxi lights.

Remove the parts from their pour stub, and superglue in place. These fit in place of the kit items, no additional sanding or kit plastic removal required. Quick and improved kit appearance with scale size and thickness.

The kit parts are good; the Aires parts are better. Improved, more “scale” detail, more finesse on the doors (and no mold seam to deal with), and “sharper” molding on the parts overall.

THANK YOU to our friends and suppliers at Aires / Quickboost for another improvement set, in this case for the Roden He 51b series biplane (which was also released by Eduard in a double set along with their ME-109 for the 1936 Spanish civil war. And thanks also to the reviewer corps leaders for making this set available to me to review….

This set provides seven antennas to directly replace the kit items. The detail provided is an improvement in that the antennas are more scale in size than the kit items, are very fine in appearance, and you don’t have to clean up mold lines, etc. on these antennas.

Quick installation: Remove the parts from their pour stub, clean up with a sanding stick, and superglue the antennas in place. Paint and move on!

This set is a most welcome addition to the line, thanks again to Aires and IPMS USA for providing these items!

THANK YOU to our friends and suppliers at Aires for another improvement set, in this case for the Roden He 51b series biplane (which was also released by Eduard in a double set along with their ME-109 for the 1936 Spanish civil war. And thanks also to the reviewer corps leaders for making this set available to me to review….

This set provides two stabilizers and two elevators.. The detail provided is an improvement in that the stab has a recess for the elevators, and the elevators are rounded on the front. The stabs and fin have drill locating holes in them so you can prepare for rigging; only requires a bit of microbit work and they are ready to install. The rib and fabric detail appears a bit more refined, so you don’t have to sand them down to make them look better.

THANK YOU to our friends and suppliers at Aires for another improvement set, in this case for the Roden He 51b series biplane (which was also released by Eduard in a double set along with their ME-109 for the 1936 Spanish civil war. And thanks also to the reviewer corps leaders for making this set available to me to review….

This set provides two gun barrels with a center web for directly replacing the kit items. The detail provided is an improvement in that the gun barrels are (1) more scale in size than the kit items, and (2) have microscopic holes drilled in the front of the barrels, as well as cooling holes, so they look like functional gun barrels.

Quick installation: Remove the parts from their pour stub, clean up with a sanding stick, and superglue the barrels in place. I had to clean out the gun deck holes in the upper cowling of a small amount of flash, but it worked out ok. Not much to say here other than paint and move on!