John Noack was kind enough to let me do this as an in-the-box review, since it’s a rerelease of a version of the Hasegawa F-4 that’s been around for a while. It’s still among the best F-4 kits on the market. With the differences in the available kits narrowing over the last several years, it comes down to personal choice. Personally, I like the Hasegawa F-4s just fine, though I have more than a few examples of almost everybody else’s in my collection, too. To the kit…
This decal sheet provides markings for eighteen Dutch Thunderjet aircraft. The package includes two sheets of decals and a four-page printed instruction sheet with general details of the decal placement. This decal sheet is a supplement to Dutch Profile #12, available from the same location. The color profile drawings from the book cover the same aircraft and provide a much clearer indication of the colors.
This decal sheet provides nose and tail numbers for all of the aircraft listed in the instruction sheet plus a few others that can be found in the Dutch Profile. A single set of national markings is provided, along with three sets of tail stripes and seven wing tank markings. Clearly, the modeler can produce a single model from this sheet. By obtaining some Dutch national insignia sheets, more models can be produced.
In US service, the F-84 Thunderjet experienced early problems, but the E and G models proved the validity of the design. With its straight wing, it was very stable and was a great fighter-bomber. It is well known from its exploits in Korea. A portion of the F-84E production was exported to NATO to provide them with a modern jet attack airplane. When the greatly improved F-84G entered production, a majority of the production was exported to NATO and other countries.
This book provides complete details of the F-84E and F-84G in the service of the Royal Netherlands Air Force. The book is written in Dutch and English. The first half of the book is in Dutch while the rest of the book repeats the information in English. Different photos are included in both halves but all photos feature descriptions in both languages. Twenty-four profiles are provided along with four plan-view drawings.
I've always been fond of the Supermarine Spitfire with its elegant design, but I certainly don't discount the role played by the Hawker Hurricane in defense of Britain in her hour of need. The Hurricane was far easier and quicker to produce than the Spitfire and made a very stable gun platform. Like the Spitfire, the early Hurricanes were originally equipped with a fixed pitch wooden propeller. By the end of 1939, Hurricanes were being equipped with either the De Havilland or the Rotol constant speed propeller, giving the Hurricane a much needed performance increase.
A quick review of the Quickboost website will show you that Quickboost offers the modeler a plethora of resin accessories from nose to tail in the popular scales. This review will focus on the nose and, specifically, a De Havilland constant speed propeller fitted to the 1/48th scale Hawker Hurricane. Quickboost recommends this propeller as a replacement on the Hasegawa Hurricane line of kits.
A new addition to Quickboost’s ever-growing line of resin aircraft accessories is the corrected spatted undercarriage for the Ju-87G Stuka. This set is to correct the spats that come in the Academy kit. It is up to their usual standards – molded in grayish resin, smooth, seamless, and bubble free.
The spats that come in the Academy kit are too short and at a different angle than they should be. A great plus to the Quickboost parts is that all of the separate parts are molded as one piece, eliminating seam lines. All you need to do is pop the wheels in and glue the assembly in place. The resin parts are very easy to install and add a neater appearance to the finished model.
I highly recommend this product if you want a really superior looking model. Usually, replacement parts need some work to get them installed properly, but this assembly just drops into place. Thanks to Quickboost and IPMS USA for the chance to do this review.