Quickboost is famous for making simple, well detailed, drop in replacement parts. This set is for the Accurate Miniatures (now Italeri) SBD-5 and replaces the exhausts. The set includes four exhausts which have the attachment tab molded into the bottom. The molding is perfect and as you can see in the comparison, the Quickboost parts are much thinner than the kit parts on the edges and have a nice deep indent. Also, there are four exhausts, which is enough to do two kits or a spare if you are a fumble fingers like me.

Adding them to the kit is simple. Cut them from the casting block and sand as needed. I primed with Alclad gray primer and then painted with Alclad exhaust manifold. I added a black wash making sure to get it deep in the inside. Once dry, I flat coated and glued to the kit. Attachment was perfect. And another quick flat coat and we’re done.

When Kinetic announced they were doing a F/A-18C series, there was a lot of interest based on the fact that the Hornet has been a long serving fighter with an iconic shape and lots of great markings. When the markings were announced, my interest became a little more personal as one of the markings was for VFA-25 on the USS Carl Vinson. I was lucky enough to be on that very tiger cruise and I have included a series of pictures of this plane. How could I not build it (plus you can never have enough Hornets).

Looking in the box, there are 18 light gray sprues with crisp engraved panel lines and riveting. Six of the sprues are dedicated to weapons (missile, bombs and pods). There are also two clear sprues, a photoetch sheet and the instructions which include separate building and painting instructions. A large decal sheet covering the six markings:

THANK YOU to our friends and suppliers at Aires/Quickboost for this excellent improvement set for the new Revell 1/48 tornado! And thanks also to the reviewer corps leaders for making the set available to me to review….

This six-part resin upgrade replaces the kit air data probes, the pitot tubes, and the Comm blade antennas. Once again Aires does the hard part; Basically you remove the parts from the pour stub with a sharp blade, clean up, and install them in place of the kit items. Be careful, because they are HYPER fragile and prone to destruction. That makes the scale fidelity worthwhile, but if you play sky-pilot with your models, well…expect them to disappear or just break off. Forewarned!

The pictures tell the story. I did not get the blade antenna seated well enough, so that’s a re-do for later.

This set is highly recommended for improved detail;. Thanks again to Quickboost and IPMS USA for providing these items…