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If you’ve never seen a C-130, and never had a ride in a Herk, you’ve probably been living under a rock somewhere. There are more than 40 variants, serving in 60 countries. The C-130 has been in service with the US Air Force for over 50 years, albeit with several different models and many improvements along the way.
The company, Afterburners Decals, deals with mostly 1/48 decals and has many different sets of which most are of the newer and modern jets, although there are a few sets which contain decals for weapons and missiles. There are only three sets of decals in the 1/32 scale. In the past there weren’t many modelers building in 1/32 scale so the demand for decals in this scale wasn’t large enough to justify the need to produce them. But now, since there are many more modelers building kits in the 1/32 scale range, it stands to reason that the amount of kits sold in that scale are increasing as well, so Afterburner Decals have decided to try supplying the large scale decals again. If this works out, Afterburner will be making more sets for the large scale builders.
Academy provides you with six sprues of light grey plastic and two small clear plastic. The sprues are the same ones that were issued by Hobbycraft, but there is a difference. The difference is the inclusion of three additional items, two cowl guns and a pitot tube made out of turned brass. These items are little gems of work. The guns have hollowed out ends and look perfect. The decals are printed by Cartograf and provide markings for one colorful aircraft. Being from Cartograf they are in perfect register and suitably thin. In essence, perfect decals.
The instructions are easy enough to understand and broken down into twelve steps. The marking option provides a four view drawing that will help you mark your airplane.
Quickboost’s line of after market exhaust options just keeps on growing. The latest addition is for the Academy P-40. It is up to their usual standards; molded in a cream colored resin, smooth, seamless and bubble free. One thing of note is that they are really easy to remove from the mold block with just a few passes of the hobby saw. Another plus is that the exhausts are bored out, which would be a real pain if you tried to do it on the kit part. One thing I’ve noticed about Quickboost is that you’re not able to tell very easily if the after market part is for the kit on the label or a conversion part to change another kit to the one stated on their package. I believe this is the case here.
There are limitations to plastic molding that resin doesn’t have to worry about. Such is the case of the Italeri MG Magazine Drums. The kit items are nice but they lack the subtle detail on the sides and the handles. Well Quickboost recognized this and has provided us with two sets of magazines. The magazines have the detail perfectly rendered.
Perfectly molded in light grey resin these parts are simple to add to the kit. The detail parts will dress up the interior of the Stuka in an easy and effective way.
Highly recommended
Thanks to Aires and IPMS/USA for the review copy. You can obtain your copy at www.quickboost.net or through your local hobby shop or online retailer. Let them know we sent you.
