Aires and Quickboost (a division of Aires) continue to provide us modelers with very nicely detailed additions to many new and older kits that can greatly enhance the final appearance of the build.

This installment will look at the Quickboost replacement pitot for the fairly new 1/48 Kitty Hawk Saab Jas-39 Gripen (kit #KH80117).

This replacement pitot tube, with associated nose cone tip, is a very simple, two piece addition to the excellent Kitty Hawk Gripen. Quick Boost is kind enough to supply two complete pitot assemblies, just in case something goes wrong on the first try.

Often you get a great aftermarket decal sheet for 3 or 4 aircraft, but they don’t include enough insignia for all of them. The solution: Enter a insignia decal sheet, like the one recently released by Furball Design

This set contains 95 correctly proportion modern (post 1947) US National Insignia (the one with the blue border and red stripe).

You get (14) 10" insignia, (25) 15" Insignia, (14) 20" insignia, (10) 25" insignia, (8) 30" insignia, (8) 35" insignia, (8) 40" insignia, (8) 45" insignia, which should cover from small drones, to larger bombers in the last 7 decades of USAF service.

I want to point out the decal design is correctly proportioned, as the star points do not reach the edge of the circle, but stop at a distance equivalent to width of the blue border.

The decals are independently printed and they are very glossy in the sheet. I would expect them to adhere really well to a glossy surface (Future coat or similar) in your model.

The Ship

The USS Carronade was commissioned in 1955 and was designed to provide close in fire support for amphibious landings. Her 5" gun was the same weapon mounted on US destroyers and had proved itself in close in support over and over during WW II and its eight 5.5" automatic rocket launchers could fire 30 rockets a minute, meaning 240 rockets could be on their way to some unlucky target within one minute. Because of her cruiser type bow and potentially heavy firepower, she was often called a "bobtailed cruiser" due to her superstructure being so far aft. As a matter of fact, one release of this kit was titled Bobtail Cruiser and not USS Carronade.