Background

On November 27, 1944 a 21-year-old Captain named Leonard “Kit” Carson was leading a flight of Mustangs on a mission to strafe oil reserve stores at Leipzig. As they approached the area of Magdeburg, Germany a large group of 50-75 Fw190s was spotted. The squadron dropped their long-range tanks and turned to attack the Focke Wulfs head on. In a series of turning, diving and climbing dogfights Carson managed to down five of them. By wars end, then Major Carson would fly 115 combat missions and score 18 ½ aerial kills with an overall score of 23 with ground kills included. Carson flew four different Mustangs called “Nooky Booky” including P-51K 411622 depicted in this review. I don’t think anymore of an introduction is needed for this legendary aircraft.

This set from Quickboost is designed to replace and improve upon the kit parts for Hobby Boss’s Mi-2 Hoplite. It includes part from two other Quickboost sets, as well as FOD covers (Foreign Object Damage) for the intakes and exhausts. The kit’s air intake cowling includes two holes through which you place the air intakes. It also has a molded-in intake in the upper center with a screen engraved in it. Additionally, there are two exhaust ports on each side of the engine cowling. The Quickboost parts are the cowling with two hollowed intake tubes cast in, along with an opening at the upper center, plus four properly shaped and thinned exhausts. The neat addition to this set is the FOD covers for all these openings, along with photoetch pull handles for them. You also get a photoetch screen to place over the opening in the air intake cowling, along with a spare screen.

Background

A familiar sight to all who have traveled the highways and byways of the United States is the “semi” tractor-trailer truck hauling goods from coast-to-coast. One of the leading manufacturers of the “tractor” portion is Freightliner, a subsidiary of Daimler AG established in 1942.

The Kit

Big truck, big box, big model – lots of “wow factor” for the young builder! Molded in light blue, white, black, and clear, the kit comprises of 102 parts. A sheet of peel-and-stick decals and instructions are also included. Copyright data on tractor and trailer parts indicate 1979 and 1980 vintage of the original tooling, respectively. As expected with tooling over 3 decades in service, there was quite a bit of flash along mold parting lines which required some extra effort to clean up prior to assembly.