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Book Author(s)
Author: Mike Guardia; Illustrators: Henry Morshead, Adam Tooby
Review Author
Roger Rasor
Published on
Company
Osprey Publishing
MSRP
$18.95

Junkers Ju 87 Stuka is number 15 in Osprey’s Air Vanguard series. What this book is not is a technical reference manual for model builders, with an abundance of drawings, walkaround photographs and full-color profiles. Rather, it is a general overview of the Stuka with a reasonable amount of period photos, artwork and a few color profiles that add to the story of how the aircraft came about and its roll as the Luftwaffe’s primary operational dive bomber. It should be of interest to those who don’t know a great deal about the aircraft or would like to have a quick study of the subject in a single publication. But, modeler builders who already have a number of good Stuka reference books in their library may not find this book a necessary acquisition.

Review Author
Walt Fink
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$7.65

I intend to use this Quickboost seat to replace the kit part in an Airfix A-4B.

The seat is molded in super nice bubble-free resin, with sharp, molded detail of the lap belts, shoulder harness, and oxygen hose. The primary and secondary ejection handles are molded separately and are located on the pour stub beneath the seat pan.

The stiffening corrugations on the sides of the seat are correctly portrayed as standing proud of the metal surface, whereas the kit part has them indented. This is a moot point, since when the seat’s installed they won’t be visible anyway.

When I placed the Quickboost seat into the Airfix cockpit tub, it was apparent that it was too tall---the canopy would never close. Compare the photo of the Airfix seat in the fuselage half on the left, with the Quickboost seat in the fuselage half on the right.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Furball Aero-Design
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$19.99

Furball (Geoff Martin) has been producing some awesome decals and with this latest release, he addresses a venerable kit, Revell's EA-6A Electric Intruder. As a quick background, before the four seat EA-6B came into service to jam all those enemy radars, the Marines ordered 27 of the EA-6A Electric Intruders. They look like Intruders with Prowler tails! Revell's kit has been out a while but still can be built into a beauty and Furball has given us 11 superb schemes to dress the kit up.

As with most Furball sets, you get five large color pages- a cover sheet, side profile sheets of all 11 jets, a sheet of wing marking locations and one sheet showing the stencils provided. All sheets have color call outs with the needed FS numbers. There is one large decal sheet with markings and stencils and one small sheet with wing walks and color for the arrestor hook. The decals have perfect register and are printed by Cartograf.

Review Author
Tim Hortman
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$6.50

Here is another great addition to the growing Quickboost line of detailed exhaust parts. Here we see a set for the 1/48 Hasegawa N1K1-J “George” WWII Japanese Naval Fighter

The exhaust set comes in the typical Quickboost plastic sleeve packaging, and contains a single resin part attached to a ‘base plug’ which is easily removed.

The Quickboost set is a direct replacement part for those with the kit, so there is no major surgery needed to use these parts. With some very minor clean-up, they are able to be painted and glued into place. Since these are resin parts, you will have to use your favorite brand of super-glue.

Review Author
Walt Fink
Published on
Company
Revell
Scale
1/25
MSRP
$25.99

Revell has re-issued their Shelby GT500 as a convertible with a new body shell, roll bar, a convertible top which can be modeled up or down with an included boot, and also features two options for the engine. The mill can be built stock, or with a set of dual quads and a high-rise manifold. The hood has a scribed, outlined section to cut out in order to accommodate the custom engine option if that’s the builder’s choice. A set of stock wheels and a set of custom ones are included as well.

The interior is a one-piece tub, with separate seats and instrument panel/dashboard. Decals are provided for the instrument cluster, plus the wood panels on the doors and the dash.

Construction on the chassis was pretty straightforward with only a couple of minor fit issues with the exhaust pipes. I noted the molded-on lettering on the frame said the kit was originally issued in 1988 - I don’t know how many of the original fastback kit parts are common with this new issue.