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The 100th Anniversary of the tank going into combat takes place in September 2016, and as this anniversary draws closer I have become fascinated with these first creaking, clattering vehicles of death; part of the first modern industrial war in history. And while the British Army’s rhomboid shaped monsters that took part in that engagement at Flers-Courcelette during the Battle of the Somme were the first tanks to see service, the diminutive French FT-17 can legitimately lay claim to be the great grandfather of the modern tank: the first fully tracked armored vehicle with a rotating turret. And as luck would have it, Meng Models have produced a simply magnificent model kit of this seminal vehicle. Not only is this model exquisitely detailed, it is fully detailed, as it comes with a very complete interior.
Aerobonus continues to expand its range of pilot/ejection seat combos with this Crusader pilot seated in his Martin Baker Mk7 seat. The arms and head are separate attachments, allowing for some variation with the positioning of each attachment. The detailing of the g-suit and survival vest easily defines these garments as separate from the flight suits. All the belts, straps and buckles are minutely detailed. The separate arms and head allows you to more easily position them after the seats are installed in the cockpit, so that they’re not interfering with the fit, and more realistically seated in the cockpit.
Upfront, I want to thank Aires and Quickboost for providing these fine aftermarket bits for our beloved models and to the IPMS USA a big thank you for allowing me to review this Quickboost product.
Admittedly I am proud of the fact I love the stubby World War II fighter. The Rita, Buffalo and certainly the Grumman Wildcat. I have several in my stash including the Hobby Boss and Tamiya 1/48 F4F-4 Wildcats kits.
I snagged the Quickboost pitots for the Wildcat before even looking closely at the pitot tubes. Both kits are F4F-4’s and thus use the stubby angled pitot tube mounted near the port wingtip. No problem here, Quickboost provides both the angled pitot found on the F4F-4 as well as the longer straight version found on the F4F-3’s. Just a quick look at the comparison photos you will see the resin replacement parts are much less bulky and more defined than the stock parts. Unfortunately I don’t have a F4F-3 to compare the longer style pitot.
Manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the A6M5 Zero was a long range fighter aircraft flown by the Imperial Japanese Naval Air Service. Its first flight was on April 1st 1939 and entered service on July 1st 1940. More than ten thousand Zero aircraft were built.
Revell brings us another easy and fun to build kit. Being a skill level 2 kit, detail is a bit sparse in the cockpit department. It consists of only a pilot figure and a decaled instrument panel. Regardless, of the lean detail, this is a great little kit. The Zero is moulded in grey, and panel lines and detair are raised.
The kit went together nicely, and the fit of all parts were very precise. Other than some very minor "flash"on a few of the parts, the only predicament I encountered were the 4 small locating tabs on the bottom of the canopy. These locating tabes had to be removed to ensure the canopy had a flush fit with the fuselage.
