Quickboost’s latest resin ejection seat is a 1/48th scale offering for Hasegawa's 1/48 AV-8B II. The seat comes as a single gray casting and is perfectly done in Quickboost's normal gray, pinhole-free resin. Prep is simple – cut the seat off the casting block and sand smooth.

I included photos of the built kit seat (which is decent), but the resin seat and its belts are a definite improvement. The seat fits right into the cockpit. If you consider that adding a set of PE belts would costs a few dollars, buying this seat will fix the belt issue and improve the look of the seat which occupies a large percent of the cockpit.

Another hit from Quickboost and definitely recommended. My thanks to Quickboost and IPMS USA for the opportunity to review this seat.

Warbird Decals is known for its aircraft decal line, and now it is making new strides into real space subjects.

Upon opening the ziplock bag, you find two letter-size decal sheets which includes lower surfaces and upper surface/rudder tiles, and one single page with a 4-view drawing of the Space Shuttle with a decal map. The decal sheets provide extra decals, but the instructions do not tell you what for (more on this later).

I built the Tamiya Space Shuttle a few years back. You can find a review of the kit at http://web.ipmsusa3.org/content/space-shuttle-atlantis. It is a nice kit, but certainly has room for improvement, mainly due to the lack of tile detail in the lower surfaces.

These decals are very glossy and conformed to the surface perfectly, without needing to use any decal solution. They were easy to move around for good alignment, too.

The Aircraft

The DC-3 was a development of the earlier DC-1 and -2, with each one getting a little larger and faster. The DC-1 was a result of a request by TWA for a Douglas airliner, as United had the production of the Boeing 247 sewed up and TWA needed a suitable airliner. The original aircraft after the DC-2 was the DST, Douglas Sleeper Transport, built for American Airlines to replace their Curtiss Condors. The DST first flew on December 17, 1935, the 32nd anniversary of the Wright Brothers first flight.

The huge advantage the DC-3 had was its greater speed and range. You could fly New York to LA in 17 hours, with 3 fuel stops. LA to New York was 15 hours due to prevailing winds. Previously, the practice was to fly passengers partway, put them on a train at sundown, and back on another plane at dawn.