The Aircraft

The B-52 has been flying longer than a lot of IPMS members have been building. It entered USAF service in 1955, and 85 of them are still in active inventory, with 9 in reserve. The combat-ready B-52Hs left are at Minot AFB in North Dakota and Barksdale AFB, Louisiana.

The Scale Aircraft Conversions set

The SAC set for the B-52 consists of 4 identical main gear sets and two outrigger wheels and struts for the wings, all in white metal. The outriggers are cast with a protective sprue, which is a great idea since they’d be a little fragile.

The main gear uses the kit wheels.

Painting

This was pretty simple. The main gear and the outriggers are painted white. I used Floquil Reefer White, which goes on nicely from the airbrush and sticks wonderfully to the metal parts. I then brush-painted the wheels on the outriggers with Floquil Grimy Black.

Dragon's latest Stug III release is marketed as a December ‘44 production time frame version. If you follow the instructions, you won't build a vehicle from the Dec 44 production run, but a somewhat jumbled mix with early, mid, and late production features. Fortunately, if you know what you are looking for, the kit includes the parts to build what is commonly accepted as a late ‘44/early 45 vehicle. With some exceptions.

The parts are molded in light gray styrene with crisp details and no noticeable flash. There are some very fine details like the fender tread pattern, hull weld beads, and rough texture on the cast mantle (Topfblende). This release is a bit of a mix-and-match from their earlier StuG III releases (notably the CH May ‘44 Mid-Late Production) with a few additional sprues from their StuG IV kits. A good portion of these parts won't be used and are blued out on the front instruction sheet. But don't be too hasty, you'll need some of those pieces.

Quickboost makes another addition to its sets for the Kinetic 1/48th EA-6B Prowler with a replacement set of air scoops. There are 10 different scoops cast perfectly in the expected gray resin.

There are three different varieties of scoops:

• Part 1 replaces kit parts (two scoops) C15+C17/C17+C18
• Part 2 replaces kit part C11 in six scoops
• Part 3 replaces kit part C21 in two scoops

Using the set is simple – cut from the casting block, make sure the bottom edge is good, and glue in place and paint. The Quickboost parts have good depth to the openings, which is not the case with all the kit parts. Also, the kit’s two large scoops have to be glued together and sanded, which is not done with the Quickboost set.

Overall, a good upgrade for the kit parts. Simple and easy to execute, reasonably priced, and also an improvement in accuracy. Recommended to all fans of the Prowler and those wanting that extra detail.