The usual sincere appreciation goes out to our friends at Hobbico (Hasegawa USA) for supplying IPMS USA yet another sample of their manufacturer’s prolific output. I am constantly amazed at what they deliver!

I really like the Arado series of aircraft, so when the opportunity to build this one came up, I raised my hand. Having built a few of these in the past, I must comment on the condition of the kit. I did NOT notice any creeping mold-failures, excess flash, or other blemishes that identify what used to be known as an “old” model (anything over 10 years). The kit looked as if it were a brand-new design. Fit and construction confirmed the same. The basic model from Hasegawa is now a decade old, and what is in the box hides its age well. Engineering at its finest, ‘tis true.

The newly released Spitfire F.Mk.22 by Airfix in 1/72 scale is an excellent kit right out of the box. Of course, there is always room for improvement. Quickboost has already given us replacement cannons, correcting the only real deficiency in the kit. Here they offer resin, drop-in replacements for the exhaust stacks. What's the advantage of these? These resin exhausts closely mimic the shape of the kit parts, which look accurate to me. However, the Quickboost replacement parts have the holes already in them, saving the modeler the task of trying to place a dozen symmetrical holes in very small rods. The thickness of the exhaust stack walls appears to be in scale. Also, there are no seam lines to deal with in the resin parts, but they are present on the kit parts. Basically, the Quickboost exhaust will save you time and present a more realistic appearance than the kit parts. Moreover, these benefits come at a very reasonable price.

After the last segment, the kit was ready for paint. There are three marking options included in the kit. I chose a tri-color screen from VF-17 aboard the USS Bunker Hill in 1943. To start painting, I wanted the bottom white to be hard and take some weathering. For this, I used decanted Tamiya lacquer from a spray can. This is just one of the many tricks I learned from Ed Kinney. I masked off the exhausts with Silly Putty and used a little red brown (just a couple drops) to tint the white away from pure white. This was sprayed in three coats and left to dry. The lacquer dried very quickly and very hard. At this time, the landing gear and the gear doors, the main flaps, and a bunch of miscellaneous parts were sprayed.