In Eduard’s ordinary fashion, they once again bring to life the cockpit of the AV-8B with the Night Attack interior. They have incorporated in their Photo Etch, new side panels with small boxes of instruments and throttles that resemble the real thing. Colored placards are placed around the cockpit to bring out true realism and a small sheet of film is used for the clear screen over some of the instruments readouts. Colored pieces for the instruments are also provided to apply over the panel for exact realism. There are also a lot of other small gadgets to add to the cockpit, such as mirrors and handles, and they are easy to fold and put in place.
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Quickboost now catalogs a set of detail parts for Tamiya’s 1/72 Focke Wulf Fw 190 A-3 kit that will make it easy for modelers to place the rudder in an off-center position. Set QB 72 311 provides a casting block containing three separate (but identical) rudders. Detail is crisp, with recessed panel lines that match those found on the kit parts (because, it appears Quickboost actually removed that part from the Tamiya kit, added a V–shaped edge to fit against the fin and cast three of the rudders in resin). Since the rudders of most Fw 190s are nearly identical, these parts should be of use on a number of 1/72 Focke Wulf kits marketed by other companies.
Quickboost now offers a set of separate stabilizers and elevators for anyone wishing to build the 1/72 Tamiya Focke Wulf Fw 190 A-3 with dropped elevators. The parts are cast in the typical Quickboost medium gray resin that is both flexible and resilient. Detail is crisp, with recessed panel lines that are curiously close to those found on the kit parts. It looks like Quickboost started with the Tamiya kit parts, cut them apart and added a groove in the stabilizers so the elevators will fit properly in whatever position the modeler desires. There is a little flash is on each stabilizer that is intended to protect the cast parts from damage or deforming when being removed from the molds. This flash is easy to remove with a #11 blade after the parts are separated from the casting block. No instruction sheet is included in the package because it is obvious what to remove and what to use.
A huge “thanks!” to Alain at Dragon for providing IPMS/USA this kit. I was under the impression this would be a review of one of their famous 1/400 prebuild die-cast models… WRONG! This was a full-fledged build! This is the first of their new series of model aircraft which are to be built, not pre-made with Tampo markings…
Nobody does this scale like Dragon… Impressive off the bat; on to the model…
The Revell 1/72 F-22A Raptor model kit has been out several years and I can remember a review of it that mentioned the cockpit would be ripe for the after market resin folks to upgrade. Well, Aires has done just that with this latest release of theirs, comprising 13 resin parts, 14 P.E. parts and one small sheet of film for the HUD. The resin parts are finely cast and I only had three parts that had broken when I opened the package. Once these were glued back in place (with some CA) the real fun began.