This Master Model set provides a machined brass pitot tube that is superior to what can be produced in an injected plastic kit. This part is specific to the Hobbycraft / Academy series of B-58 Hustler kits (HC1260, HC1261, A4442, A12619) that was initially released in 2001.

Notable is the re-sealable packaging that Master Model uses that makes the part easy to review and then stuff it back into the package securely. You will want to be careful handling the metal pitot tube as its small size makes it an easy sacrifice to the carpet monster.

THANK YOU to our friends and suppliers at Aires/Quickboost for another improvement set, in this case for the Trumpeter A-37 Dragonfly. And thanks also to the reviewer corps leaders for making them available for my review.

This set takes the kit components and improves them by directly replacing the kit parts with fine, pressure-molded resin parts. These are very thin and fragile! Included are four control columns with much refined, thin columns, better boots at the bottom, and the control grip actually looks like the real thing, fantastic! The kit items are REALLY clunky and don’t look like they should. QUICKBOOST fixes that as shown in the side by side photos.

Remove the parts from their pour stub, and superglue in place. These fit in place of the kit items, no additional sanding or kit plastic removal required. Quick and improved kit appearance with scale size and thickness.

Tamiya is expanding its line of Textured Paint, this time with two different snow effect paints: Snow Effect and Powder Snow. This particular package also included a third bottle, which is “dark earth”, perfect to show some groundwork underneath the snow.

The first thing I noticed is that the snow bottles weight at least twice as much as the earth one. I suspect a different kind of “pellets” (texture) is being used here.

The Snow Effect paint has small micro-balloons (0.05-0.35mm) and the Powder Snow even smaller ones. I honestly could not see them - in the powder one, but I could feel a bit of the texture when I put a dab of the paint between my fingers. You can certainly hear a bit of a “grinding noise” when you spread the paint on a base. By the way, don’t use a brush as it will damage it. I used a plain wooden stick to spread the paint.