THANK YOU to our friends and suppliers at Aires/Quickboost (“QB”) for this excellent improvement set for the Academy F-4C/D! And thanks also to the reviewer corps leaders for making them available to me to review….

This set takes the kit components and improves them in the usual “Quickboost” manner … in this set, we are presented with all undercarriage doors to improve the Academy F-4C/D. Included in this 10-part set are all the doors for an F-4C/D, including the main gear doors, the main wheel follow-up doors, the main gear follow-up doors, two different Nose gear forward doors with two clear light lens covers, and the nose gear sideways-opening door. As usual with Quickboost, these items are more refined and defined than the kit bits. Check the side-by-side photos for comparison.

I love figures, and as a fan of aircraft models, I naturally like figures to go with my aircraft. Figures help provide scale and a “human factor” to any build.

Aires is working hard to provide a range of figures for aircraft modelers, and the Soviet Pilot with life jacket is a good example. Looking over the raw figure, it includes a torso with relatively simple outfit, two arms, two different heads with different helmets, and a very nice oxygen mask with attached hose.

My, but I do love a good Stuka. I’ve been playing with 1/32^nd scale Stukas ever since Revell first released their kit back in the 1970’s. I’ve built theirs dozens of times, then the 21^st Century version, and now finally Trumpeter’s kits, which have filled in important gaps in the history of this fascinating aircraft.

One slight problem with the Trumpeter kit, however is the exhausts, which are molded as a solid piece. The exhaust outlets are tiny indeed, and having frustrated myself with trying to ream these out with miniature drill bits, I must admit I was quite pleased to receive the Quickboost replacement parts.

As simple, drop-in resin replacements, these really can’t be beat. They feature the relatively miniscule exhausts and are beautifully molded with excellent resolution and no molding flaws which I could detect. No modifications to the kit parts need to be made – just slap them in place when you’re ready for them.