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Review Author
Chad Richmond
Published on
April 24, 2011
Company
Aires Hobby Models
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$42.50

The Academy 1/32ndscale F-16I Sufa is a very nicely done kit, with lots of detail and lots of extra bits and pieces. But, Aires isn’t satisfied with good detail, they want great detail. And, that’s what they have done with this wheel well detail set. There are four resin cast pieces to the set, along with four pieces of copper wire to use for various hoses that would be virtually impossible to cast. Although, I’m sure they tried to figure out a way to do it. The main wheel well has so much detail molded in the one piece of resin, that I am still scratching my head on how they made the mold, with all of the undercuts that are present in the casting. What Academy takes seven separate molded parts to do, Aires has done in one. All of the hydraulic lines are there, as are the pumps, wires and junction boxes. There is a casting plug on it that’s a big as the gear well itself that has to be removed, but that’s it.

Review Author
Chad Richmond
Published on
April 24, 2011
Company
Aires Hobby Models
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$16.50

Aires continues to produce some very finely detailed resin parts that upgrade the accuracy of model manufacturer’s releases. The Aires Hobby Models F-100C/D exhaust nozzle for the Trumpeter 1/72 F-100 is no exception. It is molded at the correct length, and comes with a very nice turbine complete with fins and a photo etch flame holder, plus a really nice ribbed burner can and exhaust. The interior of the burner can has only one barely perceptive seam on the inside, but I can certainly deal with it being there. When compared with the short, two pieces can from the kit, it’s a no brainer. I’m still trying to clean up the seams in the 1/8thinch space between the internal ridges. And there are no nasty ejector pin marks to clean up, either. I don’t know how Aires made the mold, but I’m happy with it. The kit burner can has two locator rings molded to it and corresponding grooves on each of the fuselage halves, which lock and align the can in place.

Review Author
Mike Hinderliter
Published on
April 24, 2011
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$3.95

Quickboost added the top antenna for the tail of the FW 190A-4 to their line of resin aircraft accessories. This latest addition is molded in a cream colored resin, smooth, seamless and bubble free. One thing of note is that they are easy to remove from the mold block taking only a couple of minutes with a saw blade to remove them.

The package states that it is for the Tamiya kit but should work with any kit that you want to covert past an A-3 model. From what I’ve researched about the Tamiya kit, the 1/48thkit comes with the option to do the A-3 or A-4 but the 1/72 only comes as an A-3. Once again Quickboost comes to the rescue to let the 1/72ndmodeler have the same options. All that is needed is to cut along the seam line of the A-3 antenna and glue the A-4 antenna in place.

Review Author
Dick Montgomery
Published on
April 22, 2011
Company
Hobby Design
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$7.32

The Detail Parts

Hobby Design offers the modeler a wide range of detail products, tools, masking materials and decals for a wide variety of modeling subjects. The three items discussed in this review are compatible with 1/20th, 1/24th, and 1/25thautomotive subjects.

Each of these three items are contained in a small plastic baggie that is, itself, protected with a larger plastic baggie sealed with a cardboard fold-over flap. The double wrapping secures the individual pieces nicely and protects against accidental loss since both bags must be opened to remove the contents. This extra security will certainly be appreciated by the modeler and makes storage of the items much easier.

The Toggle Switch baggie contains 20 pieces, as does the baggie for the Electric Connectors. The baggie containing the Knob Switches contains 5 pieces.

Review Author
Michael Novosad
Published on
October 19, 2021
Company
AFV Modeller
MSRP
$14.95

Format

The cover for this issue has a stunning image of Jose‘ Dusquesne‘s Pz. Kpfw. 38 (t). The publication is printed on medium-weight glossy paper, with color images on every page. In some article there are several images numbered and keyed to the text. This issue contain 64 pages.

Contents

The first article is by James Bond, and features The ICM kit of the Russian B-35, “Land Battleship”. The author put a great deal of effort into this model, and several in-progress images are included. The Fruil tracks used in this build were 24” long, and when wound about the suspension should be a model over 10” long. A land battleship for sure. Informative building techniques offered to the reader.