Quickboost has provided the modeler with the means to show his Corsair model not with static elevators, but have them deflected. Cast in the usual fine grain resin, the only flash is on the stabilizer and that is on purpose to ease the extraction of the cast parts from the rubber molds. This flash is very thin and quite easy to remove, posing no problems. A razor saw and a pair of snips is all that is required to remove the parts from the casting gate. Quickboost has provided a drawing on the filler paper that shows what has to be removed.

Any of us who suffer from AMS (Advanced Modeler Syndrome) are never satisfied with the “stock” kit, even one as fine as Tamiya’s F-16 series! Luckily there is a cure for those who love that insane level of detail but don’t have the time to do it ourselves, and Aires has long delivered the goods. This cockpit set continues to provide the quality we expect from Aires, however there are a few issues with getting it into the advertised kit it was “designed” for.

Quickboost has added the P-51D propeller to their line of resin aircraft accessories. The blades are molded separately from the spinner and a tool is provided for the proper blade pitch during installation. This latest addition is molded in a grayish 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 it should work with any other P-51D kit. In comparison with the Tamiya kit parts, I don’t really see all that much of a difference in the final product, the difference that does stand out is in the assembly. The Tamiya blades are molded together with the pitch set and will have to have the mold connections removed and sanded down. This can be a little slow and tedious especially when there are 3 of them between the blades, trying not to accidentally cut one off.

Thanks once again to Chris for providing IPMS USA more of his excellent products; in this case, a brace of modern snakes!

The AIM-9X program has been yet another joint effort (Navy/AF) intended to provide better weapons to our warfighters. The AIM-9 series is one of the more effective close-in weapons; it’s notoriously accurate, and usually does the job better than radar guided weapons. Of course, you are in a knife fight at this point if you must use these missiles, so effective and accurate are both pluses. The AIM-9X is the latest generation Sidewinder; it is tied in to helmet-cuing sight technology, and goes where the pilot is looking. It’s an excellent follow-on to the AIM -9L (Lima) and -9M (Mike)… both which have extremely successful history as lethal close-in air-to-air weapons.

The seemingly never ending list of top quality aftermarket items from this company continues to grow even larger. It has become a foregone conclusion with these folks that excellence is alive and well at this company. As always, beautifully cast in flawless grey resin and are engineered as “drop in” parts to replace the kit items. Again many thanks to the Quickboost people and IPMS/USA for the review samples. Visit their website www.quickboost.net for these and other excellent products.

Highly recommended