I love the Hasegawa Bf-109s and the newest Bf-109F-4/Trop is no exception. One of the areas of the kits that could be better is the wheel well. As provided the kit wheel wells have the G-6 kidney shaped areas which obviously isn’t correct for the Friedrich. Aires provides you with the correct wheel wells by providing you with two pieces of light grey blemish free resin and a fret of photo etch.

This set requires that you remove the molded on wheel well and thin the upper wing. Then Aires replaces it with the resin one with the photoetch on top of it. The resin wheel wells have superb detail inside, including the zip in liner. The photo etch will require you to build it up in layers for the proper thickness of the stiffeners but this is easy enough to do.

The Trumpeter Bf-109F-4 is a nice kit but there are some pieces that could be better. One of those things is the Tropical Filter. This beautifully cast three piece affair is simply inserted into the supercharger scoop and your Freidrich is a Tropical version. I see no reason that this filter couldn’t be used to upgrade the Hasegawa kit filter. This set could also be used on the Bf-109G-2/4/6 kit as well.

You get an open filter assembly with two mounts. The filter has some really fine screen that is perfectly cast and representative of the real thing.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Quickboost, Aires Hobby Models and IPMS/USA for the review copy.

If you are like me, you like to articulate your elevators but you are never happy with the way it comes out. Well Quickboost makes that a whole lot easier. This set has four light tan resin pieces which replace the kit horizontal stabilizer and elevators. The trailing edges of the stabilizer are thinned and have a concaved area that the elevators, which are rounded on the leading edge, will slot into. The Tamiya kit is a really nice looking kit and this set will just make it that much nicer. It is up to the modeler to position the elevator as they wish. Don’t forget to offset the control stick.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Quickboost, Aires Hobby Models and IPMS/USA for the review copy.

Quickboost just keeps adding to their line of resin aircraft accessories. The latest addition is for the Hasegawa Ta 154. It is up to their usual standards; molded in grey resin, smooth, seamless and bubble free. One thing of note is that they are really easy to remove from the mold block because of a nice perforation. It only took me a couple of minutes with my saw blade to remove them. Another plus is that the exhausts are bored out, which would be a real pain if you tried to do it on the kit part.

The exhausts that come in the Hasegawa kit look alright and would make an acceptable model but the Quickboost replacements are superior because of how they are bored out which makes for more realism, especially in a photo. These exhausts are very easy to install, and they just fit right in.

I'm a big Spitfire fan and I was really excited to review this new item from 3D-Kits. The decal sheet provides marking for four Spitfires. You get two identical sprues containing all the parts needed to convert two Spitfire Mk I's to Mk II standards. This set reminds me of the old Airform conversion set for 1/72 Spitfires from the mid-seventies, but much better. The parts are flash free and very nicely molded. A new seat, control column, Rotol propeller, blunt spinner and teardrop shaped Coffman starter fairing complete the conversion parts. This conversion is intended for Airfix (old and new tool), and Tamiya Spitfire kits. Although it may also fit the aging Hasegawa, Heller, and Revell kits as well (I don't have these kits handy and could not verify). The new parts are direct replacements for kit parts. However I found that the new seat will require a little adjustment to fit the Airfix kit to get an acceptable result. The decals options are as follows: