This is the third item from Master Model that I have had the privilege of reviewing, and once again, I have had a very positive experience with some remarkable items. The subject of this review comes from the Sea Master line of parts, in particular their 1/700 scale offering of 28cm/54.5 (about 11 inches) SKC/34 gun barrels as carried by the German ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. I volunteered for this particular review as I already had a Tamiya Water Line Series Scharnhorst (kit 77518) lying in wait in my stash, ready to accept these new parts.

A huge “thanks!” to our friends at Aires; they continue to provide IPMS USA with plenty of review opportunities for upgrades to our favorite aircraft…!

This is a simple conversion to the Hasegawa kit parts. Included are augmenter burner cans, turbine faces with integral mounting pegs to fit the Hasegawa kit, flameholders in photoetch, and the nozzles themselves. Instructions are clear and clean on the standard blue folded sheet, showing exactly what is needed to install the parts. The nozzles, a major feature of the F-22, are intended to be shown in this case in the “open” position.

This allows one to look directly down the exhaust and view the excellent detail provided by this set.

As you can see in the composite kit provided parts photo the kit turbines are not detailed other than having the flameholders; no turbine detail is provided. The kit augmenter cans are two-sided items requiring the usual filling of a seam as would be expected in the case.

Bottom Line: Excellent 3-D anchors and flattest chrysanthemum bow crests for wide range of Imperial Japanese Navy warships.

Fine Molds Nano Dread 700 Series has been producing a line of very finely detailed and realistically close-to-scale aftermarket equipment sets for 1/350 and 1/700 scale World War 2 Imperial Japanese Navy warships. These sets use advanced molding techniques to produce very small parts with exceptional detail. Historical accuracy and attention to detail makes Fine Molds Nano Dread sets ideal for upgrading WW2 ships. They have an advantage over photoetch metal sets by being three-dimensional, easier to handle, no folding or assembly required (mostly), rigid, stronger and just plain better-looking.

Quickboost has taken a shine to the Italeri Ar-196 kit. This makes either the fourth or fifth upgrade set for it. This time the emphasis is on the armament. Molded in light grey resin the parts feature great detail. This set has seven resin pieces with everything from the guns and barrels themselves to the mounts and ammo drums. The cooling fins on the gun barrels are especially nicely done. The ends are hollow and look great. The detail is much finer than that included in the kit and requires significantly less clean up than the plastic parts.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review copy

You can obtain your copy from your local hobby shop or by contacting Quickboost at www.quickboost.net.

The Academy kit is a nice kit but could benefit from some resin upgrades. Quickboost offers an easy way to upgrade the exhausts with this little set. The set is molded in light grey resin and contains two exhaust stubs. The ends are hollowed out and include the molded on weld seems. These are drop in replacements for the kit parts so adding them is easy.

Because of the size of the parts these will not fit the Hasegawa kit without some modification, but on the Academy kit they will fit perfectly. Just some paint and these will be ready to go.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review copy

You can obtain your copy from your local hobby shop or by contacting Quickboost at www.quickboost.net.