Once upon a time there was a guy named Rob Ferreira and he was a TreadHead. Unfortunately, unlike most TreadHeads, Rob just didn’t enjoy building a military vehicle and weathering it. Nope that was too easy. What Rob liked to do was take a military vehicle to it’s final resting place. Be it as a monument on display in the open, an old forgotten wreck sitting in some wooded area all but forgotten about, a vehicle destroyed by some catastrophe, or a vehicle sitting in a vehicle track park in Afghanistan.

This last scenario is what actually got the engine compartment started. Rob wanted to create more than one vehicle with this empty engine bay. He chummed up to his friend Steve Reid of Celticwerks and after much back door shenanigans and blacks ops dealings there was some magical agreement that got Rob to do the masters and Steve to create the molds for the rest of us lowly TreadHeads to benefit from this teaming.

Wow, just looking at this piece has given me a re-found respect for you Braille-scale builders! I don’t see how you can do it. I have enough troubles bending and gluing photo-etched parts. I will learn to start soldering them soon. Can’t even imagine trying to do it 1/72 scale. That is an issue anyone that buys this kit will need to overcome.

Mini World appears to be a relatively new company or at least a new off shoot from a company in the Ukraine. There were many companies that carried their line (all overseas) but only Hannants had this particular item listed on their website. Mini World does not have a website of its own. Their items are pretty impressive. They currently have 18 different machine guns on the market. Most are for WWI aircraft but I did also notice two different DShK kits available as well.

Editor's note: The following review was purchased independently and submitted for review by the author. Should you have an interest in the product you will need to purchase directly, as noted in the review.

The history of this gun goes back as far as 1980. The Israeli’s had these mounted in M113 series vehicles as well as several wheeled styles. For one reason or another it never really took off. However, the Chilean army purchased several upgrade packages for their aging M-50s (supplied by Israel) and their M-24s. These guns and Fire Control packages were relatively cheap compared to other offers and had an incredible amount of hitting power for the size of the gun.

Quickboost now offers 1/32 scale builders a set of resin exhaust pipes for Hasegtawa’s Ki 44 Tojo kits. They are accurately sized, cast in Quickboost’s typical gray resin and feature remarkably thin sidewalls that capture the appearance of the Prototype’s exhausts quite nicely.

Unlike the kit parts that require modelers to glue together two halves to end up with a single hollow pipe, the Quickboost exhausts are already hollow and ready to use without any assembly. They are cast so they may be painted while still on the casting block. After removing them from the casting block, they will fit in place with absolutely no modification required. Just remember, because they are resin, they will need to be attached with super glue or an epoxy adhesive.

This set is recommended. My thanks to Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review sample.

The folks at Quickboost continue to add superb detail sets to their growing catalog of items. For this review I will be looking at the Undercarriage Covers detail set for the 1/48 Hasegawa Ki-61 family of kits.

This superb detail set is designed to work with the 1/48 Hasegawa Ki-61 I Hein “Tony”. The Hein was a WWII Japanese fighter with an inline engine. When Allied pilots first encountered the Hein, they thought they were flying against German Bf 109 fighters because of the similar nose shape. They quickly discovered that this was in fact a Japanese design, and it was given the code name “Tony”.

The Quickboost Undercarriage Covers (Landing gear doors) are finely molded, and are very easily removed from the casting block. I find that using a razor saw is the easiest method, and after a little sanding, these great detail parts are ready to glue in place.