Reviews of products for scale aircraft models.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$8.99

Hasegawa’s 1/48th scale Sea King is a wonderful kit and there have been a few releases of aftermarket for it but nothing lately. Quickboost and Aires surprised us with one of their latest releases, a pair of pilot seats in the Quickboost line as replacement for the kits seats.

The set comes with two casting blocks which contains the seats and two side rails each. There are instructions included also. Assembly is maybe 10 minutes worth. Cut the seat from the casting blocks and sand the bottom even with the bottom of the seat. Carefully cut the two side rails loose and glue in place.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$2.30

This set provides a replacement pitot tube for the Airfix BAe Systems Hawk 100 kit. As with all of Master Model’s replacement parts, this pitot tube is exquisitely made and show in the photos it is a big improvement over the kit pitot. It will be a welcome addition to your Hawk.

This will be the easiest add-on you ever make, as even though the instructions tell you to drill a hole for the replacement part, when I test fitted it to the kit, it just dropped into place without having to do anything to the mounting hole. All you need is some superglue gel and a few seconds to make sure the pitot tube is correctly oriented, and you are done, but watch your fingers as the pitot tube is very pointy.

Highly recommended! Thank you to Master Model for the review sample and to IPMS/USA for letting me review it.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$4.00

This set provides replacements for the wingtip pitot tubes and the refueling probe tip for the Handley Page Victor. As with all of Master Model’s replacement parts, these are exquisitely made and will be a welcome addition to your Victor. I have the old Matchbox Victor kit, so I compared the replacement parts with the kit parts, and as the photos show, Master Model’s parts are head and shoulders above the kit parts.

Review Author
Timothy Gidcumb
Published on
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$16.95

Recently I was given the opportunity by IPMS USA to review Scale Aircraft Conversions adaption of the T-33A landing gear in white metal for the 1/48 Great Wall kit. The set contains the two main gear legs with the accompanying struts, a nose gear that incorporates the landing lights and the retraction strut and oleo scissor. A very nice addition to the set is the 20 gram forward fuselage ballast nose weight reproduced in metal. These are direct replacements for the parts that come in the Great Wall T-33A. Comparing the kit landing gear and the SAC landing gear side by side you will notice similarities between the two, but a little better detail in the SAC offering including brake lines. Overall this is highly recommended for stronger landing gear and added detail and is a great addition to the Great Wall kit. I would like to thank Scale Aircraft Conversions for another great offering in metal landing gear and IPMS USA for the opportunity to review this item.

Review Author
Paul R. Brown
Published on
Company
Brengun
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$3.80

One of Brengun’s more recent releases is a photo-etch fret of drop tank gas caps for 1/72 US Navy aircraft. The set includes 5 different types of gas caps, with 9 of each type, so you can detail quite a large number of drop tanks with this set. The set does not include any instructions or information as to which gas caps go on what types of drop tanks, but from what I can tell from looking at the photo of some sample tanks with the caps installed on Brengun’s website. It appears that the caps are intended for World War II US Navy aircraft.

Review Author
Dave Koukol
Published on
Company
Tamiya
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$115.00

Background

Introduced in the 1970's as the U.S.Navy's replacement for the F-4 Phantom in its fleet defense fighter role, the F-14 Tomcat quickly established itself as a state-of-the-art weapons system and as one of the world's leading air superiority fighters. The Tomcat saw significant combat duty, starting with the downing of a pair of hostile Libyan Su-22's in the early 1980's, and concluding during the Global War on Terror in 2006 when it was replaced by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

Throughout its distinguished service life, the F-14 expanded its role to include air-to-ground bombing, and fielded variants with designations of F-14A, F-14A Plus, F-14B, and F-14D – all derived from engine, avionics, and mission capability enhancements.

This kit portrays a mid-production F-14A of late 1970's/early 1980's vintage.

Review Author
Rod Lees
Published on
Company
Master Model
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$12.50

Another in a long line of excellent turned metal (brass) and resin items from Master Model. IPMS USA sincerely appreciates Master’s support of our reviewer corps!

Up front, Master provides turned-metal pitot probes and a resin vane set for the ultimate Su-25. As usual, Piotr provides a highly-detailed, more scale pitot replacement for the kit item. Metal and resin combined make for an unbeatable combination!

In side by side comparison, you can see the difference in the Master pitots and vanes verses the Kit provided plastic versions. The Master pitot is far more scale in appearance, and since it’s extremely thin, it pays to be careful with this set. Bend it and cry…. But at least it won’t break off!

Review Author
Clarence Wentzel
Published on
Company
Avantgarde Model Kits
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$16.95

The L-29 Delfin was a jet-powered trainer airplane that was designed by the Aero Company of Czechoslovakia. It was designed to provide the Warsaw Pact nations with a jet-powered replacement for their propeller driven trainers. The aircraft was in production from 1963 until 1974 with over 3,500 produced. In addition to the Warsaw Pact nations, the L-29 has been used by many other countries and in fact, a number are still in use in civilian hands. These can be seen in air shows around the world.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
AOA Decals
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$22.00

AOA Decals has filled another void in the decal world by producing a set for VF-143 Pukin’, and covers one specific airframe, BuNo 155887, call sign “Taproom”. The decals cover three cruises:

  • USS 1969-70
  • USS 1971-72
  • USS 1972-73

One note directly from their web site caught my attention. For the 1972-73 cruise, this aircraft also bore the name of VF-143's XO, CDR Harley Hall, who sadly become the last Navy combat loss on 27 January 1973 flying Taproom 113 and last American to be listed as POW. While his RIO was later released, there is still controversy and contradictions surrounding the ultimate fate of CDR Hall. CDR Hall was previously Blue Angels Officer-In-Charge/Flight Leader (Plane 1), he and his Blue Angel team were featured in the 1975 documentary Threshold – “The Blue Angel Experience.” One of the first things you note about all AOA decals is the depth of the research and passion which they devote to it.

Review Author
Dave Morrissette
Published on
Company
Twobobs Aviation Graphics
Scale
1/32
MSRP
$14.00

Two Bobs has been giving us awesome decals for a very long time now, and this latest set is designed for the wonderful Tamiya 1/32 F-15C kit. These markings represent the F-15C’s from the 65th Aggressor Squadron from Nellis AFB. When this was squadron was disbanded, the F-15’s were sent to various ANG squadrons. The planes from this sheet were sent to the 144th FW in Fresno, CA hence the “repo” Eagles name. These planes still retained their aggressor markings.