Wojciech Zmyslony and Wojciech Sankowski author the latest in Mushroom Model Publications’ series of aircraft used in the Polish Air Force. This volume’s focus are the piston engine Yak fighters deployed by the ‘People’s Polish Air Force’ during WWII and the late 40s.

The front and back covers are by Marek Ryś of a Yak-1b, one of three aircraft adorned with a presentation inscription.

I counted 177 black and white photos along with 2 color photos of museum aircraft. Thierry Vallet contributes 42 color side views as well as top and bottom views as appropriate. Colors are even called out with Russian AMT and US FS numbers. The great part of these color side views is they are backed up with period photos of the aircraft that is being portrayed. Wojciech Zmyslony and Wojciech Sankowski also include two tables (see below) that detail the date, unit, aircraft, markings, and pilot.

The Table of Contents focuses on the following sections:

This is Ampersand’s second aviation book, both in the Visual History Series, and follows the same format as David Doyle’s “Flying Wings”. Ampersand got their start in 1993 when Pat Stansell distributed a free issue of Military Miniatures in Review at the IPMS Nationals in Atlanta. Ampersand joined forces with HobbyLink Japan in 2008 and have continued to expand their military AFV publications ever since. 2015 saw Ampersand dive into aviation books and 2016 marks their first dive into nautical books with the Visual History Series on the USS California. True to the series name, the focus of this book in on the visual with a mere two pages detailing the development history of the Peacemaker. A third page depicts the development of the B-36 with line drawings, and then it’s off to the well captioned photographs.

Quickboost is a company that specializes in drop-in resin replacement parts to enhance the appearance of your models. Being “drop-in” replacements, it is very rare you need you modify the original parts, hence the “quick” name.

In this case I am reviewing the Night Gun Barrels without pylons for the 1/48 F4U-5 from Hasegawa.

In this particular case the set is a “drop-in” conversion, as you don’t need to modify the original parts but there is no F4U-5 (NF) kit –that I know- without the rocket pylons.

As you can see from the pictures the resin parts have better surface detail plus removal points from the pouring stub are easier to hide than in their plastic counterparts. Also the flash hiders are very delicate, so exercise care when handling. At the same time they will look terrific in a finished model!

Highly recommened.

I would like to thank Aires/Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review sample.

Review

Quickboost is a company that specializes in drop-in resin replacement parts to enhance the appearance of your models. Being “drop-in” replacements, it is very rare you need you modify the original parts, hence the “quick” name.

In this case I am reviewing the Gun Barrels with pylons for the 1/48 F4U-5 day fighter from Hasegawa.

As you can see from the pictures the resin parts have better surface detail plus removal points from the pouring stub are easier to hide than in their plastic counterparts.

Also you might notice the overall size of the pylon is a bit shorter in the resin part than in the plastic part. I do not know which one (plastic or resin) is closer to the real size –in scale-. Check your own references and make your decision as to which one to use.

Recommended.

I would like to thank Aires/Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review sample.

Quickboost is a company that specializes in drop-in resin replacement parts to enhance the appearance of your models. Being “drop-in” replacements, it is very rare you need you modify the original parts, hence the “quick” name.

In this case I am reviewing the Gun Barrels for the well-known A-36 Apache in 1/48 scale from Accurate Miniatures, this kit is also available reboxed by Italeri.

As you can see from the pictures the resin parts have hollow ends and deeper holes in the cooling jacket, which would take a wash much easier and would look much better than the plastic parts.

Highly recommened.

I would like to thank Aires/Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review sample.