This prop is not included in the Airfix kit. The Rotol prop sports a different blade shape with a wider chord. The spinner is the same as provided in the Aires replacement for the kit part QB72 491 reviewed elsewhere on this site. The spinner puts the joints lines in the right place and in the right scale. Be sure to cut the blades off the casting block to allow the maximum shaft length. The spinner holes go through the part and the long blade shafts help with the alignment of the blades. Check the blades carefully because the leading and trailing edges are slightly different shapes and I managed to put one in backwards. The tool also has a hole to center your drill so you can drill out the spinner for a prop shaft. This part is a welcome addition to an already cool little kit.

Thank you Aires Quick Boost for jazzing up the Defiant.

This is the first Royal Class kit I have had the opportunity to build. It’s the latest Eduard FW 190A-8 release in 1/72 scale. This series is great and the addition of the Beer glass and original piece of one of the Aircraft you can build is a wonderful and original idea. The Royal class also comes with enough parts to build four complete kits with PE, Resin, Masks and Decals for lots of versions.

In the box is:

• 9 x light grey sprues
• 4 x clear sprue
• 8 x photoetched details parts
• 1 mask set
• 5 x decal sheet
• 1 instruction booklet
• Plaque with an original piece of a real FW190A-8
• Certificate of Authenticity of the piece of Aircraft included
• Beer Glass with FW 190A-8 emblem

All the sprues are extremely well molded and super fine details we have come to expect from Eduard’s kits.

Scale Aircraft Conversions has released replacement landing gear for the excellent Pilot Replicas 1/48 SAAB J 21 A-3. The 13 parts supplied include the nose gear, main gear, torque links, and main gear retraction arms. A side by side evaluation of all the SAC parts shows the similarity with the kit parts. Ross McMillan has combined two parts by securing the nose gear wheel fork to the nose gear, eliminating a potential point of failure. There are no supplied instructions; you simply swap out the kit provided plastic parts with the new white metal items. You do need to be very careful to assure proper alignment on all three axes. The SAC landing gear may need to be slightly adjusted to be straight (a benefit of using metal is that you can bend it slightly). Smooth jaw needle nose pliers work wonderfully.

The parts are packaged in a thin plastic sleeve, and the resin is protected by additional reinforcement ribs. Four control levers (sticks) are provided, but the kit requires only two.

Compared to the Hobby Boss (HB) kit parts, the Quickboost (QB) has great improvement on detail over the HB part. The most noticeable difference is the grip shape itself giving crisp detail and accurate contours. Another area of improvement is the grip pivot (roll) accurately replicating that unique pivot. The HB part is very basic where the QB part has finer detail as well as small wiring provided in the casting.

Aires/Quickboost is known for exquisite detail on all of their update sets and this review sample is no exception. I would like to thank Aires for this 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 without pylons for the 1/48 F4U-5 day fighter 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 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. The diameter of the barrels seems to be a bit smaller in the resin parts.

Highly recommened.

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