Once more, a quick review for a quick upgrade; Quickboost has provided 12 miniscule Resin gun barrels with oval cooling vents for use with the Airfix Lancaster B II. This is the Hercules radial-engined Lancaster release, but the gun barrels will work on this kit and their recent other Lancaster B I and III Merlin engine released kits as well. As noted in my other review of the .303 barrels with round holes, these should work on just about any aircraft requiring .303 gun barrels. As a note, the oval perforation gun barrels are slightly shorter than the round perforation barrels.

The muzzles are hollow, and the simulation of the oval perforations is well done. In my case, painting them black then using the side of a #2 pencil and (GENTLY) polishing with a soft cloth, I was able to bring out the detail.

This is a small photo etch sheet with numerous details intended for the Eduard Avia B.534 fighter kit that has been issued in 1/72 scale. The kit already has excellent detail, but the photo etch parts will enhance the appearance of the model, adding things that would be very difficult to scratchbuild.

A very detailed instruction sheet is included, with drawings large and clear enough to be useful under any conditions.

Revell’s PBY kits has been issued twice – once without landing gear (the PBY-5 version) and later with wheels (the PBY-5A version). Eduard has produced a superb set of wheels for the PBY-5A which includes both the main and nose gear. The set comes with seven resin parts, instructions and masks for the wheels. Casting is superb with no flaws.

Construction is simple. Remove the casting blocks from the main wheel with a razor saw and clean up the small seam. Cut the front wheel loose following the same process. There are four wheel hubs for the main wheels. I cut these loose with a razor saw also and sanded the backs until they fit flush in the wheels. Next, I used a sharp blade and cleaned the flash off on the wheel hub spokes and inside the wheels.

Brengun has produced a photoetch improvement set for Eduard’s 1/144 scale MiG-15. There are parts to redo the cockpit interior, new landing gear doors, wing fences, a pitot, and antennas.

The project begins with the cockpit. The Eduard cockpit front is cut away, and the rest is thrown away. The PE kit contains the cockpit floor and sides, consoles, a seat and instrument panel. Also, you get seat belts. Wow. And there are two extra panels which are inserted on the cockpit sides after the fuselage is assembled.

I made a mistake here. I thought I should carve the plastic wing fences off and install the PE parts at this point in the assembly, before doing the landing gear. It turns out that the wing fences are much more susceptible to being knocked off than the gear doors or the landing gear. I had to put the surviving wing fences in the envelope and hold them after I knocked all of them off. The instructions are wise here, follow them.

Scale Aircraft Conversions provides a nice set of metal landing gear for a number of aircraft. I jumped at the chance to get the SAC gear for the C-119 because it looks spindly, and I need all the help I can get to keep my models intact.

The SAC parts are very good copies of the kit gear. The other wonderful thing about the metal gear is that if you have a little trouble getting alignment as you install the parts, you can tweak the metal parts into alignment without breaking them.

Installation was just like the kit instructions say, and the wheels fit onto the SAC gear legs perfectly.

Overall Assessment.

Highly recommended. The parts fit nicely, they are stronger than the kit parts, and you don’t have to paint the SAC metal parts to make them look like metal parts.

Many thanks to Scale Aircraft Conversions for the review item and to IPMS USA for the chance to add strength to my Dollar Nineteen.