This is another of Quickboost’s more-or-less drop-in replacements for kit parts. In this case, it’s the exhausts for Hobby Boss’s Mi-2 Hoplite helicopter kit. The parts in the kit are hollowed out for you already, but the walls of the tubes are a bit thick. The replacement exhausts from Quickboost are direct replacements for the kit parts, but with thinner walls. They fit right into the sides of the cowlings as if, well, they were made for them. They also appear to be slightly more accurate in shape than the kit parts. The kit parts are oval shaped, whereas the prototype exhausts (and the QB parts) have a slightly flattened side to them. This set is definitely recommended as a time saver.

My thanks go to Aires Hobby Models and Quickboost for providing the parts for a rather esoteric subject and to IPMS/USA for allowing me to review them.

This set from Quickboost is designed to replace and improve upon the kit parts for Hobby Boss’s Mi-2 Hoplite. The kit air-intake cowling includes two holes through which you place the air intakes. It also has a molded-in intake in the upper center with a screen engraved in it. The Quickboost parts feature the cowling with two hollowed intake tubes cast in, along with an opening at the upper center. You get a photoetch screen to place over the opening, along with a spare screen. While a bit more fiddly than the kit parts, the level of detail is worth the slightly greater effort. Recommended.

My thanks go to Aires Hobby Models for producing and providing the parts for a rather esoteric subject and to IPMS/USA for allowing me to review them.

ATTENTION!!! Those of you with that huge box of plastic labeled “1/48 Testors or Italeri C-130 E/H in your stash, languishing in the dust because you’re bored with monotone gray, SEA or European One camouflage schemes. Here is your chance to buy a couple of extra bottles of liquid cement and get after it! This decal sheet offers up beautifully rendered markings for “Fat Albert” the USMC C-130T that provides support logistics transport, in addition to it’s own amazing solo performance featuring rocket assisted take-offs for the US Navy’s “Blue Angels” aircraft demonstration team.

Cross & Cockade International is the quarterly publication of a non-profit organization known as The First World War Aviation Historical Society. The UK based organization has been publishing these journals since 1970 with the objective of furthering the study of First World War Aviation History. The first journal of 2014; Volume 45/1 (Spring 2014) features a beautiful cover painting by David Ellwood of a Phoenix P.5 Cork flying boat “Rattling the Rivets of a German U boat. The Phoenix P.5 Cork is the subject of a 19-page feature article that kicks things off, but this quarterly journal, much like all C&CI journals, also covers a variety of other well-researched WWI subjects in a highly professional manner.

Following an Editorial page, the contents includes:

The MiG-17PF was the all weather fighter version of the Fresco. The Fresco D had three 23mm cannons.

This set includes five precision turned brass parts. There is nothing to clean up. Simply drill the hole where the parts go and you are in business.

The highlights of this set are the pitot tubes. They are perfectly formed and even capture that one pitot tube is slightly longer than the other.

The other three parts are the 23mm cannon barrels.

The instructions indicate the proper holes to drill and the proper length of the parts.

This set is like every other Master part I’ve used, simple, effective, and strong. The strength is especially important for the wingtip pitot tubes, which will invariably are subjected to some damage from handling.

Highly recommended