Quickboost adds to its long line of ejection seats with a late model A-7E Corsair II ejection seat with molded in belts. The seat comes in four pieces with two being the side on the seat top and one a handle on the right side of the seat. All the parts are perfectly cast. Assembly is simple with the canopy breakers being removed and added to the top of the seats. The handle is added. One warning here, I added mine and it was broken off with the handling by the end of the photos.

The seat is designed for the Trumpeter kit so I built it for comparison. The Trumpeter seat isn't bad but in comparison to the Quickboost seat, it is lacking detail. The top of the seat is much better detailed in the Quickboost set. Quickboost is definitely an upgrade to the Trumpeter kit.

This seat is very recommended and very reasonable in price. My thanks to Aires, Quickboost, and IPMS/USA for the chance to review this great seat.

This product is a prepainted photoetched flight deck section from a US carrier between 1942 and 1944. It is made of a fairly heavy gauge brass. It partly includes one of the hangar deck lifts in the full up position. It has good texture showing the planking on the deck, the tiedown strips and the metal areas surrounding the lift, as well as some of the deck markings for the carrier. The painting gives a realistic replication of the wood grain on the deck planks and is of the early war natural wood coloring. The surface has a slight sheen, and to be more realistic, it should have a light coat of flat clear sprayed on. The deck section is big enough for a small naval aircraft, and would probably be okay with a Hellcat or a Corsair. It measures 4 3/8 x 5 1/4 inches or approximately 111 x 133 millimeters. It will make a very effective display that can be completed quickly by simply gluing it to an appropriately sized base. Highly recommended.

The Build (Continued)

The assembled engine dropped in place with little drama…but, because of the rather complex way the engine, engine bay framing and multi-part cowling align with the fuselage, I first carefully dry-fitted everything (and temporarily taped parts in place) to make sure there were no gaps between panel lines. Doing this also ensured that the front of the engine was centered in the opening in the cowl front. I cemented the engine in place and removed the engine panels to make the necessary adjustments as called out in the instructions.

The Nov/Dec 2013 issue of Windsock Worldwide (now branded ‘WINDSOCK World War Centenary’) is the last issue of Volume 29 and it’s pages continue the publication’s tradition of delivering some of the most interesting, accurate and unique information about WWI aviation to be found anywhere.

As an example, this issue initiates a new mini-series titled 100 Great Warplanes, that promises to profile some of the lesser known and/or poorly chronicled WWI types. The first to be featured in an eleven-page article in this issue is the 1916 German two-seat Rumpler C.III. Eleven pages are devoted to this reconnaissance aircraft with a historical description, 27 period photographs (many previously unpublished), full 1/48 scale plans of all versions and an exclusive color profile of the prototype C.III by Ronny Bar.

WWI aircraft model builders will be interested to know that GasPatch’s line of aftermarket detail parts also now includes cast metal turnbuckles for rigging late war and between-the-war RAF aircraft. As previously noted in IPMS/USA product reviews, the Gas Patch aftermarket details represent “…a significant and notable advance in the quality of aftermarket parts for WWI aircraft”. These turnbuckles certainly are further proof of that statement.