One of the criticisms I've read about the 1/72 scale Airfix Spitfire Mk.22 is the cannons are not quite the right shape or length. Apart from this deficiency, the Airfix Spitfire is an excellent kit and a great value for your money.

If you want to improve this model's looks and accuracy, however, Quickboost has a remedy. Their replacement resin cannons are drop-ins for the original kit pieces. Based on photos I saw, they capture the shape and size of the real thing. The kit's outboard cannons are too short, both barrels seem too bulbous, and both have an out of scale extension on the tip. Also, the resin replacements have no seam lines to eliminate – a definite plus, since the kit parts have large sprue gates. Smoothing out these sprue attachment points presents the possibility of deforming the circular barrels. Overall, the Quickboost cannon barrels look more refined and in scale. Check out the photos to see what I mean.

The maiden flight of the F-104 was in 1954, and its final variant was the S (first flown in 1966) model, which was a licensed-production Italian version of the 104. The Italian Air Force and Turkish Air force flew the S model, with the Italians using them until 2004! (Pretty good service, I’d say.)

The Kit

Upon opening the box, you will find 16 (some have just one part on them) light grey and 1 clear sprues of injected molded plastic, a nice decal sheet with markings for one aircraft (a 104S from the 5th Stormo, 23 Gruppo, in memorial paint scheme), and an 8-page instruction sheet. The plastic is cleanly molded with nice detail and is flash free, but there are a few pin marks throughout the parts.

As The Douglas Skyraider series was arguably the most effective and all-around aircraft of the Vietnam War, I won’t go into any history. If you don’t know about the Skyraider but are reading this, you should be aware of this versatile aircraft which was used by both the US Navy and US Air Force.

When I received the kit for this review, I first spent time going through the plans and the many sprues to get a feel of the fidelity to scale and detail level of the kit. I was excited by what I saw and anxious to get started with the build.

Kit

The kit comes with two sprues, one for the four US Army figures and one for the four US Marine figures. There is a paper sheet with printed US food ration boxes that can be cut, folded, and glued up to represent these ration boxes. Also there is and instruction sheet for assembly. The first thing you will notice about this kit is that it is not a Tamiya mold, but instead a Master Box Mold. In fact the kit contains two Master Box figure sets into one. Why Tamiya used, Master Box Molds instead of producing their own is beyond me (could be a distributor relationship- Ed). Tamiya has a history of producing excellent figures, so I was a little dumb founded as to this fact when I received the kit. The figures have excellent detail with little to no flash to clean up. There are a few options for some of the figures. There are different weapons and equipment for some of the figures to choose from, but most build up to what you see on the box art.

History

The Messerschmitt Bf-110 was an early attempt by the Luftwaffe to develop a long range strategic fighter for deep penetration missions. It was also intended as a long range escort for bombers, as an interceptor against enemy bomber formations, and as a light bomber and ground attack aircraft. The first prototype flew in 1936, but protracted engine development kept the Bf-110 from entering service until 1938 as the Bf-110B. In 1939, the Bf-110C went into production, and this was the first version produced in large numbers. The Bf-110C appeared in fighter, ground attack, reconnaissance, and “destroyer” versions. The Bf-110C was used to effect in the Polish campaign in 1939, and this gave Goring the impression that the type was unstoppable, the ultimate air weapon. After success in shooting down unescorted RAF Wellington bombers, the type was committed in Norway and Denmark, and later during the Battle of France.