Although the B-24 Liberator shared the honors with the B-17 Flying Fortress of being the principal American heavy bomber of World War II, it was a much later design. It incorporated several unusual design features, including the Davis patent wing of very thin section and high aspect ratio, and bomb bay doors which rolled up like the top of a roll-top desk. This feature was created to make it more difficult for enemy fighters to know when the bomber was on its final bomb run. The doors moved up the side of the fuselage instead of hinging down as in the B-17. The B-24 had a range of 3,000 miles, together with a speed of more than 300 m.p.h. and a ceiling of 35,000 ft. The B-24Hs in RAF service were fitted with Boulton Paul tail turrets, but retained the rest of their standard armament.

Aires has presented us with another beauty here. I’ve wanted to build an EA-6B for quite some time (I have a bit of a background in electronic countermeasures). The only kit in my chosen scale of 1/72 is the Hasegawa kit. This kit is typical Hasegawa of its era, with finely engraved panel lines, minimal necessary external accessories for the version being done, and not much in the cockpit area. This set takes care of the last part completely.

As usual, the set is flawlessly cast in a medium grey resin, with incredible detail just begging to be painted and highlighted. Also included is a photoetch sheet with instrument panels, seatbelts, and other cockpit accoutrements, and a clear acetate sheet with the backing for the instrument panels.

This is essentially a book of lovely color aircraft profiles! There are 16 aircraft covered by this book: three D. 520s, two Hawk 75s, 4 MS 406s, one Bf-110C, and six Bf-109Es that were engaged in the Battle of France in 1940. The profiles are beautifully drawn and each is accompanied by a short caption in both English and Polish detailing a short history of the pilot and aircraft depicted.

Accompanying the book are decal sheets in 1/32, 1/48 and 1/72 for all of the aircraft illustrated within. The profiles serve as the placement guide for the decals. The decals themselves are absolutely gorgeous! They are well printed, in register, with vibrant colors. The sheet illustrated with this review is the 1/32 sheet, but all markings are on the sheet for each scale. The decals are printed by Cartograf, so you know they are good. I will need to dig the old Medallion 1/48 resin Hawk 75 out of the stash and buy an AZ MS 406 to put these to good use.

AeroBonus is a specialized company from Aires that concentrates on Soviet wing stores. The latest release is a couple of air to ground rockets. Molded on four pour blocks with some exquisite detail, these unique looking rockets are quite impressive. There are two mold blocks with the rocket bodies. The other two are warheads on one and tail units on the other block. I really liked the rocket flutes on the tail which are petite and perfectly cast. Quickboost uses light grey resin that has no imperfections. Removal is easy and assembly will represent no problems, even to beginning resin users.

The Academy Mig-21 kit is a nice kit. However, the parts breakdown of certain pieces is a pain. This is apparent especially on the kit gun pods. The kit part has a seam right down the middle which will be difficult to fill. The kit pod also has minimal detail and some shape issues. The Quickboost resin cannon pod has exquisite detail. The vents and fasteners are perfectly represented, but the best feature is the drilled-out gun barrels. I’m sure I could not drill them as well as Quickboost because these things are so small that I’m sure I would have just made a mess of it.

The single piece is molded perfectly in light grey resin. Removal is quite easy and adding it to the belly is easy enough as long as you don’t cut off the mounting stubs. The Quickboost pod has a more accurate shape, especially around the front portion.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review sample.