Eagle Editions is synonymous with Luftwaffe research designed for the model builder. Their latest release is for any 1/32nd scale Friedrich. As always with EagleCals, the quality is felt right from opening up the packaging.

You are presented with markings for four Freidrichs. These are quite colorful aircraft. All of them start out with base colors of RLM 78/79, but that is where they commonality ends.

The instructions are printed in color on four 8x10 pages. The front page contains the profile and plan views. The profile views are printed larger on the second page. These profiles are absolutely beautiful. I don’t know for sure but I’m fairly certain they are done by Tom Tullis. The third page is a written description of each aircraft. The fourth page contains the stencil diagram.

The folks at Quickboost continue to add superb detail sets to their growing catalog of items. For this review I will be looking at two sets for the 1/48 Hasegawa Ki-43-II Hayabusa “Oscar” Japanese WWII Fighter.

Both sets are designed to fit any number of the Hasegawa kits, as every boxing of the Hayabusa share the same fuselage – either set will work for Hasegawa’s entire series of Ki-43 aircraft.

Before you run out and purchase one of these sets, check your reference material to decide if you would like to build an early model Ki-43-II or a Late model Ki-43-II. Quickboost set 48-295 is labeled “Type A” and represents the later style exhaust pipes (pointing toward the tail). Set 48-294 is labeled “Type B” and is for the early models with the exhaust stack pointing outward. For this review, the kit shown is a Ki-43-II Early type with the exhaust stack pointing outward.

The folks at Quickboost continue to add superb detail sets to their growing catalog of items. For this review I will be looking at the Exhaust detail set for the 1/48 Hasegawa F1M2 “Pete” family of kits.

This superb detail set is designed to work with the 1/48 Hasegawa Mitsubishi F1M2 “Pete”. The “Pete” was a WWII Japanese reconnaissance floatplane. This biplane was inititally designed for reconnaissance, but was used as a bomber and fighter as well.

The Quickboost Exhaust parts are finely molded, and are very easily removed from the casting block. I find that using a razor saw is the easiest method, and after a little sanding, these great detail parts are ready to glue in place.

(Editor’s note: The reviewed publication, published in 2008, has been superseded by “Frequently Asked Questions about Techniques used for Painting Aircraft”. Published in 2010 under the same ISBN Number 978-84-96658-18-9. Despite the slight change in title there is little or no difference according to Casemate.)

Continuing with the now familiar and highly respected F.A.Q series of how-to modeling books from Andrea Press, comes JM. Villalba’s “Frequently Asked Questions about Techniques Used for Constructing & Painting Aircraft”. The 159 page book comes to us in a perfect-bound soft cover, printed in full color (except for the chapter cover pages) in an 11 3/4” x 8 1/4” format.

I must be one of the few modelers left that hasn’t built at least one of these since this kit was introduced more than thirty years ago. The 1/48^th F-4, along with the Century Series and Naval Aviation jet aircraft molded by Revell and Monogram back in the 1970s and 80s are truly classic models: exemplified by outstanding detail throughout (for their day), but particularly in the cockpit and wheel wells; finely raised panel lines, and the sometimes less than stellar fit of some of the component parts. All of this offered at a consistently affordable price.

This particular version of the venerable F-4 has been in and out of production a number of times since 1979. This kit represents the latest incarnation. A quick glance at the inside of the wing or the underside of the tailplane will confirm this kit’s ancient lineage, as well as something new about this particular molding’s place of birth.