The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, or colloquially known as the Evo is a high-performance sports car manufactured by Mitsubishi Motors that is based on the Lancer. There have been ten official versions to date, our subject review kit is the forth generation of the series. All EVO’s use two litre, turbocharged and four wheel drive systems. EVO’s were not officially imported into the American market until 2003; therefore this model represents the “home-market” version of this car,

The Kit

Our subject kit comes from Hasagawa imported by Hobbico and is part of their extensive line of the Lancer GSR series. All of the kit parts are crisply molded; since this is an EVO, there are additional standard Lancer parts included in the kit that would not nessarily be used but are available. The kit comes with a complete set of decals, window painting masks and mesh material for the front intercooler intake.

This is a set of resin exhaust stacks for the new Eduard Bf-110E kit. The advantage in using these units is that they are drilled out, whereas the kit parts are not. They fit perfectly, and were a welcome addition to my model. They are to be installed after painting the basic structure, allowing for such detailing and weathering as you desire. These are worth getting to upgrade your model. Recommended.

My thanks to Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this item.

History

When Ernst Udet brought back two Curtiss Hawk biplanes to Germany in the middle thirties after witnessing dive bombing demonstrations by US Navy pilots, he started a trend that resulted in the development of dive bombing aircraft for the Luftwaffe that eventually resulted in the development of the Junkers JU-87. Capable of nearly vertical dives retarded by very effective dive brakes, bombing accuracy improved dramatically, and during World War II, the Germans, along with the Americans and Japanese, developed dive bombing to a fine art. The Ju-87 was an early attempt at a specialized dive bomber, and although progressively developed during the war, could never keep pace with or coexist in an environment with enemy fighters unless a strong friendly fighter escort was present, a luxury the Germans didn’t always have.

Quickboost now offers model builders an aftermarket detail set that replaces the exhaust pipes found in Tamiya’s great 1/72 A6M5 kit. As nice as the kit parts may be, these pipes provide greater detail than those in the kit because Quickboost has molded them with open ends. They are designed to simply drop in, in place of the kit parts. As the photo below shows, they match up with the kit parts exactly so adding them to the model should be a simple matter after they are removed from the casting block.

Following the conclusion of World War II the U.S. Army and the U.S.M.C. were in dire need of a heavy tank to keep up with the Soviet armor force. After many years of development and testing the M103 was ready to go into production. Through the development of the M103 there were several variants developed. The main variant being the M51 heavy tank recovery vehicle. The M103 never served in a war zone, but was deployed in Germany and, of all places, Guantanamo, Cuba. The M103 was retired after only fourteen years of operational service.

The author and Osprey publishing do a very good job of telling how the M103 came to be and then finally being put into service. The writing is very clear and they use photos and artist drawings of the M103 in combat, which it never was, just kind of a "what if" type of artist's rendering.

One interesting side note is that there is a local military museum that has an M103 turret as one of their displays.