Many thanks to Mr. Ross MacMillan of Scale Aircraft Conversions and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for allowing me to try this neat conversion and replacement set for the Hong Kong Models Gloster Meteor. I am delighted to report on another sweet add-on and upgrade.

The 9 white-metal parts arrived in a blister pack, backed by the distinctive SAC company logo. The heft of the parts is very noticeable. All parts are free of sprues with the exception of the main mount retractors. The parts require very little buffing, cleanup and polishing. The SAC gear struts directly replace the Meteor kit parts. The main mount parts and nose strut parts attached to the kit fuselage with no difficulty, even as a refit or upgrade to an existing kit. Kit parts that are replaced by SAC parts are C1, C2, C8, C11, C12, C13, C14, C17 and C18. No replacement is provided for C9 AND C10, but no replacement appears to be needed.

I want to start by saying I don’t model much armor, this is only my third armor model completed, but I definitely will be building more.

Eduard has come up with a great kit which uses the Tasca molds for the Sherman tank and made it better with its Profi-pack. The basic kit is molded in olive drab green and comes on 14 parts trees plus a small clear parts tree and four sections of rubber tracks. It also has a nice set of photo etch parts and decals for four different subjects. The instruction booklet is pretty clear and concise and the illustrations are sharp.

History

The LST (Landing Ship Tank) was developed during World War II. Despite its size, the LST had a very shallow draft allowing it to load and unload on shore and at low tide without docking which was essential during the D-Day invasion. The power was provided by diesel engines driving two shafts and propellers. Speed was around 9 knots.

Kit

The kit is produced by Round 2 Models, a well-known company who bought the Lindberg Line and is re-issuing the kits in very colorful packaging. The box art work in outstanding! The scene depicts marines landing on a pacific island under fire while in the air Corsairs are shooting down Japanese Aircraft. Great art work worth framing but these ships were used mostly in the European Theater of Operation.

Quickboost’s offers a set of detailed propellers to their aftermarket parts line that are to be used to replace the ones found in the new Airfix 1:72 scale C-47 Skytrain kit. The Quickboost propeller set provides separate blades and hubs that feature far better hub detail and more accurate blade shape than those found in the kit. The size and general shape of the Quickboost parts match the kit parts so they are designed to be quick drop-in replacements with no surgery. An alignment tool is included that makes properly aligning and attaching the blades to the hubs almost foolproof. See the photo below comparing them to the kit parts.

Recently, Airfix has upped its game with the release of several 1/72 scale aircraft kits with new tooling and featuring excellent detail. One such kit is their Hawker Typhoon Mk Ib. Despite Airfix’s excellent out-of-box detail, aftermarket detail manufacturers have tossed their hats into the ring to make an excellent kit even better.

Among them is Quickboost -- bringing their improved engine exhausts. Comparing fairly closely to the kit parts, the Quickboost versions offer the feature of hollowed out exhaust ports – saving the modeler time and stray cuts in the kit parts and fingers from errant drill bits or hobby knives.

Quickboost’s mold quality and fidelity of detail is exceptional, and the hollowed out stacks make a subtle contribution to improving this legendary 1/72 RAF tank killer. Highly recommended for the braille scale modeler wanting to really trick out his Typhoon Ib.