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February 2016

Packaging

Gloster Gladiator Air Intakes
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
February 6, 2016
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$5.00

Want an easy upgrade the new tool Airfix kits of the Gloster Gladiator? Step right up to the new Quickboost Gloster Gladiator air intakes that provide a beautiful replacement to the kit parts. The supplied instructions identify which Airfix kit provided plastic parts with the new Quickboost replacements.

Quickboost has molded the air intakes perfectly in light tan resin with no apparent bubbles. The Quickboost air intakes are supplied on a single resin sprue with thin resin attachments to the parts that should minimize any cleanup.

Although most paints will adhere to resin alone, I would recommend that you wash the parts to remove any remaining mold release and prime them first. They will need to be installed with your favorite CA (super glue) or epoxy, as the normal plastic glues or solvents will not react with the resin.

Packaging

F4U-5 Corsair Night Gun Barrels
Review Author
Frank Landrus
Published on
February 6, 2016
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$6.50

The Vought F4U-5N Corsairs were delivered from the factory with four 20mm cannons with installed flash suppressors. Quickboost provides you with a set of Vought F4U-5N 20mm cannon fairings with flash suppressors. Of note is the re-sealable packaging that Quickboost uses that makes the parts easy to review and then stuff back into the package securely. There are no supplied instructions; you simply swap out the Hobby Boss provided plastic parts with the new Quickboost replacements. Although these cannon fairings with flash suppressors could be used on other F4U-5N kits with modification, Quickboost already has a set out for the Hasegawa F4U-5N kit (QB 48 680).

Quickboost has molded the cannon fairings with flash suppressors perfectly in light grey resin with no apparent bubbles. The Quickboost exhausts have no mold seams to sand off along with a hollowed out barrel flash suppressors.

Box Art

Gato Class Submarine
Review Author
Eric Christianson
Published on
February 3, 2020
Company
Revell, Inc.
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$119.95

Revell has re-released their vintage WWII Gato Class Submarine in enormous 1/72 scale – topping off at just over 52 inches in length! Surface detail of the deck and fittings is excellent, as well as their renderings of the 20mm, 40mm, and 4inch deck armament. Also included are three sets of pre-bent, steel wire steps as well as a variety of pre-drilled stanchions for stringing safety cabling.

Overshadowing everything, however, is simply the sheer size of the hull – an ambitious project for any modeler.

Product packaging

US WWII Load Cart
Review Author
Allan Murrell
Published on
February 9, 2016
Company
Aires Hobby Models
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$8.00

Aerobonus has provided another addition to the great Diorama releases with this US WWII load cart. These were used to manually transport single bombs to the aircraft on Aircraft Carriers and also airfields.

The detail quality is great, there minimal flash or other imperfections. The parts once removed from the mold base are ready to assembly. The small parts are very delicate and you must take extreme care when removing from the mold base. I had a big problem with the four small grab handles which all broke and I had to replace them with wire ones I made.

The Assembly is quick and easy. The final part is painted yellow and looks great as an addition to any diorama.

Thanks go to Aires for providing this kit to review and IPMS USA for allowing me to review it for them.

Box Art

MiG 15 UTI Accessories
Review Author
Brian R. Baker
Published on
February 11, 2016
Company
Eduard
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$19.95

The Products

  • 672 077 - Eduard Brassin UTI MiG 15 Cockpit (Resin) - $19.95
  • CX 427 - Eduard UTI MiG 15 UTI Die-Cut Canopy mask - $9.95

Eduard Brassin Resin Cockpit Interior For MiG 15 UTI

This kit contains 13 resin-cast interior parts plus one small PE sheet for the Eduard MiG 15 UTI jet trainer kit. Included are a cockpit floor, two seat mounts, two ejector seats, one rear canopy part, one front instrument panel, two control sticks, two cockpit side panels, one clear plastic forward gunsight, and a PE sheet containing such things as seat belts, rudder pedals, and other very small details.

Box art

De Havilland Mosquito FB.VI
Review Author
Dick Montgomery
Published on
February 11, 2016
Company
Airfix
Scale
1/24
MSRP
$175.00

This kit is the 2nd release of a 24th scale Mosquito by Airfix, the first being the Mosquito kit, A25001 released toward the end of 2009. Note that the box art for the two releases is not the same and the item numbers are slightly different. The original release is “25001” and this new release is “25001a”.

Opening the box, one will find 14 plastic bags containing 18 sprues loaded with 617 parts. Having some experience with the original release, a very cursory inspection leads me to conclude that the new release is the same, or very similar to the original release. I noticed the same pattern of ejector pin marks that appeared on the original release, and that is a bit of a disappointment. Many will not be visible when the model is complete, but those that are visible can prove to be time-consuming to eliminate.

Product packaging

F4D-1 Skyray Landing Gear

Review Author
Scott Hollingshead
Published on
February 12, 2016
Company
Scale Aircraft Conversions
Scale
1/72
MSRP
$13.95

Scale Aircraft Conversions celebrated their Silver Anniversary last year, and now have over twenty-five years of supplying resin and white metal parts to model builders. This is the sixth landing gear set from SAC that I have reviewed, and once again, they have provided an excellent metal option for kit-supplied landing gear. This set is intended for the 1/72 scale F4D-1 Douglas Skyray that was released by Tamiya in 1998 (kit 41 of the 1/72 scale War Bird Collection). The purpose of this replacement set is to provide stronger landing gear that is adjustable if necessary to obtain proper angles. Even with no previous experience in using white metal parts, this set will provide an upgrade that most modelers will have no issue installing.

Box art

Airspeed A.S. Horsa Glider Mk.1
Review Author
Gino Dykstra
Published on
February 13, 2016
Company
Bronco Models
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$179.99

As Wikipedia puts it: The Airspeed AS.51 Horsa was a British World War II troop-carrying glider, built by Airspeed Limited and subcontractors, used for air assault by British and Allied armed forces. It was named after Horsa, the legendary 5th-century conqueror of southern Britain. It had an aircrew of two and normally carried 20 – 25 paratroopers. Originally, it was intended to carry bombs and was designed so that paratroopers could leave the plane while in flight using parachutes. Both of these ideas were eventually dropped and paratroopers were expected to ride the glider all the way to the ground.

Product packaging

A-36A Apache Gun Barrels
Review Author
Pablo Bauleo
Published on
February 13, 2016
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$4.75

Quickboost is a company that specializes in drop-in resin replacement parts to enhance the appearance of your models. Being “drop-in” replacements, it is very rare you need you modify the original parts, hence the “quick” name.

In this case I am reviewing the Gun Barrels for the well-known A-36 Apache in 1/48 scale from Accurate Miniatures, this kit is also available reboxed by Italeri.

As you can see from the pictures the resin parts have hollow ends and deeper holes in the cooling jacket, which would take a wash much easier and would look much better than the plastic parts.

Highly recommened.

I would like to thank Aires/Quickboost and IPMS/USA for the review sample.