Review Author
Rob Benson
Published on
December 31, 2017
Company
Quickboost
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$7.50

Thank you to Aires-Quickboost and the IPMS Reviewer Corps for the privilege of reviewing this excellent aftermarket resin engine. The replacement engine adds an eye-catching crisp detail in a highly visible part of the Hobby Boss FM-2 kit, which represents the latest tall-tail version of the Wildcat.

The package contains the engine on a single casting plug, molded in medium brownish-gray polyurethane resin. The application is very simple; trim the engine off the plug, clean up, and replace the kit parts. This is nearly a direct drop-in replacement; all you need to do is carefully remove the engine from the plug, trim out the casting webs from the cylinder backs, and modify the new engine to fit the kit engine mount. Be sure to mount the new engine in the correct orientation, since the replacement engine does not have a locating slot. This is not a problem; just ensure that up is up!

Review Author
Tyler Shepard
Published on
February 3, 2020
Company
Kitty Hawk
Scale
1/48
MSRP
$55.95

History

In the early 1980’s the US Navy was looking to replace their old ship based helicopter fleet with something new as their current the helicopter at the time the SH-2F Seasprite was showing its age as it was approaching being close to 30 years old. They first looked into getting the new MH-60 but it was too large for some of the Navy’s ships. So with there being no newer options the Navy decided to just upgrade their existing fleet. The first prototype flew in 1985 which was a SH-2F fitted with two new engines. The Navy started receiving them in 1991 and finally retired them in 2001.

The Super Seasprite is also used by 5 other countries. Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Peru, and Poland.