I never expected to see another injection molded plastic Ar-196 but Italeri and Tamiya recently surprised me with their releases. While nice looking kits there are some issues. Quickboost makes a several upgrades for the kit.

QB 48 328 is the corrected forward cowling. Molded in blemish free light grey resin this 10 piece upgrade will aid the modeler dramatically. The kit cowling is a three piece affair with the center section plagued with a seam line all the way around the bulges. This is a big pain in the cowling to clean up and darn near impossible to get right besides the bulges there are also hinges in the way. On top of that this set also provides push rods and a push rod ring. The rods won’t require any cleanup once removed as there are no seam lines. The hardest part of the whole set will be the removal of the cowling from the pour block, but patience and a Tiger saw should keep everything neat. This set will dramatically reduce your work load and result in a seamless cowling.

These parts are quite nice and will make the work for the modeler so much easier. I think the cowling is an essential addition. This will keep the entire cowling correct and ease the modelers work load while obtaining superior results.

Highly recommended.

You can obtain your copy at your local hobby shop or online.

Our thanks to Quickboost and Aires for the review sample.