Aires Quickboost has released a replacement for the Monogram (and later Revell) series of 1/48 B-25J kits that replaces the cheek gun packs. There are no instructions but this is direct a replacement for the kit part. No modifications to the kit are required; the assembly simply goes in the same place as the kit parts.

Quickboost has molded the external gun packs in light grey resin with no apparent bubbles on three resin sprues. Each Quickboost twin gun pack is supplied on its own resin sprue with a separate sprue for the four .50 caliber gun barrels.

Although most paints will adhere to resin alone, I would recommend that you wash this part to remove any remaining mold release and prime it first. This part 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.

Removing the gun packs from the resin sprue is simple as the sprue attachments are raised to the bottom of the twin gun packs (see attached photo: Sprue Attachment). A photo-etched saw will easily remove the bun barrels. Assembly will just require inserting the gun barrel into the opening on each gun pack. I did not pursue assembly as the set I got had a packing error and I ended up with two starboard side cheek gun packs (see attached photo: Contents).

There were many different styles of cheek gun pack housings used on the Mitchells. The initial cheek gun packs had a larger gun fairing for each gun with no bubble on the fairing for the link ejector chute. On these gun packs, each gun fairing had two ejection ports: one for the spent cartridge and one for the link. This fairing eventually evolved into a connected twin pack cheek gun with a link ejector fairing going between the upper and lower gun fairing assembly with a bubble to accommodate the link ejector chute. Looking at period photographs, the size of the fairings and the size of the bubble for the link ejector varied. The upper link ejector chute left the bottom of the upper gun fairing and went forward to the lower gun fairing, finally ejecting the link just below the lower gun fairing assembly. The lower gun link ejection chute shot its spent links at the bottom-front of its gun fairing assembly.

So what is different? The biggest difference is that the link ejector chute from the upper gun to the lower gun is going the wrong way (see attached photo-Real). It does not match the cheek gun link ejector chute in the Monogram kit (see attached photo-Comparison) and I have not been able to find any photographs depicting a Mitchell cheek gun set with the link ejector chute going backwards (That doesn’t mean there isn’t one, but I have looked hard).

A minor point would be there is no opening at the bottom of the lower gun assembly for the link ejector chute for either gun to actually eject the links, but that is not represented in the Monogram kit either. My hope is that Aires will re-issue this set with the link ejector chute in the correct orientation along with the actual ejection ports on the lower front of the lower cheek gun housing assembly.

Thanks to Aires Hobby Models and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review this set.