Hasegawa first released their 1/72 B-25J in 2003 and followed up thereafter with a

B-25H, both released in various boxing’s since. This welcomed kit is likely the most accurate in this scale and yet it benefits from aftermarket details. Quickboost manufacture a closed cooling flap and open cooling flap version of the cowlings. This review focuses on the open cooling flap version. Since Eduard chose to release some limited edition 1/72 B-25s with interesting decal options, precut masks and photo etch details, these replacement cowlings will fit their 1/72 Angel of Mercy, Guns Bunny and Strafer kits.

In the Box

Cowling parts in pairs, consisting of cowls, cooling flap rings, carb intake scoops and mounting lugs, all indexed to fit exactly with the kit engine nacelles.

Parts are flawlessly cast in the traditional manner in medium gray resin; parts are free from defects with no voids or bubbles present. As usual the Quickboost resin cuts easily whether you are using a micro saw or scribing with the back of a number 11 blade. The resin part have more fine detail compared with the kit parts as they depict the rivets along panel lines and the mounting fairings around the cowl vents. A significant advantage of using this aftermarket set is those cowl vents are molded in place. With the kit parts you must clean up, align and mount 7 vents per cowl times two. For me, that would mean 14 opportunities to feed the carpet monster. (The kit I used for this review was already missing one of these vents. How frustrating.)

Assembly

A note about removing the parts from the casting blocks: While the mounting lugs and flap rings are cast with the casting blocks opposite their fine details, this is not possible with the cowls themselves. The front end of the cowl is attached to the casting block, and there is no stand-off to prevent a slip or miscut from defacing the rim of the cowl. If you notice in the photos, I had to sand and reshape the rim to make it more representative. I used the body of a sharpie pen wrapped with 400 grit sandpaper to clean up the inside of the rim and ensure it was truly round. Other modelers have commented online that the cowl opening is a little undersized on the kit parts while the resin parts in this set measure out at the correct ½ inch. I included a photo of the cowling all together with a painted engine assembly in place to illustrate the fit and finish. The kit intake scoop is molded in place on the kit cowling flap assembly while the separate resin parts are a little deeper and more accurate.

In the photo comparison the kit parts are on the left and the Quickboost parts are on the right.

Conclusion

This aftermarket set will bring ease of assembly and fine detail to the already attractive Hasegawa 1/72 B-25H/J. I enjoyed working with this detail set and hope to use more of these detail parts in the future. Thank you to Quickboost and IPMS for allowing me to review.