David Doyle has written over 100 books, mostly on military subjects, including a Squadron At Sea book about the North Carolina from 2011. This book is one of the Legends of Warfare – Naval series for Schiffer Publishing, a well-researched history and photo album of America’s first “modern” battleship – USS North Carolina, BB-55. Since the North Carolina is a museum ship anchored off Wilmington, North Carolina, most of the book is a color photo tour of the ship inside and out. This book is an excellent resource for modelers of the North Carolina and of WWII US Navy common fittings.

Brengun continues to expand its line of accessories this time with the FuG-220 Lichtenstein SN2 antenna set for Luftwaffe Night Fighters.

The fret includes 4 sets of dual antenna dipoles, including the dipole braces/frame and a set of re-enforcements to connect the brace with the nose (applicable for the Ju-88).

This particular antenna set is appropriate for any 1/48 Ju-88C/R/G, Me-110G, He-219 or Ta-154V15. It should be noted that for the Me-110 and He-219 you will need to slightly modify the parts, only using the antenna dipoles.

The fret design is very smart, locating all the attachment points at the end of the dipoles, making removal from the fret simple and preventing the dipoles or the dipole braces from having any minor blur that would need to be removed.

Engine

There was little flash on the engine parts with excellent details. You get just a basic Hemi engine.

Interior

Deep engraving can be seen on the door panels making it easy to detail paint. Seats and side panels are separate pieces from the floor. I used a Testors flat tan and flat black as called for on the detailed instruction sheet.

Body

The body went together very well with no adjustments necessary. My choice was to go with the Tru-Color artic white paint to maintain the factory stock look.

Chassis

The frame rails are separate from the chassis pan. Front, rear suspension, and exhaust are all separate pieces. All together, they make for a very pleasing assembly.

Instructions

The instructions are several pages long with suggested paint color for specific parts and a numbered list to tell you what part is what .

I love a quick fix. Lord knows there are plenty of labor-intensive so-called “fixes” out there in the modeling market (some photoetch sets spring immediately to mind). Quickboost, at least in this lovely little detail set, does all the heavy lifting for the modeler.

If you have the old Hasegawa 1/32^nd scale Zero, the limitations of the molding process definitely shortchange the weapon systems of this classic craft – no fault of the manufacturer. Quickboost offers this simple, beautifully crafted set to bring this older model into the 21st Century. It also offers a similar set (QB 32 153) for the newer Tamiya offering.

Comprising five gun barrels – three machine gun caliber Type 3 and two 20mm Type 99-II cannon – this set is a direct replacement for the kit parts. Molding is exceedingly fine and without any blemishes or mold lines. Each gun features an open muzzle and the cooling holes in the machine gun barrels are beautifully reproduced.

The ZOOM series of photo-etch from Eduard features the absolutely essential parts to upgrade your model. Typically, it includes the things in the cockpit that provide dramatic impacts such as the pre-painted instrument panel and various other knobs, buttons, and stuff in the cockpit.

It is packaged in a resealable packaging. The set includes one fret of nickel plated pre-painted brass. The detail contained in the pre-painted parts is phenomenal. The detail that is painted is better than I could ever do. Some like it and some don’t. I love it.

In addition to the instrument panel are rudder pedals, radio faces, and all the little parts that are in the cockpit area. The amount of detail contained is impressive, to say the least. Adding this set to the kit cockpit elevates the cockpit to the level of some resin sets.