When I received the package with this item from Dave Morrissette, I thought the review might be a task, but this one turned out to be just wonderful.

What you get is a turned brass pitot tube which just glues on to replace the Hasegawa pitot. The brass part has the correct shape and fits right into the hole in the kit nose.

Then we come down to the part where this thing really paid off. I was fiddling with some fit issues with the canopy, and I hit the pitot with my sleeve. The plastic part would have been in about 4 pieces. The brass part just turned the nose (and the whole airplane) slightly. Zero damage.

Highly recommended. The caveat here is that the Hasegawa kit is quite old, and there’s no interior, the seat is sub-standard, and the aftermarket for the kit would be a seat and this pitot. So it’s up to you on what level of detail you want to install. This is a good start, though.

Quickboost has added the external fuel tank for the Eduard Hellcat F6F-3/5. It is molded in grayish resin, smooth, seamless and bubble free. It also includes a small PE fret for the strapping that secured the tank to the underside of the aircraft.

The external fuel tank in the Eduard kit is okay, but it is molded in two halves, while the Quickboost tank is molded as one piece. The PE strapping is also a plus, adding to the finished look. When adding this tank, there is no surgery involved, making this addition much simpler to install.

I highly recommend this product if you want a really superior looking model. Thanks to Quickboost for supplying the article and IPMS/USA for the chance to do this review.

If I could be granted a do-over at this point, I’d take the opportunity to pay closer attention to the engine-to-firewall attachment when I put those parts together. Everything appeared to me to be OK at that point in the assembly, but it turns out that a very minor bow in the right side engine bearer that I really wasn’t paying close attention to was just enough to affect the alignment of the engine’s prop shaft hole and the opening in the front of the engine cowling when I got the cowling pieces closed up. It was minor, but just enough to shift the prop and spinner off center. The lesson here is to be careful to dry fit all of the components that comprise this area if you are going to build your model with the engine cowling closed. (If you are building it with the cowl panels off, a slight misalignment probably will go unnoticed.)

Between 1958 and 1981, Iraq received more than 3300 T-54/T-55’s from the Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland, Egypt, Romania, and China. Even though the basic tank design had become obsolete in the 1980’s, Iraq, like most owners of the T-54/55, continually attempted to make upgrades in their aging fleet of armor. Prior to the Gulf War, the Iraqis came up with the “Enigma” design, which was nothing more than bolting on extra armor blocks on the glacis and turret to provide extra protection. These were nothing more than hollow welded boxes that were bolted on. A counter-balance arm was required on the rear of the turret because of the extra weight on the front of the turret.

History

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29UB is a 4th generation air-superiority and multi-role fighter, 2-seat trainer variant. The original design for the MiG-29 saw the F-16 and F-18 as its primary adversaries. The first aircraft were received by Soviet Frontal Aviation units in 1984. The aircraft was designed to take off from small, unimproved fields, have a useful combat radius, and a quick turn-around time. It was also to carry a variable payload of weapons.

The Kit

This is my first Eduard Limited Edition adventure. The kit is the original Academy mold. The kit has engraved panel lines, well detailed tandem cockpits, multi-part canopy, optional position speed brakes and bypass inlets, multi-part exhaust nozzles, and external stores (drop tank and 2 each R-27, R-73 and R-60 missiles).