I must confess at the outset of this review that I am not, for the most part, a fan of vacuform diorama buildings. I will always prefer ceramic which is far easier for me to assemble and paint. That being said, I was quite curious to tackle this kind of project and found myself quite impressed with this kit.

My first impression of this kit came before I even opened the box. It was remarkably heavy - not what I’d expected of a kit that was largely vacuform parts. However, on opening the box I could see why – the nine vacuform sheets are quite stout, with remarkable detail on roughly 74 parts. The kit also comes with five sprues of injection molded details, making a total of well over 150 parts – far more than will be needed in this diorama. Everything you desire to create a large and detailed diorama is provided here, including the base. There is a LOT of plastic in this kit.

This Revell ’57 Chevy is just a wonderful kit with very little, if any, flash.

Engine

The kit provides 2 small block engines but only 1 set of heads and oil pan. The parts fit together just perfectly. Instead of the single or dual quad setup, I decided to use the fuel injection pieces left over from the Revell Black Widow kit.

Chassis

Beautiful chassis that has separate front & rear suspensions and 2 separate exhaust systems. I cut off the end tips and replaced with polished aluminum tubing.

Interior

I love it! The side panels are separate pieces and are extremely well engraved enabling easy detail painting. Included in the kit are decals for the dash gauges, seats and side trim. I added a set of “Heartbeat of America” floor mats.

Master Model has been releasing some very neat turned metal items and this set is another hit. You get 4 turned barrels, 2 x outer ones and 2 x inner ones (they are different lengths). You also get 4 PE rings that go over the barrels and attach to the wing leading edge.

The detail is perfect and leaves no seam lines to try and clean up.

Construction is simple, cut off the original kit barrels on the Airfix kit and replace with the new barrels on to the completed wing. Then slip the PE rings over the barrels, bend them to conform to the wing and use super glue to attach them.

Master includes a nice little instruction sheet showing which barrels go where and a final length from the leading edge for each.

This item will make a nice update for the Airfix, Academy or Brengun kits.

Thanks to Master Model and IPMS/USA for the review kit.

Aires and Quickboost (a division of Aires) continue to provide us modelers with very nicely detailed additions to many new and older kits that can greatly enhance the final appearance of the build.

This installment will look at the Quickboost replacement pitot for the fairly new 1/48 Kitty Hawk Saab Jas-39 Gripen (kit #KH80117).

This replacement pitot tube, with associated nose cone tip, is a very simple, two piece addition to the excellent Kitty Hawk Gripen. Quick Boost is kind enough to supply two complete pitot assemblies, just in case something goes wrong on the first try.

Often you get a great aftermarket decal sheet for 3 or 4 aircraft, but they don’t include enough insignia for all of them. The solution: Enter a insignia decal sheet, like the one recently released by Furball Design

This set contains 95 correctly proportion modern (post 1947) US National Insignia (the one with the blue border and red stripe).

You get (14) 10" insignia, (25) 15" Insignia, (14) 20" insignia, (10) 25" insignia, (8) 30" insignia, (8) 35" insignia, (8) 40" insignia, (8) 45" insignia, which should cover from small drones, to larger bombers in the last 7 decades of USAF service.

I want to point out the decal design is correctly proportioned, as the star points do not reach the edge of the circle, but stop at a distance equivalent to width of the blue border.

The decals are independently printed and they are very glossy in the sheet. I would expect them to adhere really well to a glossy surface (Future coat or similar) in your model.