This is another in the Cushman Scooter series of models recently released by Plus Model.

Cushman made 4,734 airborne scooters for the military beginning in 1944. The rugged, simple Model 53 could travel through water, climb a 25 percent grade and had a range of approximately 100 miles. Some scooters had a hitch to pull a utility cart. This version of the Cushman airborne scooter was configured to carry a sidecar with either an additional seat or a utility bin.

Kit Contents

The kit has 21 light gray resin parts, one clear headlamp, one piece of wire, four photoetch pieces, and one detail sheet. The instructions include three color schemes – U.S. Navy (gray), U.S. Army (olive drab) and Airfield Service (deep yellow).

The resin is fairly soft and all of the parts have casting blocks and flash that must be removed. The parts do have good detail for their small size.

Upfront, I want to thank Aires and Quickboost for providing these fine aftermarket bits for our beloved models and to the IPMS USA a big thank you for allowing me to review this Quickboost product.

Admittedly I am proud of the fact I love the stubby World War II fighter. The Rita, Buffalo and certainly the Grumman Wildcat. I have several in my stash including the Hobby Boss 1/48 wildcat and it’s a good looking kit. I snagged the Quickboost exhaust stubs for the wildcat before even looking at the plastic parts. In all honesty, when I finally looked at the original parts, I didn’t think you could improve on them. I was wrong! The original parts are well molded and due to the large diameter exhaust, even the kit parts have an open exhaust. NO need to drill out the opening. Well, where I think the Quickboost parts shine, is the fact the wall thickness is more in line with a scale thickness. The original kit parts are certainly way too thick.

This is the canopy mask for the Eduard 1/72 Bf-110G-4 Night fighter. It’s recommended for the Weekend kit, which is reviewed here: Eduard Bf-110g-4 weekend kit The ProfiPACK kit comes with the mask.

You get the mask and a very good set of instructions.

The mask is die cut on Kabuki tape, nice and thin and it sticks marvelously.

I have one trick. It’s very hard to see the edges of the mask items when they’re on the backing sheet. I slather on a tiny bit of acrylic black, like what’s used for weathering, and it picks out the edges nicely.

Achzarit – (“Cruel” in Hebrew with female inflection) is the name given to one of the IDF’s newer Armored Personnel Carriers. The other is Namer and based on the Merkava Chassis. The Achzarit is based on the Russian T-54/55 chassis that the IDF captured so many of in the previous wars with her neighboring Nations. No matter what name the IDF gave it, it could not describe near perfection. The Israelis are the ONLY Nation that has ever put crew protection and survivability forefront in the design of armored vehicles. The Achzarit is referred to as a heavy APC and rightfully so. It weighs in at 44 tons and is designed to transport the troops into combat and also survive confrontations in urban scenarios. It carries a dismount squad of nine and three vehicle crew members. It mounts three 7.62 FN Mags and another FN Mag mounted in a Rafael OWS for the vehicle commander.

Each issue of Scale Aircraft Modelling follows a basic design and format. There are usually two feature articles, an “Aviation in Profile” piece, industry news and a series of “Compact Build Reviews.”

The feature articles for this issue cover the build of a Trumpeter 1/32 Mig-17 in Cuban markings and a 1/32 Revell Bf-109G-6. The Mig-17 build, by Brian Wakeman, covers the construction and painting of one of Trumpeter’s early efforts. He modifies the kit with five Profimodeller sets and one Eduard set. The kit is then finished with a bright Cuban paint scheme and great weathering.

The other feature article is from Jay Laverty, and covers building the Revell 1/32 Bf-109G-6 (early and late) kit. Mr. Laverty concentrates on painting and weathering with some aftermarket being used for both the cockpit and the decals used for adding Swastikas. Weathering is done with oils, and shows excellent methods of getting streaks and subtle weathering.