MiniArt is quickly becoming one of my favorite companies to review products from. Now MiniArt has released a new line of 1/72 scale kits. This is the first major release from this new line. For HO scale railroaders and 1/72 wargamers, this new system of modular brick wall structures will be a nice addition.

The kit comes molded in several colors, all of which are moot if you are going to paint the model, but it could be assembled without paint and look decent. There was a major problem with inaccurate printed instructions being shipped with the first releases of this kit. At first I thought I didn’t have enough sprues in the kit, but MRC quickly provided me with revised instructions and a replacement kit, since I had already glued walls beyond reasonable repair.

Dragon Models offers a complete lineup of the Pz.Kpfw. IV family tree in 1/35 scale. Following on the footsteps of their (Late Production) H released four years ago, their new (Mid Production) H represents a specific vehicle in the 12th Panzer Hitlerjugend Division, fighting in the defense of Caen, June, 1944.

Like the earlier release, the Mid-Production H comes with molded-on Zimmerit and one-piece DS tracks. New to this kit, however, are turret side skirts with Zimmerit as well as a brand new frontal armor plate containing the steering-brake hatches. The only other change is that Dragon has replaced the aluminum barrel in the original kit with a slide-molded one in the update. For fit and finish, I prefer the latter, so that’s also a welcome replacement.

Introduction

This Spitfire kit is a limited edition by Hasegawa and features new wingtip and canopy parts, plus decals for three RAF. planes. The Mk. VII and Mk. VIII versions had extended wingtips – rather pointed, actually – that allowed them to meet the Luftwaffe aircraft that had an operational advantage at higher altitudes. One of the therr schemes included on the decal sheet is that of Pierre Henri Clostermann, a French ace who scored over a dozen victories while flying the Mk. VII. It is Clostermann’s markings that were chosen for this review item.

The Clostermann scheme, as previously mentioned, is one of three sets of markings on the decal sheet. The three selections are:

Scale Aircraft Conversions (SAC) has been producing drop-in white metal landing gear replacements for a growing range of kits since 1990. White metal offers substantially more strength than the styrene kits parts, which is a useful benefit for kits that are heavy or where the gear is especially fiddly. In this case, we are looking at the main gear and tail skid that fit the Eduard 1/48 Fokker D.VII.

Eduard does a nice job making the kit’s landing gear struts to scale, but this also means that they are very thin and fragile. In addition, Eduard’s attachment points are often very shallow and benefit from pinning the struts in place to strengthen the join. Up step the SAC replacement struts.

Quickboost has added the engine for the Eduard F6F Hellcat to their line of resin aircraft accessories. This latest addition is molded in a grayish resin – smooth, seamless, and bubble-free. Usually, the mold blocks are small and very easy to remove. These are a little more involved but not too bad, only larger. There is one on the back of the engine that needs to be given a little more attention to remove straight and be sanded smooth.

Comparing the Quickboost engine with the Eduard engine, you can see that the Quickboost engine has fewer parts than the Eduard one. Both seem to be detailed, but resin usually can better represent details than plastic. Basically, it’s up to the modeler to decide what he wants to do.

I very highly recommend this product if you want a nice and detailed engine for your Eduard Hellcat.

I would like to thank Quickboost and IPMS USA for the chance to do this review.