The Tank Destroyers were a short-lived branch of the U.S. Army in World War II, based around a theory that tank destroyers would be dedicated to fighting enemy tanks, freeing our tanks for infantry support. Furthermore, half the Tank Destroyer force would consist of towed anti tank guns. Gradually, the towed guns were replaced by self propelled vehicles, such as the M10, M36, and finally, the M18. All of these vehicles handled themselves quite well against German armor, as well as serving as support vehicles for infantry, but their weak link was the open turret which exposed the crew to small arms fire, shell bursts, and grenades. In the end, the tank destroyer program was cancelled, with standard U.S. tanks assuming the tank vs. tank role. M18s soldiered on in other armies, some seeing action as late as the 1990’s in Serbia.

A short time ago, I got the Scale Aircraft Conversions landing gear for the T-33/ F/94 in 1/48 scale and was amazed by the fine detail.

Now, I am going to build my second T-33A by Platz in 1/72 and this time I have been given the SAC set. Wow, what a difference.

I thought the 1/48 set was great but this one is better. It includes all the parts in super detail. It even includes the landing lights. I really don’t know how they can get such fine detail in a metal casting, but I’ll take it.

Looking closely, I noticed that the tires need a slight cleanup on the tread part to get rid of a small seam line. This effort should take less than a minute.

I would highly recommend this and all of the SAC landing gears. They add that extra pop to any model.

I wish to thank Russ with Scale Aircraft Conversions and Steve Collins at IPMS/USA for giving me this set to review. Can’t wait to do more.

Most books covering the P-51 Mustang begin with the design and development phase. It’s not uncommon for the books to mention briefly that Mustangs were sent to England early in the war and the deficiencies they had. The authors explain that soon after, the Rolls Royce Merlin replaced the original Allison engine. Generally, from this point forward, the authors describe what a great fighter the P-51 was – and rightfully so, but the original Allison-powered aircraft is all but ignored.

Author Martyn Chorlton doesn’t take that path in his new book, Allison-Engined P-51 Mustang. He describes what a great airplane this was in operations other than those of the high-altitude fighter – e.g., dive-bombing, low-level reconnaissance, and ground-attack.

I have the Airfix 1/48 Sea Vixen FAW.2 and thought the kit parts were just perfect. Then, along came Quickboost with an aftermarket set of pitot tubes. I always thought they were all round, but Quickboost did their homework and made them the proper oval shape. This was news to me, but I am going to take their word that oval is correct and use them.

I was really impressed with the fact that these resin pitot tubes are straight. Most times on a part that long and thin they are warped. Thank you, Quickboost, for straight ones.

I would recommend these as a replacement for the kit parts. You can tell everyone that they are accurate; since they are oval and not round, I’m sure your modeling friends will be impressed with your knowledge.

I wish to thank Quickboost and Steve Collins at IPMS/USA for giving me this set to review.

This is a beautiful set of undercarriage doors for the Kinetic (Italeri) 1/32 F-86F Sabre. While the kit doors are nice, these are just wonderful. They are scale thickness and have great detail. They are molded in grey resin and have no seams or flash.

I haven’t started any of my many 1/32 Sabres, but I am looking forward to using them on all of them. I also liked the price of $ 10.25. That is quite a deal.

I would highly recommend this set to put your F-86 over the top. I wish to thank Quickboost and Steve Collins at IPMS/USA for giving me this detail set to review.