Quickboost just keeps adding to their great line of quality resin aircraft accessories. The latest addition is for the Hasegawa Focke Wulf TA-154 A-1/ R1. It is up to their usual standards; molded in grayish resin, smooth, seamless and bubble free. They come off of the mold block easily; I just cut the doors loose with my sprue cutters.

The doors that come in the Hasegawa kit are okay but just lack the level of detail that the Quickboost covers have. The Hasegawa instructions have you cut the edges of the doors. Quickboost has already made these cuts for you. The Quickboost covers are superior and add just that much more realism to the finished kit. The resin parts are very easy to install and can be used on any other brand kit that is similarly molded.

General Atomics’ MQ-9 Reaper was conceived and birthed as a super-sized version of the MQ-1 Predator, which had met with great success in the time-critical-targeting (TCT) role in the late 1990’s and early part of this century. Despite Predator’s utility in the TCT role, it was limited by the size, quantity and diversity of payload it could deliver, as well as by limited range and service ceiling. As a result, “Predator B” was developed to leverage the success of the “Predator A” design, while minimizing development time, risk, and cost. The final product was a weapons system capable of carrying 3,750 pounds (an increase of nearly 800%), including GBU-12 Paveways and GBU-38 JDAMs, in addition to AGM-114 Hellfires, and a 50% increase in range and altitude. Given the significant increase in capability over the legacy Predator design, the MQ-9 was redesignated “Reaper.”

Introduced mid-season 2007, NASCAR’s “Car of Tomorrow” (COT) hit the track in an effort to improve driver safety, decrease operating cost, and level the proverbial playing field between the monster multi-car teams and the smaller race teams competing in the Sprint Cup Series. Although received with skepticism and initial contempt by some drivers, the “wing thing” proved to be a more rugged, reliable, and measurable machine than its predecessor. With COT’s arrival, manufacturer’s body styles settled in around 4 core models: Chevy Impala, Ford Fusion, Dodge Charger, and Toyota Camry.

This detail set if for Tamiya's new F1 F60 car kit. It incorporates three frets of etched metal parts. The fret for the wing and aerodynamic body parts is relatively heavy, which should make these parts more resistant to breakage and warping as well as being more in scale. The other detail parts on the two remaining frets are of lighter material, not brass, but seem to be a light steel or perhaps aluminum alloy. As a nice touch, a Bridgestone tire painting template is included which would be useful for many other kits that do not include pre-painted Bridgestone tires.

Thanks once again to Quickboost, and Aires Hobby Models for providing IPMS USA review items; more cool stuff for us!

This is a “well-then” item for me. I wondered why, and learned soon. Enclosed in the upgrade are propellers, spinners, and a jig to make sure the props are properly aligned. This is a cool set, and here’s why: in the side-by side pictures, you will note the kit items have a split spinner, with front and back parts. The props are ok, but could use a bit of “tweaking”. These are ok if you don’t mind a seam through where the props attach. I’ve built a few of these kits, and always had a bit of filler required to finish the spinner.