Yak-38 Forger Corrected Vertical Engine & Cover (HobbyBoss)

[Mike]

Yak-38 Forger Corrected Vertical Engine & Cover (HobbyBoss)

1:48 Aires Quickboost

The new kit from HobbyBoss is quite a nice build, and features some good point, as I found out when I built one shortly after release. This lift engines aren't one of the kit's good points however, and although they're in the right place with the cover that hides the inner workings, the fan shape is off, with a low blade count, and the blades set at too low an angle. The HB designers also missed the cable-runs that lead to and from each of the central bullets, and the inner strengthening plates on the outer cover are also lacking.

Quickboost of course have corrected all these failings, adding some much needed realism and detail to this rather bland area. You also get a pair of new retraction struts for the outer cover, which improve greatly over the featureless kit parts. The outer surface of the cover is also a little crisper than the kit part, having some additional rivet detail on the long strengthening plate that runs along the centre.

The lift fans are correctly angled forward, as the real engines are canted slightly forward to provide a little forward thrust when in hover mode. The blades are a work of art, being impossibly thin and crisp, with the impression of the inner workings just visible between each blade, as is the outer stabilising ring that the end of each blade is attached to - another item missing from the kit parts.

Conclusion

Speaking from experience, this set is a godsend to anyone considering opening the lift-fan door to display the innards. It offers superb detail and correction of quite a number of small inaccuracies and omissions from the HB kit. Aires are renowned for their casting quality, and it doesn't disappoint. Casting is crisp, bubble free and the resin very dense. It should be a drop in replacement too, which is just the icing on the cake. Now we just need the lower fan housing and we're away!

Quickboost also make FOD guards, replacement intakes, exhaust nozzles and fuselage intakes, while Aires have a cockpit in their range that I'll be reviewing shortly.

Highly recommended.

Review samples courtesy of

distributed in the UK by Hannants Ltd.