Monday, October 4

5 in 1 Review: Qunita Studio's Interior 48th scale 3D-Decals from Q3/ 2021

Quinta Studios recent 1/48th scale sets are today taken under the microscope by Gary Wickham today. The Mi-24P, F-15I Ra'am, Su-57 Felon, UH-1Y Venom & Mirage 2000C improvements are up for examination in his selection. See what he thought in his review...

Review: Qunita Studio Interior 3D-Decals - 1/48th scale decals for Q3/ 2021
Review Manufacturer: Quinta Studio
Interior 3D Decal - Detail Sets
1/48th Scale
Qunita Studio has been busy little beavers since my initial review of their revolutionary 3D decal detailing sets designed to work with a wide array of aircraft and helicopter kits in all popular scales.


A video illustration of the decals in 48th scale from last year.
Quinta captured a lot of attention from the modelling community because of their new 3D colour printing technique to incorporate a wide range of embossed details such as recessed instrument dials, their raised outlines, instrument blocks, switches, buttons, signal lamps, levers and handles, riveting detail and so on into a super easy to use format.

This time around I'll have a look at five of their recent sets in 1:48, designed for some of the very latest kits and some for older kits. As I have covered off how to work with the Quinta sets previously, today I'll just lay out for you what these particular sets contain.

Quinta provides a detailed set of instructions with each set and if you have not used their 3D Decals before it's well worth your time to familiarise yourself with the specifics of how they should be applied.
Mi-24P 3D-Printed & coloured Interior on decal paper (for Zvezda kit)
Article: QD48155
Scale: 1/48
Price: 20€
Designed for the new Zvezda 1:48 Mi-24P (4812) helicopter kit, this Quinta set provides detailed replacement parts for the cockpit sidewalls, instrument panels and seat harness for both aircrew positions of the Hind.
Like many Soviet military aircraft interiors, the bright turquoise eye finish provides a very eye-catching result. It is quite a difficult to colour match yourself but luckily most popular model paint brands have this in their range. Of course in the case of the Quinta sets the colour matching has already been done for you.
The Quinta parts work best when you remove any raised detail on the kit plastic parts prior to gluing. I have found the dimensions of the Quinta parts are very accurate and mostly just drop into place. I like to use a slower drying glue (like PVA) as this gives plenty of time to position each part perfectly, especially helpful when multiple parts butt up next to each other.
The benefits of these 3D decal sets are obvious when you look at them from the side. All the embossed details such as recessed instrument dials, their raised outlines, instrument blocks, switches etc all pop perfectly. The printed detail is very fine and on par with that found in normal instrument decals of photo etch parts.

F-15I 3D-Printed & coloured Interior on decal paper (for GWH kit)
Article: QD48112
Quinta Studio 
Scale: 1/48
Price: 20€
Designed for the Great Wall Hobby (GWH) 1:48 F-15I Ra'am (L4816) kit, this Quinta set provides detailed replacement parts for the cockpit consoles, instrument panels and seat cushions,belts and handles for both the pilot and RIO cockpits.
One thing I really like about the Qunita sets is that they don't just simply copy what comes in the kit but rather do their own research. Where they find errors or omissions in the kit they provide corrected parts. In the case of the F-15I kit, Great Wall has been a bit lazy and only provided instrument panels which include the older CRT version of the UFC (Up Front Controller). This is fine for most USAF F-15E's but the export variants (such as the F-15I, S and K) incorporated a newer LCD version of the UFC which GWH have not catered for.
To correct this small error by Great Wall the set from Quinta includes new parts (parts 1 & 2) to properly represent the LCD versions of the front and rear UFC found in the Israeli F-15I's. It's this type of attention to detail that continues to impresses me about Quinta offerings.
The small instruction sheet shows exactly where to place the Quinta parts, once you have sanded off the kit raised detail. Also notice that in some cases you may need to build up two or three layers of parts to achieve the desired 3D effect.

Su-57 3D-Printed & coloured Interior on decal paper (for Zvezda kit)
Article: QD48082
Quinta Studio
Scale: 1/48
Price: 20€
Designed for the new Zvezda 1:48 Su-57 Felon (4824) fifth generation fighter kit, this Quinta set provides detailed replacement parts for the cockpit side consoles, instrument panels with seat cushioning and belts for the kit's K-36D-5 ejection seat.
The Su-57 has a glass cockpit with no analogue gauges; information is displayed on two 38 cm (15 in) main multi-functional LCD displays similar to the arrangement of the Su-35S. Supplementing the primary display is a smaller multi-functional display and digital control panel. The cockpit has a wide-angle (30° by 22°) head-up display (HUD). The Su-57 employs the NPP Zvezda K-36D-5 ejection seat and the SOZhE-50 life support system, which comprises the anti-g and oxygen generating system.
Curiously, of the two sheets provided in this set the one for the seat detailing is the larger. This speaks to the fact that modern fifth-generation cockpits are very minimal with almost all pilot interactions done via the MFD's.
One thing I have observed is that the Quinta printing process seems to struggle with lighter colours such as found here in the light blue. The parts are visibly grainy when compared to the darker solid colors but I guess no solution is perfect.

UH-1Y Venom Interior 3D Decal
Article: QD48091
Quinta Studio
Designed for the Kitty Hawk 1:48 UH-1Y Venom (KH80124) helicopter kit, this Quinta set provides detailed replacement parts for the main glass displays, centre & overhead consoles. It also includes an extensive set of belts for the front and rear cabin seats.
The UH-1Y variant modernizes the original UH-1 design. The Y-model upgrades pilot avionics to a glass cockpit, adds further safety modifications, and provides the UH-1 with a modern forward-looking infrared system. Interestingly, the UH-1Y and AH-1Z share a common tail boom, engines, rotor system, drivetrain, avionics architecture, software, controls, and displays for over 84% identical components.
Whilst the main instrument panel may be all glass in the UH-1Y, there are still plenty of analog switches on the centre and overhead consoles. Quinta has also included some 2D decals on the sheet for the yellow emergency placards found on the inside of the front cabin doors. These additions will be welcome if you plan to open up the doors on your model.
Being a 'utility" helicopter, the UH-1Y incorporates four fold-up seats in the main cabin, in addition to the two pilot seats in the front cockpit. Quinta provides a large sheet of the straps for each of the harnesses on all the seats.
 These are all multi-part belts so will take some patience to assemble but should look impressive when done.

Mirage 2000C 3D-Printed & coloured Interior on decal paper (for Kinetic kit)
Article: QD48113
Quinta Studio
Designed for the Kinetic 1:48 Mirage 2000C (K48042) helicopter kit, this Quinta set provides detailed replacement parts for the cockpit sidewalls, side console, main instrument panel and seat harness.
The instrument panel in the Mirage 2000C is dominated by a Sextant VE-130 head-up display which presents data relating to flight control, navigation, target engagement, and weapon firing, and a radar screen located centrally below it. 
The pilot sits on an SEM MB Mk10 zero-zero ejection seat, which is a license-built version of the British Martin-Baker Mark 10.
More than any other Quinta set I have seen so far this one incorporated some interesting 3D effects on the uneven seat cushions, the ribbing on the belts and scalloping on the cockpit sidewalls. One thing I do wish is that Quinta would provide some model paint colour callouts that the modeller can use to best match the colours Quinta have used in the parts. This would save us a lot of time in trying to get an accurate colour match for the parts we still need to paint in the cockpit tub.
CONCLUSION - Quinta Studios 3D-Decal Cockpit Detail Sets
Quinta is busy building up their catalogue with new releases all the time, with the five sets I have looked at above just scratching the surface. With new competitors entering the market they will have to stay on top of their game but from what I have seen I don't think that will be a problem. I have come to find that they are a high quality product which are clearly well researched, produced and packaged. They are perhaps the ultimate 'convenience' addition you can make to your models which require little or no modelling experience to get a truly professional result.

Gary Wickham

To find out more about Quinta's full range, or to purchase them directly, head to their FB page or alternatively their Webpage