Scale aviation modeller international

36 Fairey Ultra-light Helicopter

AMP 1/72 Fairey Ultra-light

Helicopter by Nic Aronica

Subscribe

see page 50

A

s I write this from my

hotel room in Germany

the annual Nuremberg

Toy Fair is almost over and as

usual it has thrown up a few

surprise announcements and

some new names have entered

the field. As this is a trade only

event many modellers will

not realize how big a deal this

event is in the hobby industry.

The town of Nuremberg has

nearly 40,000 extra inhabitants

over the course of the show and

hotel rooms that are £49 for

most of the year have risen to as

much as £400 a night and I will

not tell you the prices of the two

5-star hotels in the city. If you

have to ask you can’t afford it!

So elsewhere in this issue,

you will see a list of all the

kits announced at the show

and this includes nearly 100

all new toolings from big and

small manufacturers and I

am sure I have missed a few

off, for which I apologise.

In fact most of the traders

attending were quite upbeat

compared to previous years.

We have also had a new

manufacturer at the show, Dora

Wings from the Ukraine had their

first new kits at the show in the

shape of a pair of 1/48 scale Gee

Bee racer and the very unusual

version of the Bell Kingcobra,

a TP-63E (Google is your friend

for this one?). We will be having

a first look at these kits next

month, but I will say this is a

name to watch out for as the

range will feature some classic

British types like the Percival

Procter in both 1/72 and 1/

and a Westland Wapiti in 1/

scale. Who would ever have

thought we would see that as

the subject of a new tool kit?

Just before the show on our

Facebook page, I asked the

question what would you want to

be announced at the show? The

answers ranged from the almost

unheard of to the now familiar

call for new kits of the B-17 and

B-24. Amazingly Hobbyboss were

listening as they have announced

an all new B-24 Liberator, though

sadly this beast in 1/32 scale is not

going to be cheap to buy or house,

unless you live in a mansion.

And the annual joke is that yes

Hobbyboss’s sister company

Trumpeter still have the Douglas

TBD Devastator as coming this

year. Has that been 12 or 13 years

since it was first announced?

All in all, a very enjoyable show

where we caught up with friends

old and new and compiled a list

of future releases that should

have something for everyone

over the next 12 months.

So, get building ladies and

gentlemen you are going to need

to make some room on that to

do pile. Now, how many 1/

Liberators do I really need!!!

David Francis, Editor

[email protected]

Sam

THE First LookFirst look at Airfix 1/

Hawker Sea Furysee page 52

March 2018 WORLD’S BEST MODEL NEWSPAPER ‘FREE’ http://www.sampublications.com

First look at Airfix 1/48 Hawker Sea FuryI must admit a bit of a bias as For many, the Hawker Hunter was the most attractive Hawker design, but I have to disagree as for me that title belongs to the Sea Fury. Now Hawker Sea Fury at the age of fourteen I earned some pocket money washing a bright red Sea Fury G-FURY at Elstree aerodrome before it departed for an air show.Hitting the deck just in time to feature in this magazine to say the Sea Fury has been much

anticipated by many is a bit of an on the latest 1/48 scale Airfix kit.My initial impression was very favourable, I will start backwards as the decals were on top in my box, these supply two options both in variations of sky and extra dark sea grey camouflage. The understatement and it was with a sense of trepidation I lifted the lid first option has the low fuselage demarcation and C style roundels more familiar on World War 2 aircraft. This aircraft is the colours in which the example operated by the Royal Navy Historic Flight operated in during 2017 and was originally carried by this aircraft in 1948 when operated by 802 N.A.S.The second option is from an example with high demarcation line and was flown by 801 NAS of HMS Glory during the Korean War. Although this is not the MIG killer many associates with the Korean War, but the kit does have a very interesting option as during operations the black underwing serials were overpainted in sky and both sky over painted and the original black stencil are supplied on the sheet. There are plenty of stencils to apply and the instrument dials for the instrument The instructions are in the now call the paints by the right normal 3D style and are as clear as you would expect, which is just as well as you have many, many choices to make during construction.The only thing I do not like is that the painting guides are only to the Humbrol paint range, which is not available all around the world, though at least they panel are more than adequate.names in the colour guide.The plastic all I can say is WOW, this may be the best from Airfix in this scale to date, the panel lines though a touch deep, are very consistent and the raised rivets may be a little too prominent but are easy to sand back slightly if they bother you.As for options you are honestly spoilt for choice, all the control

centre fuselage you have a Rocket from a fuel tank. While under the folded wings are also supplied as an option. Underwing you have a choice of fuel tanks, rockets, bombs and a camera pod made animation to your model and of course being a naval aircraft Assisted Take Off pack (R.A.T.O). The more I look the more options I see open or closed pilot foot step, dropped oil cooler flaps positioned easily to add some surfaces are separate so can be and positionable arrestor hook. So, the perfect kit? Well, not quite one strange omission is that there is no gunsight supplied this is certainly correct for the one flying today but would certainly be present on the operational versions. Also, on our example, the clear canopy parts had some small marks on them, which is strange as they are packed in a separate bag but nothing that a few minutes with a polishing cloth cannot sort out. But to end on another positive note the clear parts also supply the wing tip lights something that Tamiya did not manage on their latest 109G!Has this kit been worth the wait? I (though not G-FURY) and Airfix have would say looking at the plastic parts an unequivocal yes if they fit together as good as they look this could be one of the best Airfix releases ever. Yes, there is room for some improvement that I sure will be taken care of by the aftermarket (hollowed out exhaust pipes, seat belts and the missing gun sight) and Xtradecal have already produced a decal sheet with some very attractive options CONCLUSIONalready announced a second boxing the review sample which we hope to other Airfix kits in a few years’ am sure this is a kit that will fly off the hobby shop shelves and we know that means that as with supplying markings for foreign users.time the Sea Fury will be achieving collector prices on auction sites. have built in time for the next issue.Our thanks to Airfix for supplying The only downside is that I

52 • MARCH 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • MARCH 2018 •^53

FIRST LOOK!

>> NUREMBERG NEWS... NUREMBERG NEWS... NUREMBERG

WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM

Bprogramme one of the greatest feats of international military and political co-operation of the 20th century. y today’s exacting military standards, the success of the Panavia Tornado is quite achievement, and one that made its tri-national

Rather than being the proverbial ‘camel’ (otherwise known as a horse put together by a committee), the Tornado has proved itself to be a true thorough-bred,

able to deliver ‘as advertised’ in all weathers. The latter has been the cornerstone of the Tornado’s performance, when at its peak, it was one the NATO

that could function by night, by day, in fog, in rain or snow, and mount realistic offensive operations.

Tornado was conferred with an excellent radar, powerful engines, the ability to carry a large war-load at both low-level and medium altitudes, had a

superb short field ability, which offered a compromise between traditional runways and STOL performance. Many historians would doubtless say

that the famous De Havilland Mosquito was the original Multi-Role Combat

Aircraft, but the arrival of the jet age brought a plethora of new aircraft into the skies. Many designers clung to the ‘traditional’ one-aircraft-one mission thinking, and therefore

air forces found themselves with numerous specialised fighters, bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. As budgets

became tighter, many promising projects began to be discarded through financial or political pressures, and several countries began to see the sense in committing to

bi-national or tri-national military projects, or alternatively were persuaded to ‘buy American’. In Europe, the growing Soviet threat post-War, led Britain, Germany and Italy to

agree to produce a single aircraft type, that could fly a wide variety of combat missions, and yet still be tailored to meet

the needs of the individual user nations. So was born the ‘MRCA’ - later Tornado - and a management company, Panavia Aviation, was created to oversee the project, which

was for a swing-wing, low- level ‘bomb truck’, capable of defence suppression, stand-off laser designation, anti-shipping and reconnaissance tasks, with further consideration for a dedicated interceptor variant. The programme was a triumph

of co-operation, which incredibly faced few hitches and produced perhaps the greatest aircraft of its type. Proven in battle from the deserts of Iraq to the skies

of Europe, as well as in keeping the peace, the Panavia Tornado has a singular history, and up-date programs has kept it flying onto the 21st Century. Now in the last years of its service life, was perhaps a good time to look back on what

is, and remains a very fine aircraft, and this new Datafile from SAM Publications brings the Tornado story to life!

TORNADO

THE PANAVIA

MDF 29 A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE

TORNADO£19.

+ P&P

By Andy Evans

Cover: Illustration Purposes Only

IDS, ECR and ADV Versions

TORNADOM D F^29 ORDER HOTLINE:ORDER ONLINE: http://www.sampublications.com^ 44 (0)1234 211245

SAM-MDF-29-Tornado-Ad.indd 1 02/11/2017 12:

Decal It

Tunsurprisingly out of the box this kit will produce a very amiya have their new 1/72 scale Kawasaki Ki-61-D Hein on display

attractive model and comes with three marking options. One of these is a blotched green

camouflage applied on top of a natural metal finish, which some modellers may find a challenge to reproduce. So, Tamiya is releasing this camouflage as an optional extra which you can combine with the kit decals to very good effect as can be seen on the display model on the Tamiya stand in Nuremberg.

The Bare

Bones

Amultimedia construction kits. The two new aircraft kits for rtesania Latina from Spain where at the show with there range of

2018 are the Sopwith Camel which we saw an early test example of last year and should be on

sale very soon. But the stand out piece was a truly amazing reproduction of a Messerschmitt Bf109G-6 in 1/16 scale.

Unlike the previous kits, which are mainly wooden the majority of parts in

this new kit are either metal or plastic and what makes this model really stands out is that it also comes with lights and

expected release will be summer of 2018.motor which add a lot of interest to what is already a stunning model. The SWar One bases and one with Marsden matting suitable for World War 2 and Korean War period models. Each Show off your modelquadron are launching a new range of resin base in all 3 major scales to show off your completed model. To start the range, we have two World

base comes with separately moulded resin junk and fuel drums that you can add to your base if desired.

NUREMBERG TOY AND HOBBY

FAIR 2018 NEWS SPECIAL

WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • MARCH 2018 • 43

NEWSFLASH

NUREMBERG

All the latest from the

Toy and Hobby Fair 2018

See page 43

22 Small Scale Swallow

Airfix 1/72 Messerschmitt

Me-262 by Roman Schilhart

4 • MARCH 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

WELCOME

Scale Aviation Modeller International

March 2018 • Volume 24 • Issue 3

004-05-Contents-0318.indd 4 09/02/2018 14: