Scale aviation modeller international

Sam

THE First Look

First look at Airfix 1/48

Hawker Sea Fury

see page 52

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

Hawker Sea Fury First look at Airfix 1/48 Hawker Sea Fury

Fto disagree as for me that title belongs to the Sea Fury. Now or many, the Hawker Hunter was the most attractive Hawker design, but I have

I must admit a bit of a bias as 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

understatement and it was with a sense of trepidation I lifted the lid 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

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

panel are more than adequate.normal 3D style and are as clear as The instructions are in the now

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 call the paints by the right 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 surfaces are separate so can be positioned easily to add some

animation to your model and of course being a naval aircraft folded wings are also supplied as an option. Underwing you have

a choice of fuel tanks, rockets, bombs and a camera pod made from a fuel tank. While under the centre fuselage you have a Rocket

Assisted Take Off pack (R.A.T.O). options I see open or closed pilot The more I look the more

foot step, dropped oil cooler flaps

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. canopy parts had some small marks on them, which is strange as they Also, on our example, the clear

are packed in a separate bag but nothing that a few minutes with a polishing cloth cannot sort out.

positive note the clear parts also supply the wing tip lights something that Tamiya did not But to end on another

manage on their latest 109G!

CONCLUSIONHas this kit been worth the wait? I 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

(though not G-FURY) and Airfix have already announced a second boxing

supplying markings for foreign users.am sure this is a kit that will fly The only downside is that I

off the hobby shop shelves and we know that means that as with other Airfix kits in a few years’

time the Sea Fury will be achieving collector prices on auction sites. the review sample which we hope to Our thanks to Airfix for supplying

have built in time for the next issue.

52 • MARCH 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • MARCH 2018 •^53

FIRST LOOK!

NUREMBERG NEWS... NUREMBERG NEWS... NUREMBERG

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B

y today’s exacting military standards, the

success of the Panavia Tornado is quite

achievement, and one that made its tri-national

programme one of the greatest feats of international

military and political co-operation of the 20th century.

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

A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE

MDF 29

TORNADO

£19.99

+ P&P

By Andy Evans

Cover: Illustration Purposes Only

IDS, ECR and ADV Versions

29

M D F

TORNADO

ORDER HOTLINE: 44 (0)1234 211245

ORDER ONLINE: http://www.sampublications.com

SAM-MDF-29-Tornado-Ad.indd 1 02/11/2017 12:44

Decal It

T

amiya have their new

1/72 scale Kawasaki

Ki-61-D Hein on display

unsurprisingly out of the box

this kit will produce a very

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

A

rtesania Latina from

Spain where at the show

with there range of

multimedia construction kits.

The two new aircraft kits for

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

motor which add a lot of interest to

what is already a stunning model. The

expected release will be summer of 2018.

Show off your model

S

quadron 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

War One bases and one with Marsden matting suitable

for World War 2 and Korean War period models. Each

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

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