Scale Aviation Modeller International — November 2017

using Blu-Tack masking) at the

wing pylon and rear fuselage.

Rather than use the rather shiny

decals, I masked and painted the

walkways on top of the fuselage

with Mr. Hobby H77 Tyre Black.

The undercarriage is intricate,

with each side made up of six

parts; again these are poorly

moulded (two of my pieces were

broken), with little by way of

positive locations or indications

of relevant fixing angles. Eduard’s

instructions offer a scrap view of

the arrangement, although it’s not

at all accurate in terms of profile

or pivot location. Nevertheless, I

used it to copy the major angles

onto a card jig that I used to set the

arrangement of the major parts.

After fixing with superglue, the

assemblies were remarkably robust!

The propellers get pitch

control mechanisms courtesy

of the Brassin resin. These were

painted Mr. Hobby H77 Tyre

Black, with the rear face of the

right prop in aluminium.

The wing and fuselage could

now be brought together, gluing

the foot of the pylon with slower-

setting Revell Contacta cement.

I left the joint to dry for several

hours before attempting to fit

the wing and tail bracing struts.

The struts themselves are poorly

moulded and uneven in section,

with huge sprue gates on the

thin edges; an hour of cleanup

leaves them looking better, but

not perfect. The fit to the wing,

tail, and fuselage is also a bit

hit-and-miss. They needed

some tidying up with Deluxe

Products Perfect Plastic Putty

water-soluble filler, followed

by some paint touch-ups.

Before the decals could go on

the paintwork was glossed with

Alclad Aqua in strategic places.

There aren’t that many decals for

the scheme I’d chosen, consisting

only of early-war stars in six

places, the striped rudder, and a

couple of datum marks. The decals

themselves behave perfectly.

I removed the window masks

prior to applying the decals where

they overlap, and in no time the

whole airframe could be treated

to a satin finish of Tamiya XF-86.

I treated the upper wing to some

faint exhaust staining using a

brown-black mix of pastels, which

brought out the fabric texture

with some gentle distressing

with 3000 grit abrasive.

Given the relative newness of

the paint job at the time of the

actual aircraft, I didn’t apply any

panel washes or heavy weathering;

just some very light chipping

around the doors and walkways,

and some greenish-brown staining

around the waterline. I also

emphasised some panel lines with

a sharpened drafting pencil.

CONCLUSION

This is not a straightforward kit to

build and I would recommend it only

to modellers with some experience

of short-run, injection-moulded

kits. Despite Eduard’s excellent

packaging and the quality of their

add-ons, the plastic remains that

from a previous generation, short-

run issue, with the high workload

in parts clean-up and fitting that

is inherent in such a product.

Nevertheless, it is possible

to produce a nice model from

the basic parts, thanks largely to

Eduard’s PE additions and the

colour schemes offered, which

are certainly eye-catching.

My thanks to Eduard

for the review sample.

The wing and fuselage are assembled and

painted prior to joining. The decals were

applied prior to joining as well.

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