Sam
THE First Looks!
- Bristol Blenheim • Heinkel He 111H-3
- Sopwith 5F.1 Dolphin • Phantom FG.1
- F28-1000 Fellowship
see page 52
February 2018 WORLD’S BEST MODEL NEWSPAPER ‘FREE’ http://www.sampublications.com
Bristol Blenheim First look at Airfix 1/72 Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV Light Bomber version of the Blenheim by Tom Primett
MANUFACTURERSCALEMANUFACTURER: 1/72: Airfix Model Number: A04061
PARTSMARKINGS OPTIONS: Plastic, Clear Plastic: 2
Ticonic early war aircraft. Currently new tool Blenheim Mk.I, Mk.IF and Mk.IVF have already been released his new release from Airfix is a welcome addition to their family of models of this
and now the long-nosed Mk.IV light bomber completes the family.Instructions are very similar
to the Blenheim Mk.IVF kit as you would expect, the key changes being the additional bomb ranks and lower turret,
and some great decals.that you will not be using, for example the short Blenheim There are quite a few parts
Mk.I fuselage sectionand the extended nose section glass is well done and crystal clear while the engines are also nicely The cockpit detail is excellent
detailed and will paint up wellfor the Free French in North The decals supply markings
Africa 1941 with a nice 2 tone brown scheme and RAF Night bomber during 1941 and an RAF example in 2 tone Green/Brown
with great Black undersides. I really like the fact that model companies are recognising the
effort put in by our allies in WW2.starting to do aircraft and I have little experience of Airfix kits but I am very much an AFV modeller
I have already started the build process for a review in a future issue, and have been pleasantly surprised
at the quality of the Airfix moulding. scale but is nicely detailed and this can be brought out with careful This is not a complex kit in this
painting and I thank Airfix for supplying the sample for me to build.Heinkel He 111H-3First look at ICM 1/48 Heinkel He 111H-3
Tfavourite aircraft, there is something he He-111 has always been one of my
about the distinctive glazed nose and broad wings that I have always found attractive and
we have been spoiled with kits in all the major scales from a number of manufacturers but
none to date come close to this new ICM kit in terms of detail.ICM kits the sleeve cover contains As is normal with the larger
a strong cupboard box that will protect the parts from all but the roughest handling in transit.immediately impressed with the fine surface detail on the larger parts but then as I unpacked the On opening the box, I was
sprues became more impressed with the smaller details and what a lot there was.Every area that you can think
of is detailed I will start with the fuselage, this is built up from the large wing spars to which is
added a fully detailed cockpit.rib detail and though the windows are inserted from inside as seen The fuselage halves contain full
on many kits I have never seen the rib detail extended on to theinward surface as ICM have done. Out of the box,
this kit is designed to produce an aircraft from the late Battle of
Britain period till the end of bomber operations. That means that this
aircraft carries a full weapon fit and you can choose
between seven MG15 machine guns in all positions or 20mm MG FF cannons in the nose and forward position in the lower cupola.
Internally all these weapons will need a lot of ammunition and most of it is supplied moulded to rails
to fill the central compartment. and this is the first kit that has really done justice to the individual Of course, the He111 is a bomber
bomb cells and includes a full load of 500-kilogram bombs to hang from them. Another area where ICM have excelled in the
Jumo 211 Engines each is made up of seventeen parts which with the addition of a little wiring will
be the equal of most aftermarket resin representations.instructions must be clear and With so much detail the
concise and fortunately they are with colour notes matched to Revell and Tamiya paint ranges.
Markings are supplied for three aircraft, the first is a Battle of Britain period bomber with three
white stripes on the tail and wings. The second is also from 1941 during operations
in Norway. The final option is probably the most colourful with
large areas of yellow trim donating an aircraft operating in Russia during 1943.
this kit in the box looks like a stunning representation of a In conclusion,
Battle of Britain periodHe111 and it is obvious from the unused parts on the sprues and by the way the upper fuselage has been moulded separately that this will
be the first in a series of Heinkel’s. V-1 carrier and though it will take up quite a bit of room I would also I really hope we will get an H-20
hope a twin fuselage Z-1 in this scale will appear at some point in the future. And maybe even a
backdate to a Spanish Civil War E with the original conventional airliner style nose is a possibility! Our thanks to ICM for supplying
us with the review sample and a full build will appear later this year.52 • FEBRUARY 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • FEBRUARY 2018 •^53FIRST LOOK! FIRST LOOK!
AIRFIX ANNOUNCEMENTS... AIRFIX ANNOUNCEMENTS...
W
ith the Nuremberg and London
Toy fairs only a few weeks away
and most businesses not going
back to work until early January I was
actually worried I might have to go the
fake news route. Fortunately just a few
days before we were due to go to print a
few new items of news surfaced. The most
surprising of which was Airfix announcing
all of their 2018 new release. Or did they!WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM
Airfix’s Big Announcement
T
he only all new tool
announcement that we
did not know about was
welcome by most. An accurate
Hawker Hunter in 1/48 scale has
long been demanded and now
Airfix has announced they have
started work on an all new tool
Hunter. The first release will be an
F6 and the computer images show
that the model will come with twoalternative tailpipes with and
without the parachute housing.
Markings will be supplied for
one Dutch and two RAF options
including one painted with
large areas of red trim, used by
instructors to bounce
unaware students.
With careful
tooling, this
series couldrun and run as the Hunter was
produced in over 69 different
versions and used by 22 military
users all around the world.Look out for this model
at the end of 2018.Airfix Small Scale Announcements
B
eing credited with
popularising 1/72
scale over 65 years
ago it is no surprise that
the majority of the new
releases are in this scale.- Messerschmitt Bf109E-4
- Supermarine Spitfire Mk.1
- Fokker E.III Eindecker
- De Havilland Vampire T.11
- Folland Gnat T.1
- De Havilland Tiger Moth
- BAE Hawk T.1A
- Martin B-26 Marauder
- BAE Sea Harrier FA.2
- Messerschmitt Me262B-
1a/ Avia CS.92 - Westland Sea king HAR.3
- EE Lightning F.6
- McDonnell Douglas
FGR.2 Phantom- North American Mitchell Mk.II
- Avro Lancaster B.1/B.III
- Douglas Dakota Mk.III
- Vickers Wellington Mk.Ic
- Hadley Page Victor K.2
- Messerschmitt Me262B-
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 CombatAircraft, 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&PBy Andy Evans
Cover: Illustration Purposes OnlyIDS, ECR and ADV Versions
29
M D F
TORNADO
ORDER HOTLINE: 44 (0)1234 211245
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SAM-MDF-29-Tornado-Ad.indd 1 02/11/2017 12:44
WWW.SAMPUBLICATIONS.COM • FEBRUARY 2018 • 43
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