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Honda jet

Ebbro 1/48 Honda jet by Jon Howes

MANUFACTURER: Ebbro

SCALE: 1/48

TYPE: New-tool

PARTS: 80 parts

DECAL OPTIONS: Two white aircraft with

either blue or red upper fuselage, tail, and

engines.

T

he Honda jet (HA-420)

is the irst aircraft to be

designed by the Honda

aircraft company, a name that

is usually associated with

motorbikes and cars. Honda

irst started the venture into

business jets in the 1980s, when

it developed several prototype

business jets that did not make

it to the commercial market. The

HA-420, which itself sufered

from delays and issues, was inally

awarded certiication in 2015.

A unique characteristic of the

aircraft is that the engines

are attached to pylons on top

of the wings instead of the

undersides. Deliveries started

to customers in 2015 in the

US, and in 2016 in Europe.

THE KIT

Ebbro is a company that is not

really associated with aircraft;

their main production of kits has

been focused on Formula 1cars

and the like. Perhaps that explains

their unique approach to this kit,

because upon opening the box I was

instantly surprised by the quite

peculiar breakdown of parts. The

upper fuselage and nose area of the

aircraft is moulded in both red and

blue plastic, with the breakdown of

the part along the curvature of the

paintwork on the real aircraft. It’s

clear that the kit could be made to

a basic standard without painting.

The wings and tail leading edges

and engine intakes are chrome-

coated, with the remainder of the

aircraft moulded in white plastic.

Inspecting the parts it’s

apparent that this is not a limited-

run kit, but more like a top-end

injection kit that we would expect

from one of the big names. In fact,

the only negative is that some

parts do not have paint callouts,

so the modeller will need some

artistic license or some research

online to get things right.

THE BUILD

I started the build with the interior.

The paint callout for the interior

and leather seats is Light Ivory,

but there is no recommendation

for a paint number or brand.

Looking at photos online I could

see some images of the interior

being a beige/cream interior,

and I found a good match for this

using Tamiya XF-55 Deck Tan

with a gloss coat over the top.

Seven seats are provided,

four for passengers and two for

pilots, plus one that I assume is

for aircrew. All the seats have

moulded-on seat belts, which

according to the instructions

should be painted Tamiya X-18

Semi-Gloss Black, although

matt black is more accurate.

The cockpit includes foot

pedals, control sticks, and the

control panel. Once these were

painted I added the instrument

panel decals. These are very

well done and settled down on

the raised control panel; once

the glass areas are glossed they

look very efective. The inished

cockpit/cabin was then attached

to the inside of the main fuselage

along with the cabin windows.

Now my attention turned to

the upper fuselage part that was

moulded in colour. This part really

needs to be painted, because if left

as-is the interior of the cabin will

have a bright red or blue ceiling.

To prevent any colour showing

through I primed the whole part

grey, then painted the interior,

again using XF-55 Deck Tan.

I then added the cockpit canopy

window before attaching the upper

fuselage to the lower section. I

thought the seam here would stand

out like crazy, but to be honest it

was not too bad. Only minimal

cleanup was required, and most of it

will be hidden by the decals anyway.

Before moving on to the

next stage I made some masks

from tape for both the cockpit

and fuselage windows.

Before I started the inal

assembly I wanted to look at the

chrome parts used for the wings,

horizontal stabilisers, and engine

intakes. I am normally not a fan

of chrome-coated parts and this

was the irst time I had come

across them on an aircraft kit.

When I used to build model cars

I used to leave the chrome parts to

soak a few minutes in oven cleaner

to remove the chrome and then

repaint them using Alclad. But for

some reason, these parts seemed

immune to the oven cleaner! Ebbro

have applied a gloss coat over

the chrome and I think this gloss

coat may be the reason I could

not strip the parts. In the end, I

decided I would use the chrome

parts as they are but attach them

right at the end of the build.

So on with the rest of the kit.

PAINTING AND DECALS

The wings, tail, fuselage and any

other parts that were to be gloss

white or red were all primed with

a basic grey. One problem with

the instructions is that there is no

56 • DECEMBER 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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