Scale aviation modeller international

The hedgehog exhausts are supplied

in two halves and are very nicely

detailed, almost as good as resin.

Alternative parts for the long

and short carburettor intakes are

supplied, although there is no

mention of which scheme requires

which carburettor, and I was not

provided with the colour schemes.

Fortunately, a little research on the

internet found some photographs

that showed that my choice of the

kit options had the short version.

Now came the tail control

surfaces. Two options are provided

one with the elongated fin fillet,

and the other with the original

short fin. There are also two

types of tailplane included, but

again no mention of which parts

are relevant to which scheme is

mentioned in the instructions (as

before, this may change by the

time the kit comes to market).

The next twelve stages involve

the assembly of the beautifully

detailed main undercarriage

legs. There is some cleanup

of the mould separation lines

required here, but this minor

inconvenience is outweighed by

the very fine detail provided.

The undercarriage bay doors,

(Parts E102) are moulded in the

closed position, so for the lowered

undercarriage, you will need

to cut them apart along their

join line, which is nice and thin

and should prove no problem

for a sharp scalpel blade.

The undercarriage units

are designed to be built up as a

complete assembly, including the

main wheels, which you then paint.

However, I found that doing it this

way makes painting the wheels,

tyres, and legs overly fiddly, so

I made a simple modification by

cutting the axles short to allow me

to fit the wheels once assembly and

painting had been completed. You

just have to carefully spread the legs

and insert your pre-painted wheels.

The undercarriage units are

meant to slot into the undercarriage

bays, but unfortunately I

experienced some more fit

problems. The plans I had were

not very clear as to how the legs

fitted, and the actual fit was very

tight and needed a lot of

trimming to get a good fit.

This is another thing that

may be resolved on production

examples, especially if the

instructions are a bit clearer.

The main weaponry supplied

is the 18-inch torpedo, which

is moulded in two halves and a

separate tail fin. After assembly,

I fitted the attachment brackets

to the torpedo rather than to

the fuselage so I would not

snap them off while painting

and decaling the model.

Out of the box the engines

are nicely detailed

The collector ring has

moulded-on exhaust pipes

10 • NOVEMBER 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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