closure panel, which is moulded
as part of the upper wing.
The instructions suggest fitting
the main undercarriage legs at this
point, but they can be left off until
the end to ease painting, so I fitted
the nacelles and finished off with
the engine mounting bulkhead. To
ensure that the cowling fits correctly
it’s important to get this to sit flush
with the front of the nacelle.
The wings can be attached to
the fuselage at this point, sliding
over the main spar to create a
flawless joint. The horizontal and
vertical stabilisers, together with
the rudder, are each made up of
two halves, with very positive
mating locations. All the control
surfaces are separate and can
be posed deflected. Fit is so good
that I didn’t bother with glue; I
just pressed them into position
(moveable control surfaces! -
shades of the old Airfix!)
Each engine assembly
is made up from eight
parts, including the
bulkhead and one-piece
cowl. There’s a reasonablerepresentation of the nine-cylinder
Pegasus, but the cowl and cooling
deflector means that relatively
little detail can be seen when
assembled, although the cowlings
include segments of the forward-
swept visible exhaust stubs. Once
again, the engineering and fit is
terrific, and the whole lot goes
together smoothly. I pre-painted
these parts with various shades
of aluminium, satin black, and
Vallejo rust for the exhausts.
The nose and tail turrets
are the only significant items
left in the build at this point,
each being made up of just five
parts. As a consequence, they
are a bit simplified, which, given
the very clear perspex shells,
might be seen as a negative.The guns are moulded integrally
with the receivers and mountings,
with two mirror halves joined
to a base, to which is fixed the
solid turret back and the clear
front. The guns aren’t too bad, but
given the highly visible location
of both turrets, their relative
lack of detail is probably the
weakest part of the whole kit.
Lack of detail notwithstanding,
assembly is straightforward,
although care is needed to geteverything aligned, and I reinforced
several of the fine butt joints
with superglue. A useful design
feature is that the turrets can be
left off for painting and fitted
right at the end of the build.
Before I started painting, the
clear parts need to be fitted, and here
again I departed slightly from the
out-of-the-box brief; Eduard had
just released their mask set for this
kit, and with around 60 individual
panels to mask off, including theThe fuselage structure incorporates a strong main spar, which supports the wings.The fuselage halves are located by precision tabs rather than pins; alignment is excellent.“THERE’S NO DOUBT THAT
THE RE-VITALISED AIRFIX
IS GOING FROM STRENGTH
TO STRENGTH”
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