Scale aviation modeller international

into a climb while a Ki-46 Dinah

is trailing smoke in the distance.

On the back of the box is, as

always, a full-colour painting

plan. There are three schemes

illustrated. The first is the aircraft

shown on the box, a Burma-based

antishipping aircraft wearing

what is called a “modified amoeba

scheme”. With the blue-on-blue

roundel and white spinner and

stripes, this variant looks quite

attractive. The second is a silver and

orange aircraft that appears to be

a trainer. However, the description

purports this to be a participant

in “Exercise Dagger”, from 1948,

and claims that the orange panels

are exercise markings. The final

scheme is an aircraft from Coltishall

in 1945, wearing a two-tone “air

superiority” camouflage. From

these proposed paint schemes

and their descriptions, the lines

between What-Iffery and out-

and-out alternative history

are, if not totally eradicated,

exceptionally heavily blurred.

THE KIT

In the box are three sprues of

medium-dark grey plastic, an

instruction sheet, a decal sheet,

and a clear canopy. The first thing

that hit me is that there are two

fuselages! One of them is for the

single-seat M.B.5, the other is for

this kit of the M.B.6. As is traditional

with AZ kits, they don’t bother to

leave out the parts you don’t need.

That means that you usually get

some interesting extras. In this case,

you get a whole fuselage, as well as

a different tail and a few other bits.

The parts are, by and large,

fairly well moulded. However,

there is a bit of flash and the

mould seams are heavy on almost

all parts. While everything has

recessed panel lines, they are a

bit uneven in depth and clarity,

although they are nice and straight.

Everything has a feels-rough

quality that is tough to describe.

The low part count and overall

simplicity are clear marks of a

short-run kit, but the variety of

decals and the surface detail is

better than you might expect from

a short-run maker producing a

kit of a plane that never existed

until they dreamed it up!

There’s a nice instrument

panel for the front cockpit, and

this has detail moulded right into

it. There’s no photo-etch (PE)

or resin in this kit, but for those

looking to add detail, any WWII

British subject would likely be a

good donor in this enterprise. The

landing gear is simple but sturdy

looking, and there are full landing

gear bays in the wings (more on

this later). Thus, while the kit has

a certain crudity about it in some

respects, it clearly aspires to be,

if not great, at least very good.

The decal sheet is nice, and

it’s a treat to have the blue-on-

blue roundels. There aren’t any

stencils, but if you’ve got a new

Airfix Defiant or Spitfire, I’m sure

that you can rustle up a few spares

from them to do the job, should

that be your thing (it isn’t mine).

The instructions are simple and

well-illustrated, and there are only

16 steps to building this model. It

looks easy. I thought it would be.

Usually, simple 1/72 WWII planes

don’t really push the boundaries

too far with me. However, as you’ll

see, the instructions make this

model look easier to build than it is.

One thing I must comment on

is the inconsistency with which AZ

represents the wingtip tanks. On the

box, and in most of the instructions,

they are correctly shown on the ends

of the wings, like those on Cavalier

Mustangs and T-33s. However,

at the top of the instructions,

they are shown under the wings,

inside of the tips, as if they were a

regular store. This isn’t an option.

BUILDING THE M.B.6

Like almost all airplane kits, the

action starts in the cockpit. I was

quite impressed with the cockpit

on this kit, actually; it was far

better than I expected it would be.

There’s a lot more than just “floor

and seat” to this one; indeed, there

are full sidewalls on the cockpit

tub, and there are electronics boxes

and other details on those walls.

The instrument panel is a single

piece, with no decals or PE, but

it does have raised edges for the

instrument faces. There are also

rudder pedals and a control stick.

The back-seater gets some

kind of control console with what

could be a radar scope on it, but it’s

hard to tell. Since it’s off centre,

I assume it’s something else.

I painted the cockpit with Model

Master Acrylic (MMA) RAF Interior

Green, and gave it a wash of Citadel

Nuln Oil. This is a transparent

black wash with a tinge of brown,

and it’s perfect for picking out

highlights and adding a little bit of

wear and tear. I used a silver pencil

crayon to pick out the instrument

panel and other cockpit details,

and add some scuffing as well. The

cockpit fits together well, and it

fit into the fuselage halves very

nicely too. I didn’t put the seats

in at the beginning, as I wanted

the cockpit free of obstructions

so I could fill it with Silly Putty

before attaching the canopy.

Like many low-production kits,

the M.B.6 doesn’t have a single

alignment pin anywhere, so getting

the proper alignment is quite hard.

I short-circuited this problem by

using thin sheet styrene to make

location tabs on the fuselage before

I joined it together. These tabs help

with both alignment and support.

Just as a note, the instructions show

that you have to put the tailwheel

in first, then seal the fuselage.

That’s not so; you can wheedle

it in once the model is done, and

that saves a lot of headaches!

Attaching the wings was another

interesting adventure. Most kits use

some kind of slot-and-tab system

to get the wings aligned. Not this

one. There’s just a nominally flat

surface for the wings to mount to,

and that’s it. The problem is that the

wing seams on the mating surface

are only so-so in terms of precision,

so getting the wings on, and aligned

properly, isn’t easy. There’s also

nothing to take any of the stress

once they’re in place. To handle this,

I changed the order of build a bit. I

taped the fuselage together and then

glued the wings on before gluing

the fuselage together. Of course, the

wings present their own challenges

and I’ll get to them shortly.

Once I had the wings on and

had eyeballed that they had pretty

much the same amount of dihedral,

I let everything dry overnight.

Then I untaped the fuselage and

using a small drill, drilled two

holes in the wings from INSIDE

the fuselage. Into these holes I

inserted some cyanoacrylate (CA)

glue and then pushed in a small

piece of spring steel wire. This wire

forms a secondary join between

the body and wings, and provides

some excess leverage support for

the wings in the event they are

stressed at the edges. I’m not sure

it was needed, but I felt a lot better

knowing that the wings were now

actively pinned to the body, rather

than just relying on cement.

With the wings on and

reinforced, the fuselage was glued

together, with a less-than-stellar

fit, even with the locating plates!

I mentioned an issue with the

wings, and it was a major issue that

caused me quite a headache. The

problem is in Step 12. This step’s

instructions show how to position

the pieces that make up the walls

of the landing gear bays, but the

instructions are wrong. They show

Parts 19 and 20 going in one wing

and Parts 13 and 14 in the other.

KIT REVIEWS

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