in the parked position then there
is some minor surgery required
to shorten the undercarriage
housings, the upper sections
of which must be cut away – a
process made easier by the soft
nature of the styrene favoured
by this manufacturer. The model
can also be assembled with or
without the spat-mounted sirens.
This kit includes a very fine
replica of the Junkers Jumo 210
engine. It consists of twenty-two
parts, and while this particularly
worthy example would have made afine addition to the model, I decided
against it as I wanted my model to
feature the characteristic stepped
nose that gave the real aircraft its
brutish and sinister appearance.
Also supplied in the Airfix
release are the alternative chin
radiators that allow the modeller
to display the louvres in the open
or closed positions. I chose the
former, as all the reference pictures
I had of African-based aircraft
show them to be open. A choice ofside-mounted intake housings is
also provided, one being the larger
square-shaped type characteristic
of machines operating in the
Mediterranean theatre.
There are different lower-cowl
sections to choose from, dependent
upon whether the radiator cooling
gills are posed in the extendedor the closed positions, and care
should be taken to select the
correctly proportioned items.
Once the appropriate options
have been selected, the nose unit
builds into a separate assembly
that slips onto the front end of
the airframe over the firewall.
After a dry-fit I found it
necessary to shave a small amount
of plastic off the rear edge of the
side-mounted intake before the
nose section would sit centrally.
Milliput was used as filler in several
areas around the nose, smoothed
into joints to minimise or disguise
the most obvious gaps. More was
required in several places on the
airframe to fill some unsightly sink
marks. These were particularly
prevalent on the undercarriage
spats, along the upper fuselage,
and in the very centre of the tail.
The propeller blades also
needed some attention, as the30 • AUGUST 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
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