FlyPast 08.2018

96 FLYPAST August 2018

Spotlight

Spotlight in miniature

Short

Sunderland

Sunderlands

Chris Clifford discusses the limited kit options for

those portraying the Short Sunderland in scale form

Above

The Sunderland Mk.III

by Italeri comes with

well-printed decals

for six airframes.

Right

Airfi x’s Sunderland

Mk.III is a truly

vintage item, fi rst

moulded in 1959; Roy

Cross’s evocative

box art on one of the

re-issues was a big

selling point.

Below

Italeri’s more modern

kits are pleasingly

detailed inside

and out, and offer

engraved panel lines.

Scaled-down

M

ainstream styrene

offerings of this

handsome flying

boat have been rare,

considering the popularity of the

real machine.

While there have been a handful of

more ‘boutique’ resin and vacform

items (some can still be found, but

many are hard to locate), the front-

runners in plastic are Italeri’s 1/72

Mk.I and Mk.III, and the ageing

same-scale Airfix product, which is

also a Mk.III. The latter is a product

of its time, first being moulded

in 1959 and undergoing various

re-boxings up to 2012. Raised

panel lines and heavy rivet detail are

there to hamper the build process,

although tenacious modellers used

to re-scribing and scratch-building

extra detail (especially for the

interior) can make it a fun project.

It is not in the current catalogue

but can still be found on auction

sites and at model shows – and is

generally accurate in outline.

Italeri’s kits are much more

modern, the Mk.I and Mk.III

being released in 2012 and 2014

respectively, and the detail is

plentiful. A build of the Mk.III was

published in the February 2016

issue of Airfix Model World, and the

kit was ‘boosted’ extensively with

aftermarket parts from the Czech kit

and accessory manufacturer

Eduard. Italeri’s plastic is

generally flash-free, although

the panel lines are rather

soft (a trait common

to this brand) and the

manufacturer erred in

moulding an

incorrect number of portholes on

the starboard fuselage (nine instead

of ten), but more experienced

modellers should have no difficulty

in remedying this.

The Mk.III provides decals for

six aircraft; four RAF machines,

one French and another flown by

the Royal Australian Air Force. A

scattering of photo-etched detail

components are also present, and

include seatbelts, an instrument

panel, other interior features and

ASV Mk.II radar dipoles.