Elm City Hobbies
Active Member
- Joined
- May 7, 2009
- Messages
- 3,239
Well I have had this kit sitting here for a week or so, and people wondering how the new tooled Airfix kits look, so I figured I would do a review of it.
The kit consists of 4 sprues, 3 in Grey (45 parts), one in clear (5 parts), with markings for 3 different versions.
Sprue A
Consists of one of the fuselage halves, landing gear, wheels, guns, cockpit, spinner
Sprue B
Other fuselage half, pilot, propeller
Sprue C
Wing uppers, lower wing, tailplanes
Clear Sprue
2 Canopies, one for close canopy, and 2 parts for open canopy
Closeup of the lower wing
Upper Wing closeup
Landing gear bay closeup
Fuselage Closeup
Cockpit side detail closeup
Main Gear Door detail closeup
Decals
Instruction Sheets, don't mind my hen scratching...Aifix kits only have Humbrol color codes for painting, so I wrote in what I need for Vallejo
Painting and Decaling options:
No.603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron, Royal Air Force, RAF Turnhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1051
No.607 (County of Durham) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, RAF Ouston, England, as well as an option for the same plane that took part in the Cooper Trophy race of 1948.
Over all, this is a very nice kit. For something that is normally a much simpler kit which Airfix small scale kits generally tend to be. 50 parts total (which for a 1/72 WWII fighter isn't too shabby), so nothing that will intimidate new modelers. Details are pretty good, nicely engraved detail on the wings and fuselage. Yes the cockpit is simplified, and the instrument panel is a decal, but at 1/72, it is tiny anyway, and if you put the pilot in and close the canopy, you aren't going to see much of the cockpit anyway. For those that like to superdetail the cockpit, or use an aftermarket cockpit, I have no doubts that someone like Aires will be coming out with one eventually, another company to look at if you want an aftermarket cockpit is Pavla. As well I wouldn't be surprised to see aftermarket wheels for it eventually as well from either of those manufacturers.
Looking at the instructions it seems to be a fairly straight forward build, and I don't foresee any any problems in building this.
Look for an in progress build on this kit in the 46+ Group Build. The Mk.22 never saw action in WWII, coming too late for combat, so it fits very nicely into this group build!!
On the initial look, and that the kit is the paltry sum of $7.50 Canadian, you just can't go wrong with this kit, and I would give this kit 4 sprues out of 5 for a rating!
The kit consists of 4 sprues, 3 in Grey (45 parts), one in clear (5 parts), with markings for 3 different versions.
Sprue A
Consists of one of the fuselage halves, landing gear, wheels, guns, cockpit, spinner
Sprue B
Other fuselage half, pilot, propeller
Sprue C
Wing uppers, lower wing, tailplanes
Clear Sprue
2 Canopies, one for close canopy, and 2 parts for open canopy
Closeup of the lower wing
Upper Wing closeup
Landing gear bay closeup
Fuselage Closeup
Cockpit side detail closeup
Main Gear Door detail closeup
Decals
Instruction Sheets, don't mind my hen scratching...Aifix kits only have Humbrol color codes for painting, so I wrote in what I need for Vallejo
Painting and Decaling options:
No.603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron, Royal Air Force, RAF Turnhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1051
No.607 (County of Durham) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force, RAF Ouston, England, as well as an option for the same plane that took part in the Cooper Trophy race of 1948.
Over all, this is a very nice kit. For something that is normally a much simpler kit which Airfix small scale kits generally tend to be. 50 parts total (which for a 1/72 WWII fighter isn't too shabby), so nothing that will intimidate new modelers. Details are pretty good, nicely engraved detail on the wings and fuselage. Yes the cockpit is simplified, and the instrument panel is a decal, but at 1/72, it is tiny anyway, and if you put the pilot in and close the canopy, you aren't going to see much of the cockpit anyway. For those that like to superdetail the cockpit, or use an aftermarket cockpit, I have no doubts that someone like Aires will be coming out with one eventually, another company to look at if you want an aftermarket cockpit is Pavla. As well I wouldn't be surprised to see aftermarket wheels for it eventually as well from either of those manufacturers.
Looking at the instructions it seems to be a fairly straight forward build, and I don't foresee any any problems in building this.
Look for an in progress build on this kit in the 46+ Group Build. The Mk.22 never saw action in WWII, coming too late for combat, so it fits very nicely into this group build!!
On the initial look, and that the kit is the paltry sum of $7.50 Canadian, you just can't go wrong with this kit, and I would give this kit 4 sprues out of 5 for a rating!
