Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'BRNC Dartmouth'.
-
Britannia Royal Naval College Air Experience Flight - 1957 This one has been a lot more difficult than I expected or its size suggests, but it is finished at last and photographed on this bright and sunny Spring/Easter morning! It's the recent 1/72 Airfix kit, with a set of home compiled decals for one of the four ex-RAF-ex-Civil aircraft that the RN bought in 1956 for use as flying acquaint aircraft. This one lived at Dartmouth until it was written off on 16/8/1962 after a crash on take off from Anges in the Pays de la Loire (sounds like a nice flying jolly to France was being had by someone at the time - fortunately no casualties!) This is a very impressive little kit with some superb fine detail. Mine was the civil version, with bright red and silver scheme out the box; another issue has WW2 camouflage and yet another starter kit has bright yellow trainer colours. However, despite its generally excellent fit and well thought out layout, it is not the easiest of builds, mainly due to the fragility of some parts, especially the wing struts. The main issue is the extra supporting structure that keeps the interplane struts at the right angle as you assemble the kit. These are an excellent idea and Airfix intend that you cut them off after assembly. making them suitably thin to help you with this. However the struts themselves are also very thin and I know I am not the only one who has has issues removing the unwanted parts afterward. I broke three of the struts trying to shave the helping parts off before giving up. Nice idea Airfix, but one that may cause more heartache than help for many modellers. The other surprising issue is that Airfix have provided the anti-spin strakes as separate parts, requiring you to cut out the upper fuselage and insert the new ones. This is really quite a fiddly task and difficult to tidy up afterward. A much better idea would have been to provide both versions as inserts; the excellent level of fit of the rest of the kit suggests that this would have been entirely feasible and certainly a lot easier for the builder than cut and shut. Rigging is lycra thread and just about drove me nuts. I normally enjoy threading biplanes and this is a fairly simple one, but on this occasion it seems my superglue has passed its sell by date and wouldn't stick to anything except my fingers. Much cursing and chuntering later it was finished, but not as neatly as I had hoped. Recommended for those with patience and a light touch!! FredT
- 20 replies
-
- 46
-
- Airfix 1/72
- BRNC Dartmouth
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with: