Viking

Brilliant! what fantastic weathering. Cheers John

SE.5a Night Fighter 82133 Eduard (ProfiPACK) - 1:48 Eduard have already produced four previous boxings of their SE.5a kit in Hisso, Viper, and Royal Class forms. Now we have the 'Night Fighter' version, which is the most unusual of all the releases. It contains all the optional parts to build either a Hispano-Suiza or Wolsely Viper powered machine, with wooden or metal undercarriage legs, and a choice of three different propellers. The easy way to tell if an SE.5a was Viper powered is that the propeller is exactly midway between the top and bottom of the front radiator, whilst on the Hispano the prop is mounted more like two thirds of the way up. A second clue is that they rotated in opposite directions, so the Viper prop rotated anti-clockwise and the Hisso clockwise when viewed from the front. Adapted for use a night fighter late in the war to tackle raids being mounted by German bombers, the basic SE.5a does not appear to have been altered very much. Noticeable differences are the addition of various exhaust flame damping devices, and the mounting of Holt flares under the fuselage (an early form of landing light). Very likely some form of illumination was provided for the instruments as well. The Kit. Presented in Eduard's familiar Orange banded 'Profipack' box, the artwork features what looks to be a Zeppelin-Staaken machine being shot down by B658. Inside are two large sprues, one clear sprue, two etched brass frets, two sheets of decals, a pack of resin details, a small sheet of kabuki tape masks, and the instruction booklet. Sprue A. Crisply moulded in Eduards standard dark grey plastic, this sprue holds the wings, struts, tail, and undercarriage. The rib detail is nicely done with very fine stitching just visible on the rib tapes. I particularly like the way that the leading edge riblets are done, they really do look as if they are wooden frames covered by taut fabric, with a subtle amount of sag between. It is nice to see that the triangular openings for the wing pulley inspection covers are represented, with miniature pulleys inside. These were present on several British aircraft of this period, but this is the first time I can recall seeing them done in this scale. The struts have really lovely detail on their end brackets and are commendably thin. Both the 'wooden' and 'metal' undercarriage legs are supplied, with options A,B, and C requiring the 'metal' ones, and option D using the 'wooden' set. Sprue B. Equally finely moulded are all the fuselage parts, the engine, and numerous little details. The stitching work on the fuselage is possibly the best I have ever seen in this scale, it is really lovely. There are some very small detail parts such as trim wheels, footsteps, brackets, pipes etc that will need to be carefully cut from the sprue, because if the carpet monster gets them you'll be unlikely to ever see them again. Both the Hispano-Suiza and Viper engines are provided as separate crankcase + cylinder units, although both share the same ancillary parts. A four blade and a pair of two bladed propellers are supplied, and if using a two blader be careful to select the correct one as one is for clockwise rotation while the other is anti clockwise depending upon which engine you choose. Although I have not had a chance to build one of Eduard's SE.5a's yet, based on previous experience I have no doubt that it will all fit together beautifully. Sprue C. This is one of Eduard's circular clear sprues, with optional windscreens and covers for the pulley inspection covers in the wings. Etched frets. Two frets are supplied, the larger of the two is the 'standard' set provided in the other SE.5a kits (except the 'weekend' edition). Two styles of pre painted seat belts are provided, the more common wide lap type and the later four point type. Among the forty four parts are various cockpit details, including pre painted instruments, ammo drum boxes, and details for the guns. Also useful are the aileron and elevator control horns, complete with the cables. These save a very fiddly job! The second brass fret is much smaller, and provides night fighter specific items to form various brackets and mountings for the exhaust pipes and flame dampers, as well as the under fuselage flares. A nice little bomb rack is also on the fret, but obviously not required for the night fighter, nevertheless it will be very welcome in the spares box for other projects. Resin. Three sets of different exhaust flame dampers are supplied in resin, only one of which will be used according to which option you select. The detail is very fine, and the exhaust pipes have recessed openings at their ends. Masks. A small set of pre-cut kabuki tape masks contains items for the windscreens, inspection panels, and tyres. Decals. Two sheets are provided, the larger of them consisting of the diamond pattern for Option A, Cecil Lewis's machine. The slightly small sheet covers the other three options, including the multiple red striped option C. All the individual decals look to be very thin with minimal carrier film. The colours are good and in perfect register with sharp edges. As noted in the instructions, the main colour is not the usual dark green/brown PC10, but the green/black 'Night Invisible Varnish Orfordness' (NIVO). This is probably one of the first uses of what became a familiar colouring between the wars, and further adds to the interest. Marking Options. A. B658, flown by Capt. Cecil Lewis, No. 61 (Home Defence) Squadron, Rochford, United Kingdom, January 1918. B. C1805, flown by Lt. W. R. Oulton, No. 143 (Home Defence) Squadron, Detling, United Kingdom, May 1918. C. Flown by Capt. Gilbert Insall VC, No. 50 (Home Defence) Squadron, Bekesbourne, United Kingdom, May/ July 1918. D. D5995, flown by Lt. L. Lucas, No. 50 (Home Defence) Squadron, Bekesbourne, United Kingdom, summer 1918 Conclusion. This is a very well presented package by Eduard, and is without a doubt the best 1:48 scale SE.5a available. The addition of the resin and etched brass to make a night fighter is a clever move by Eduard, and as far as I know this is the first time that such an option has appeared for the SE.5a in any scale. The choice of marking options makes it almost impossible to choose just one, I will have to obtain another kit as I need do at least two of them. (Option A, Cecil Lewis was a truly extraordinary gentleman, who only died in 1997. Obituary here. and remarkable BBC interview here) Highly Recommended, a really superb offering from Eduard. Review sample courtesy of

What a beauty! Cheers John

Nice neat job there Eric, I'd say you've mastered that art of building vac-forms! She looks every inch a Herald. Cheers John

That is spectacular Ian! Great job on cutting down the fuselage, I'm quite tempted to have a go at one myself. Cheers John

What a beauty! Cheers John

Oh yes, lovely! You've done the old girl full justice there Keith. Very nostalgic to see one in Redcoat livery. Cheers John

Superb, a lovely little setting and very inspirational. Cheers John

A great bit of nostalgia, and model! Cheers John

Walking past the dining room the other day, I thought 'what the....'? as I spotted this on the wall. low sunshine was passing through my display cabinet, causing a projection about 2 ft long. Ok, I accept that I'm easily amused!

Fokker F-27, Air UK. 1/144 26 Models. This is the Eastern Express kit reboxed by Ray at 26 Decals, and offered at a considerably more reasonable price (£21 vs EE's retail price of £49.99), including a set of Rays' own Laser decals. It has the look of short run injection kit and definitely needs 'building', by which I mean parts need to be checked & fettled to get the best fit. And it needs filling and sanding along the way. That said, it does build into a nice little replica of the Friendship. The decals were laser printed on constant film, so needed individually cutting out, but they performed very well, and I really like this livery. 'With something else' A shortened Revell RJ70, also with 26 Decals on it A few words on construction. The kit actually comes with complete solid fuselage halves, a cockpit interior, and an optional clear part for the cockpit area. There won't be much point building the cockpit interior if you are going to put it inside the solid fuselage, as it will never be seen! Therfore I decided to use the clear section. Unfortunately there are no markings inside or the fuselage halves as to where you should cut, so I did it gradually, test fitting the clear part and cutting back until I had a suitable opening. It is not a brilliant fit, being too wide at the front end, but there is just enough material on it to sand it back and blend it in after gluing. This is the amount of solid area that needs removing from the fuselage halves. The next challenge was that the clear part is completely smooth and has no indication of the glazing panels. I put a sheet of clear plastic over the cockpit window on the decal sheet and a strip of Tamiya masking tape on it. I then made a set of masks matching the decals, and applied them to the clear part. Of course all this extra work can be avoided by not using the clear part and building it with the solid fuselage halves. Main airframe, filler was used! Not shown here are the props. They are fiddly to do as the spinners are in 2 parts with a back plate and forward spinner. You do get a choice of 2 different types of props though. I also replaced the 'towel rail' aerials on the fuselage underside with fine copper wire, and the above photos show I bent one during the photo session! I've straightened it out since. It is a nice little kit, but perhaps not one for the beginner. Thanks for looking, John

Thanks everyone, my quest for fitting Daco clear cockpit sections to Airfix airliners continues! I'm working on the 707 next, by my goodness, does it need a lot of shimming out to widen the forward fuselage. the 737 needs a little bit of shimming, and this 727 actually needed reducing down as the front was too wide. Ian, they were the set with Laser main elements & Silk screen details. The Brengun wheels are worth having, the details on the hubs are much better on the main wheels, and I thin they have a better profile than the kit ones. Cheers John

You wait ages for an Airfix 727 to appear in RFI, and 2 come along at once! Lovely job on improving the kit, I always thought it suited that BA scheme, and it makes you do a double take and think 'BA never operated 727s did they?' They sure did, albeit through a subsidiary,as you have shown Cheers John

Lovely build of an old classic. Shame we don't see more of them making an appearance on modelling sites. Cheers John

That is a stunning piece of work, an a perfect way to show off all that detail on the WnW Junkers! I really like the composition of all the elements, beautifully done. Cheers John