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Well, I'm not really into 1/72 aircraft, nor in propellers but when a new company (at least to me) from my country announced a new model kit of a new Turkish aircraft, I couldn't help myself in buying and trying to build it. Hürkuş (freebird) is named after the turkish aviation pioneer Vecihi Hürkuş. I don't know how many movies would have been shot about him if he was born in another side of the world. It is still an experimental airplane, this version will be used as a trainer and if the project will continue, another version (Hürkuş-C if I'm not wrong) will be a light fighter. Anyway back to the model kit. This first post is a half review, half WIP. 1/72 TAI Hurkus-A by Tan Model My hat off to Tan Model for choosing to produce this model kit and all people who gave permission to have this plane in model kit form. Maybe this sound a little strange but to have a permission is a serious issue in Turkey. I discovered this when I was looking for plans of Ada Class Turkish corvette (aka Milgem), I found in a turkish ship modellers forum that people were thinking to build Ada class corvettes from scratch and trying to draw a plan of this class (where two examples are already on the sea and you can see it in public places (as I did, when I was sea kayaking in the Bosphorus), so this is not a black project). It seems one of the contributor received a phone call telling that they can not produce or share any drawings of this corvette and by frustration in his post, I guess he received a real warning. So back to the topic: It comes with a picture of the aircraft taken on Bosphorus showing the historical military school at the background The back of the box features a colored illustration of the completed model, which is a nice touch. There are 2 white sprues and one transparent sprue. The instructions are presented in a booklet form with color illustrations. The white plastic is good as qualitywise, it is rather different than the Airfix ones (which feels soft to me). OK, I'm not a pro but I think recessed details on the surface is a little overscaled/emphasized. This is a common problem in many model kits. I guess the kit producers had to choose between a realistic detail which will be very soft in this scale or an overscaled detail which will not get lost even after some layers of surface primers and paint. To my eyes the landing gears were all too big and thick for this scale too but take this with a grain of salt and wait for a more experienced builder to review this kit. There are many flush parts that you'll need to touch (in this picture below, there shouldn't be any parts at sides of pilot seats, first I thought them being some detail to install the seats to the floor but no). Considering this is the first run (and not an old mold) the manufacturer should think about this for their future releases. As a matter of fact, I really like cleaning the flush parts, I know it's strange but this is my favorite thing in model making (airbrushing being my least favorite) And so far these are some parts after cleaning the flush etc. I'll see with the fitting soon. Then again, I support the manufacturer who decided to produce such kit. I congratulate them for choosing this rare aircraft, it is a bold decision to go with the first kit (for local -not so much existing- turkish market, I'd go with 1/48 F-16 SoloTürk, as there are no OOB possible Soloturk in this scale -if you set aside the disastrous Italeri Barak-, Revell have a 1/72 scale which seems good). The kit is surely not a Tamiya but I'm sure they don't have the means of Tamiya either and as a first model kit, from what I see so far, they rather made a good job (if not perfect). And as a final note, I don't know those guys.

Dear Forum Members, We have just finished to design Tanmodel’s first commercial model kit of Turkish Basic Trainer Aircraft HURKUS- A with close collaboration with TAI. We have officially licenced all our design components from TAI. Some benefits of our model kit: -Detailed cockpit parts, instrument panels and Martin-Baker Mk T16N seats -Recessed detonation cord details -Multi pose canopy, fowler flaps, ailerons, rudder parts -Detailed landing gears and whell bays -Perfectly scaled and detailed Hartzell HC-B5MA-3 propeller -Fine reccessed panel lines Our kit has 56 parts, estimated release date is October 2014. Best regards, Baris TANSOY Founder & Owner