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Congratulations to Avis for their recent releases of charming civil planes, a welcome and refreshing change from what is usually seen in the hobby scene. The model took less than a week to be built, working a bit every day. For details please refer to the building post: This is a very nice little kit that will only require a few details to be added to shine. The Short Satellite was one of the many efforts by aviation companies to obtain a reliable, affordable, safe, reasonably performing light plane for the civil market, being aimed to individuals or Aero Clubs. The graceful, well-though lines look modern compared to contemporaries, and so does its "metal can" fuselage construction, whilst the rest was the usual wood and fabric.

I am elated by the release by Avis of a plethora of charming and good-looking civil planes in 1/72, a welcome break from the usual gloom and doom, with less common and sometimes colorful types, and all this at affordable prices with a reasonable level of detail. I am acquiring their releases to support their choices, eager as I am for not really common civil kits, having been many times forced to resort to conversions of existing kits, or scratch-building, to satisfy my preferences for graceful, well-meant, significant and why not many times cute and adorable little flying things. All the late Avis releases are short run, meaning that you have to put a little of yourself there, you know, that thing, modeling. The Short Satellite belongs to the Light Plane category, the same league for which I scratched the De Havilland D.H.53, Gnosspelious Gull and the Parnall Pixie posted here some time ago: A good reference for these types is The Lympne Trials, by Ord-Hume. I have had a file on Satellite for many years. In comparing the kit to my files I found it to be quite spot on, even having in the sprues the two engines (Cherub and Scorpion) that the plane had (The plane attended the Lympne light plane competition in 1924 and 1925 with a Cherub, and the 1926 one with a Scorpion). The kit provides a closing part for the aft cockpit for the version with the registration (as depicted in box art), but it also flew with that registration with the aft post uncovered. Parts are provided of course for both positions. There is a very small omission on the decal sheet: the scheme with the number 8 should have also two number 8 under each wing, with a white outline: http://www.shu-aero.com/AeroPhotos_Shu_Aero/Aircraft_N/Short/Short_Satelite_S_4_G_EBJU_01_large.jpg Besides what it is provided in the decal sheet, the plane sported an additional scheme with the number 15 -and still with the registrations-, plus the logo of the 7 feathers Aero Club on the nose. The fuselage of the Satellite was made entirely of metal, hence its aspect of cobbled-together tin cans. Contents, including a printed film for the small windshields: Nice instructions you don't have to look at with a microscope: The expected level of detail for this kind of kit: