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EoN Eton TX.1/SG-38 Over Western Europe (SH72442) 1:72


Mike

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EoN Eton TX.1/SG-38 Over Western Europe (SH72442)

1:72 Special Hobby

 

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The Schneider SG-38 was a bare-bones glider designer to be an introductory airframe in flight schools.  It was designed in the late 30s, and was manufactured by a number of companies, latterly Elliotts of Newbury as the Eton TX.1.  It was employed in the UK and other countries after WWII as a cheap glider to be used by aeroclubs, which were still popular after the war.  It was a truly basic in design, with a fabric covered wing and empennage, using bracing wires to hold it rigid like a WWI fighter.  The pilot sat at the front totally exposed to the elements with his backside only a few inches from the ground, with a skid landing system that had some element of suspension between the ground and the pilot.

 

The Kit

This is a reboxing of the original 2015 tooling, with a collection of decals from the RAF, Belgium, Sweden and France, hence the “Over Western Europe” tagline.  It’s a small glider, so in 1:72  it’s wee-tiny.  It arrives in a short figure-sized end-opening box, and there’s a single sprue of grey styrene and a decal sheet in the resealable bag.  The instructions are portrait A5 and printed in colour, with only two pages actually devoted to the build, the rest taken up with a sprue guide and all the profiles for painting and decaling.  There are a couple of spare pilot cowlings within the sprue, one of which isn’t used on this boxing, the other is suitable for two of the decal options.

 

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Construction begins with the mating of the tail and supports to the one-piece fuselage, quickly followed by the wing that is slipped over the A-frame that juts out of the top, with a fairly visible seam on the moulded-in seat that will need a swipe with a sanding stick if you aren’t sourcing a pilot figure from somewhere.  The pilot controls consist of a column and a choice of two styles of rudder pedals, then follow two drawings showing the installation of the tensioning wires in red, which you will need to source yourself.  The final stage is the optional cowling around the pilot that can be fitted to the first RAF and Swedish decal options A & D.  That’s it!

 

Markings

There are five decal options included on the sheet, which is also pretty small, but you have plenty of colour choices to go at.  From the box you can build one of the following:

 

  • EoN Eton TX.1 WP270, c/n 038 Maidstone Grammar School Combined Cadet Force (Air Cadets) Sept 1951
  • EoN Eton TX.1 WP265, c/n 033 Air Cadets, RAF West Malling, 1950s
  • SG-38, PL-21, Royal Belgium Air Cadets, Beauvechain, 1959
  • G-101 (SG-38) built in Sweden by AB Flygindustri), No.80 Sweden, 1943-53
  • SG-38, No.95 “Le Timide”, France 1945

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Decals are printed by Special Hobby and up to their usual standards with good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas.

 

 

Conclusion

This is a cool little kit that some of our older members may in fact have flown back in the day.  It has some nice raised and engraved details, particularly around the flying surfaces, and should look quite special under paint and with the guide-wires in place on a representation of a piece of field somewhere.

 

Highly recommended.

 

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Review sample courtesy of

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