Revell 1/72 scale Fairey Gannet. To be, or not to be

[Martin1962]

For many years I have avoided Revell kits after poor experiences as a youngster. I recently completed their 1/72 Sea Vixen and it wasn't bad at all., turning into a decent enough rendition. As soon as I can upload the photos here then I will. The Sea Vixen is supposed to be part of a Royal Navy-theme this year and will be accompanied by the Airfix RN Phantom, Buccaneer, Harrier and whatever helicopters I can find, together with some more Cold War era aircraft.

 

This is where the Gannet fits in. I bought one from Fleabay in March, had a quick look at the box and put it away. After finishing the Sea Vixen I took it out to start. 'Instructions are poor 'was my first thought, and then on to steps 1 and 2 at which point I found that the bugger who sold it to me omitted to tell me that two crucial parts were missing. No chance of going any further so I bought another one, which was actually cheaper. I'd wanted to build it with folded wings and had already bought the Alley Cat resin kit, which arrived with all parts intact.

 

I began construction of the new kit. Cockpit.....rubbish fit. Bulkheads wouldn't fit in without carving bits out of them. Grrr. Instrument panels literally just sat in position on top of the cockpit side pieces and I lost count of how many times they fell off, especially once the fuselage halves were glued together. The bomb bay has a bulkhead at the front. I wanted the bomb nay doors closed. Would this part fit? Would it f%%%!. No matter how much of the bulkhead was trimmed off, this damn part was not going to match up to the bottom of the fuselage. Grrrr.

 

At this point, both the bulkheads behind the seats and the main instrument panel fell off and didn't want to be glued back. I decided to leave them until the end.

 

Onto the folding wings. 'Use super glue' say the instructions, so I did. Would they bond to the fuselage? Not a chance. After a couple of hours 'drying time' and some taping up they seemed ok, but what were these massive gaps underneath? Grrrr. Holding the incomplete model in my hand I turned it over and had a look at the angle of the wings only to see that the rear control surfaces were not aligned and very very wonky. As I tried to persuade them into what would be a better angle, the two recently super-glued wing sections then detached themselves, at which point the whole misaligned, crappily- moulded and poorly- constructed mess took an ill-advised test flight into the bin.

 

I'm eying up the other kit - the first one I bought with the missing parts - and considering whether to use the bits from the crashed one and start again. Meanwhile there are two decent Airfix ones to consider as an alternative.

 

Is the Gannet destined to be the kit that never was?

[Model Mate]

I've got the Revell Gannet in my (very llimited) stash, and it looks like a really nice kit, with great detail. At the time it was released (not that long ago), it garnered great reviews - is yours an older moulding maybe?

[Piotr Mikolajski]

Revell had two different kits:

#04106 - Fairey Gannet AS.1 - rebox of Frog, released in 1996

#04397 - Fairey Gannet AS.1/4 - new tool from 2008 (and with some new parts #04845 Fairey Gannet T.5)

 

This new tool kit has a lot of good reviews and IIRC there were no issues with builds.

 

[Martin1962]

Ha ha! perhaps it's just me then!

 

I've bitten the bullet and started the second one (pics to follow) and it's already better. Perhaps the other one had been sitting around warping a bit. Who knows!

[heloman1]

The first aircraft type I worked on as a sproggy NAM the Mk5's of 849 NAS. I built the old Frog kit many years ago and latterly the Hobby Boss kit. Wish I had waited for the Revell kit!

 

Colin

[Martin1962]

OK, OK it was probably me. Anyway, I started the second kit - in reality the first one I bought. I rescued the bomb bay/floor section and had another go. It's been fine so far with no great dramas and it will be OOB rather than my dream of resin folded wings. In all honesty I really can't find it in me to make the effort this time round. Here's the opening salvo of images.

 

Just a bit of a dry fit and all seems well...

 

 

Cockpit nearly done. You didn't want to see all the steps did you! I decided not to use the decals on the instrument panels this time and I'm glad I didn't. I must book that manicure now I've had a pay rise..

 

 

A bit more cockpit with some artistic licence in colours. I'm not thrilled with the seatbelt decals as they look a bit 'cartoonish' to me. No way will I be making seatbelts for this myself though, so beggars can't be choosers

 

 

...and a bit more cockpit action

 

 

 

..and an overhead view

 

..before fuselage was glued together and wings attached. The slight gaps have been filled now

 

 

 

These resin wings will not be making an appearance. Happy to see them on if anyone wants them. Life's too short!

 

[Martin1962]

....or even 'sell them on.' Damn that spelchecka

[bigbadbadge]

Good to see one on the go now and looking good,  I have that same wingfold for mine.

Chris

 

[Martin1962]

Wow it's been over a year since I added this topic and in that time I have completed the RN project. The Gannet folding wings were a disaster and ended uo not being used. I just could not glue them successfully which was a shame, and ended up starting the Gannet again from scratch. I'm struggling to get a good picture of the completed RN set and when I do, I will upload, but have added a few of it to the ready for inspection section I have a pre-order in for the forthcoming 1/48 Airfix kit.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 7 by Martin1962