The Book

This book is part of a series that has recently become available, and covers one particular aircraft in great detail. It is aimed primarily at scale modelers, and provides enough information for a modeler to build a highly detailed model of this particular aircraft. All of the issue I have seen follow the same format, with a set of 1/72 and 1/48 line drawings of the aircraft, a series of black and white photos taken while the plane was in service, or just afterwards, a series of detail perspective drawings of various components of the aircraft, such as landing gear, cockpit details, structural features, and other items showing disassembled parts of the aircraft. In both volumes, there are two color photos of Finnish MS406’s dated 1942 and 1943, and at the end of each volume is a four view color drawing. Volume 22 features a French aircraft with Polish markings on the fuselage, while Volume 22a shows a Finnish MS-406.

Back in 2012, Italeri released their first Wessex UH.5 in 1/48 scale in what would become a long line of Wessex types and UH-34 variants. This particular boxing is the second UH-34 version, with new parts and decals for a pair of French gunships, a West German utility chopper, and a Vietnam based U.S. Marine Corps bird. With those options, the included new weapons parts tree will provide plenty of useful leftovers no matter which version you choose to build. The extensive decal sheet, printed by Cartograf, uses a very thin carrier film with virtually no carry over beyond the printed image. Even the smallest stencils are perfectly legible. The kit parts, molded in dark olive green, are generally crisp and cleanly molded with no flash or visible ejector pin marks. Only in a few places were there any gaps requiring filler or shims.

This kit contains four light-gray resin sprues with a total of seven parts, which are finely cast and contain an amazing amount of detail given the small scale. The parts are very delicate. I highly recommend that you use a fine-tooth hobby saw to remove them. Any attempt to snip them with a sprue cuter will result in damage.

No instructions are provided; however, the construction is very intuitive. I began with using CA to bond the back wall and floor and used the grid lines of a cutting matt to ensure a 90-degree angle. Next, I added the left-hand side wall and after the parts were sufficiently bonded, I attached the two parts which make up the commode seat. Lastly, I added the right-hand side and then the roof and door. The door has a nice little heart shaped opening, but this needs to be cleaned up a little bit to make the heart shape recognizable.