The Kit

This is the latest in Academy’s “DaVinci Series”. They are models based on sketches of some of the inventions of this amazing man. All are molded in a vinyl-like soft plastic that facilitates the press fit of the components as no glue nor paint is required. All are ingeniously engineered to go together easily and to function smoothly.

The subject of this review is a rolling ball timer. It doesn’t time the rolling ball, rather the rolling ball serves as a sort of escapement mechanism for the machinery. You may think that this is a bit “Rube Goldberg” just for a timer, but remember there were no readily available clocks at the time and those that were, were not particularly accurate and were insanely expensive as well. There are forty-one parts, four of which are metal axels. The plastic parts are molded in two different colors, one a brown that simulate wood and black to simulate iron. The final effect is nicely convincing.

Eduard has issued two resin propellers as upgrades to the propellers issued with their SE.5a Wolsely Viper kit. The upgraded propellers include resin and photoetch parts with much finer detail than the kit propeller.

The Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5 was introduced in 1917 with a 150 HP V8 Hispano-Suiza 8A engine with two-bladed counter-clockwise (left) rotating propeller. The SE.5a was an improved version of the SE.5 and was one of the fastest fighters of WWI. The SE.5a aircraft was originally produced with a 200 HP Hispano-Suiza 8B gear-driven engine (‘Hisso’), with a counter-clockwise (left) rotating four-bladed propeller. The gear-driven engines proved unreliable, and were quickly replaced with the 200 HP Wolsely Viper direct drive engine with clockwise rotating (right) two-bladed propeller.

Horizon Models, a company based in Australia has recently released another in a series of U.S. spacecraft, this one being the Mercury Redstone, item # 2004. Horizon has covered the Mercury series well with this new release, along with the earlier releases of the Mercury Capsule and the Mercury Atlas kits. And with this kit, Horizon Models announces that their coverage of the Mercury Program has been completed. Future releases will cover other launch vehicles and other programs.

If you’ve seen the artwork on the box top (one can Google Image the artwork) then you know that it catches the spirit and “feel” of the Mercury Redstone as it begins its journey. Paul Renwick Farley, the artist who illustrated all three of the Mercury kits, did justice to that spirit.On the reverse side of the box are three profile illustrations by Juanita Franzi of Aero Illustrations. These illustrations are an excellent resource for colors and decal placement.