Oh boy- is this great!!! (Stolen from a famous movie.) I have been waiting patiently since Airfix announced the first 1/48 scale styrene kit of the Sea Vixen and the kit delivers in spades. A quick background shows that the De Havilland Sea Vixen entered service in 1959 and served until the 1970's. It was the first British fighter to be designed without guns relying solely on its missiles.

On to the kit- the basics show very crisp molding with engraved panel lines and are molded in light gray styrene. There are three large sprues in total. A very nice clear sprue rounds out the plastic and has the canopies and windscreens as well as the seeker heads, HUD glass, etc. One thing that hits you right off is the instruction manual: detailed and with 20 pages of instructions and 2 pages of common decals. The last thing is an enormous Cartograf decal sheet with tons of stencils (well over 120) and markings for four different planes:

The Book

It is refreshing to see a publication written on a topic that has never been treated in an historical context before, and this book certainly fits that description. After World War II, the United States Army Air Forces had thousands of airplanes in its custody throughout Western Europe, and while many were scrapped on the spot, or in the case of heavy bombers, flown back to the US, some were disposed of a surplus to various buyers.

Layout of the Sprues:

1. Sprue A - Cruciform base and extension legs
2. Sprue A4 – Cruciform base top
3. Sprue B – Parts for Travel carriages and bits for Cruciform base
4. Sprue C x 2 – Parts for Travel carriages and bits for Cruciform base
5. Sprue D – Shield and base parts of the Gun
6. Sprue E – Plastic barrel and small parts of the gun
7. Sprue WA – Shells and shell casings
8. Photo Etch A – Shield
9. Photo Etch B – More shield parts and ready round box
10. Photo Etch C – Shell base
11. Other Parts – Metal Barrel, metal tube, Rubber tires

Steps 1, 2, & 3 – Building of the Cruciform base