Skunkmodel from China has released a very nice and useful kit: Royal Navy Tow Tractor. I’ve believe this particular tractor has seen service with the Royal Navy since the mid-1960’s until the early 2010s so you have a multitude of aircraft that can easily fit into a diorama.

The box comes with 3 sprues, two of them are identical – one for each Tow Tractor - and a 3^rd sprue with a total of 9 figures, although only one of them is a driver. Six of the figures are wearing short sleeve shirts which means only tropical locations for your diorama (i.e no South Atlantic or Artic operations). You still have 3 figures with long sleeves.

Assembly of the tractor is incredibly straightforward, and the fit is excellent. I honestly only had one issue with this kit, and it really relates to the (only) driver figure. When seated on the tractor, its feet will not reach the base of the tractor. I even modified the column where the seat fits, but I should have removed even further material to lower the seat maybe another 1.5 mm for a total of about 3 mm. Be aware that you also have to modify the steering wheel column.

You are provided with two tractors, and if you wish, you can paint one in yellow and the other one in green, as to cover the 40+ years of service of the tractor (it was painted yellow up to the mid-1980s).

You get decals for 4 different vehicles (based on the plates), but no reference as to which carrier or timeframe they were on service. You also get individual numbers if you wish to create your own plate, so you can model any tow tractor in service with the RN.

The back of the box represents a carrier deck, which is useful to create a mini-diorama. Just know that it is glossy so you might want to add a flat coat to it.

This is a simple to assemble and very useful accessory kit that should find a place among modern and contemporary Royal Navy fans.

Recommended to modelers of all experience levels.

I would like to thank Skunkmodels, Lucky Model and IPMS/USA for the review sample.