The Product

Nothing beats Eduard’s brass, like the slogan says “Best Brass Around” and I’m a believer. The large sheet of shinny brass photo-etch is a work of art and could be matted, framed and hung on the wall as such. My sample arrived in pristine condition with a comprehensive fold out instruction sheet.

Warpaint’s latest is their standard A4 format softbound publication that is 64 pages (excluding covers) on the Sikorsky Chickasaw and Westland Whirlwind helicopters. The book is split into two, with the first half dedicated to the Sikorsky Chickasaw and the second to the Westland Whirlwind. I counted 187 photographs (136 in color) along with 46 of Richard J. Caruana’s color profiles. Richard J. Caruana also contributes the centerfold (four pages) that features twenty drawings, all in 1/72 scale.

The short version - I liked the kits. The new molds that the current Airfix products have shown are on display here. These were pleasing to build.

Now, the details.

History

The pairing in the set is based upon an air battle that took place on the 9^th of February 1945. A force of thirty one Bristol Beaufighter long range fighter bombers took off from their bases in Scotland to attack the German Narvik-class Destroyer Z33 at anchor in a Norwegian fjord. The attacking force and its escorts of Mustang fighters was also intercepted by twelve Fw-190s of Jg5. Over 50 aircraft were involved making it the largest air battle over Norwegian skies during the Second World War.

Brengun continues to bring out interesting accessories that fill in gaps overlooked by mainstream manufacturers. This set is a 50 gallon external tank and the rack for mounting it on a Spitfire. The set consists of a two piece resin tank and small photo etch fret of the mounting rack.

Construction starts with removal of the two resin parts of the tank from their casting blocks. Take some time in lining up your cuts so that they are perpendicular to the tank as the two parts butt join just behind the aft tank strap. If you are off in your cut, you will need to spend some time with a file to square up the ends so that they meet correctly and the tank does not end looking like it has a kink in it. Next I attached the tiny etched filler cap to the front of the tank – this is a very tiny part, so be careful trimming it and getting it in the right place.

This set (SAC #72120) replaces the main gear legs and retraction struts along with the tail wheel. You have to use the kit main wheels and fenders. You get five metal reproductions of the kit parts in the usual soft white metal. That’s where my difficulty with this set started. Airfix has done an excellent job of reproducing very delicate landing gear parts in plastic. The main gear legs trap the main wheels and the flexible properties of the plastic parts help. It also really helps when you install the gear parts into the finished gear wells. There’s a lot of fiddling once the parts are the bay and again the plastic assisted by snapping back to its original shape. The metal parts on the other hand, bent and were very difficult to realign once the glue set. For that reason, I preferred the plastic parts. This is the first SAC set I’ve used that created more work than it was worth to have metal parts.