I will start this review with a simple statement: this is one of the most complex, highly detailed, and simply wonderful models I have ever had the pleasure to encounter. It has 13 sprues of plastic parts with exquisitely fine details. Additionally, there are three frets of photo etch brass parts, 32 metal springs, 8 tiny metal shafts, and a length of metal chain. The small set of decals covers 4 different vehicles from three different nations’ armed forces. And, despite all this complexity, the kit assembles, with a few notable exceptions, extremely well. So read on!

As The Douglas Skyraider series was arguably the most effective and all-around aircraft of the Vietnam War, I won’t go into any history. If you don’t know about the Skyraider but are reading this, you should be aware of this versatile aircraft which was used by both the US Navy and US Air Force.

When I received the kit for this review, I first spent time going through the plans and the many sprues to get a feel of the fidelity to scale and detail level of the kit. I was excited by what I saw and anxious to get started with the build.

Kit

The kit comes with two sprues, one for the four US Army figures and one for the four US Marine figures. There is a paper sheet with printed US food ration boxes that can be cut, folded, and glued up to represent these ration boxes. Also there is and instruction sheet for assembly. The first thing you will notice about this kit is that it is not a Tamiya mold, but instead a Master Box Mold. In fact the kit contains two Master Box figure sets into one. Why Tamiya used, Master Box Molds instead of producing their own is beyond me (could be a distributor relationship- Ed). Tamiya has a history of producing excellent figures, so I was a little dumb founded as to this fact when I received the kit. The figures have excellent detail with little to no flash to clean up. There are a few options for some of the figures. There are different weapons and equipment for some of the figures to choose from, but most build up to what you see on the box art.

History

The Messerschmitt Bf-110 was an early attempt by the Luftwaffe to develop a long range strategic fighter for deep penetration missions. It was also intended as a long range escort for bombers, as an interceptor against enemy bomber formations, and as a light bomber and ground attack aircraft. The first prototype flew in 1936, but protracted engine development kept the Bf-110 from entering service until 1938 as the Bf-110B. In 1939, the Bf-110C went into production, and this was the first version produced in large numbers. The Bf-110C appeared in fighter, ground attack, reconnaissance, and “destroyer” versions. The Bf-110C was used to effect in the Polish campaign in 1939, and this gave Goring the impression that the type was unstoppable, the ultimate air weapon. After success in shooting down unescorted RAF Wellington bombers, the type was committed in Norway and Denmark, and later during the Battle of France.

The Kit

The kit is cleanly molded in 154 pieces of multi-colored plastic. These parts are the same parts used in constructing many of the other 1/72 offerings from MiniArt. No flash is apparent and detail is very crisp on all parts. A new part that I have not seen on this model was the introduction of a stone foundation.

Construction

Assembly of this kit was straight forward as all of the offerings before it. However, I took a different approach. On many of the other kits, I found that doing each wall with the end connectors tended to produce minor gaps at the corners. This time I decided to pre-build the corner assemblies and then add the walls. Also, I decided to paint parts separately before assembly. This approach offered a much cleaner look to the house, a departure from the worn down structures I had built in the past. The result was by far my favorite work of all of these kits I had done.