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Last Updated: Aug 6th, 2008 - 16:01:28 |
This kit came to me through Roger Wallsgrove, and I can honestly say that this is the ultimate and very best kit in any medium of a Meteor that I have ever seen.
The Kit
Comprising some 60 resin parts - no etched brass or white metal in this kit - the mouldings are just stunning, with superb panel detail on all parts. I compared the kit with the Aviation News plans (Vol 10 No 8, September 1981), which are supposedly the best available and most accurate for the Mks 1-9 Meteor. I cannot find any fault with the kit, right down to the smallest panel line. Everything is spot on - size, profiles, contours, all conform to the drawings.
The kit provides all the necessary parts to build a Mk 8 in its early form, with small intakes and half-metal canopy , a late Mk 8 with larger intakes and full canopy, and an FR nose for the FR9. All the parts are packed in 2 A4-size plastic envelopes, which have been pocketed so that the parts are separate and donít knock together. A novel idea that works extremely well,and also means that you only have to open the pockets as and when the parts are needed. (This is the system Peter Buchar uses on all his resin kits. Ed).
Construction
Construction begins by cleaning up the resin parts which have a little flash and moulding gates. The cockpit interior comes in 5 parts, floor, seat, front coaming, control column and rudder pedals, which are fitted into the starboard fuselage half. The seat is perfectly adequate but not up to the standard of Aeroclub or Airwaves, so I replaced it with an Aeroclub seat, which also helped provide some nose weight. Side consoles are moulded into the fuselage sides, and the instrument panel has recesses for the instruments. I painted the whole cockpit matt black, then picked out the instruments. The fuselage halves were joined and any gaps filled with superglue. I had already decided on an F8, so filled the appropriate nose with lead shot and glued it into place. The fit was perfect.
Whilst this assembly dried, I turned my attention to the wings, which unusually are moulded in one piece. Just the tops of the nacelles and the intakes are separate parts. Exhausts and rear engine blanking plates are supplied, as are engine fronts. Opting for the earlier small intakes, I found this was the only place where filler was needed. There was a slight gap at the leading edges of the wings and a slight mis-match of the intake and nacelle profiles. With all this dry and cleaned up I fitted the fuselage to the wing centre-section. This fits well with just a little trimming needed, and again any slight gaps were filled with superglue and rubbed down when dry.
Next to the undercarriage. The nose leg is a one-piece casting, but the main u/c units come in 5 pieces. Leg and half for, wheel, half fork, mudguard and stay. The whole thing goes together very nicely, and the only problem I had was with the fine mudguard stays. These need careful trimming to match the mudguard profiles. Undercarriage doors are cast in one piece and only need careful cutting to separate. They are very thin and well profiled, and even have hinges to fit into slots in the u/c bays.
Weapons supplied with the kit comprise the usual belly tank, 2 wing tanks, 2 bombs and 8 rockets. The bombs come with separate pylons which even have the shackles cast into them. The only part of this kit I am uneasy with concerns the rockets. Although well cast and with separate fins, I cannot find any references which show single rockets being carried. All my Meteor pictures show rocket rails with the 2-tier arrangement. As I was making an early F8 I just fitted the belly tank, for a fighter configuration.
To complete the kit are the canopies, early and late styles being supplied. These are very clear, and a little thicker than usual for vac-form canopies, making them easier to handle and trim. The fit is excellent. Very delicate pitot tube and blade aerial are also supplied.
In summary
The instructions come on 2 sheets of double-sided A4, plus one A2 colour sheet. The building instructions are limited to an exploded view of all parts, with the rest of the A4 sheets taken up with 1/72nd 3-views of the 6 different aircraft that can be modelled. These are:
F8 WK738, 66 Sqn RAF (blue/white trim to tail)
F8 A77-15 ìElayneî, 77 Sqn RAAF, Kimpo Air Base, Korea 1952
F8 A77-851 ìHalestormî, 77 Sqn RAAF, Kimpo Air Base, Korea 1953.
MiG killer - shot down a MiG-15.
F8 Israeli AF, Suez 1956 (camouflaged with yellow/black/yellow stripes
to rear fuselage)
FR9 117 Sqn IDF, No. 36 (aluminium dope overall)
FR9 IDF, Sept 1955 (camouflaged; shot down 2 Egyptian Vampires)
Of the selection above it is possible to model 3 aircraft, except for the wingwalk/stencil detail, from the excellent decal sheet provided. However, the RAF/RAAF blue is too pale. I assume that to save printing costs only one shade of blue was used, which matches the Israeli colour. As noted on the instructions, there should be a yellow area below ìHalestormî on A77-851, where the decal has white. In use the decals are excellent, conforming very well with no silvering. The wingwalks in particular are very fine.
In conclusion this is an exceptionally fine 1/72nd scale kit of the Meteor F8/FR9. The resin detail is pure joy to behold, the instructions and decals are good and the finished model looks crisp and precise. I will forgive the decals for not having quite the right colours, but I do feel a little more attention should have been given to the ejector seat, especially in a kit listed at £27 (UK price). Nonetheless, the quality of the mouldings alone makes the kit well worth the money.
Barry Francis
I can endorse Barry's enthusiasm for this kit. His finished model looks absolutely stunning! Ed.
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