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1/48 Bristol F.2B Fighter |
Review Type |
First Look |
Scale: |
1/48 |
Price: |
$27 from NKR |
Contents and Media: |
86 plastic
pieces with 2 canopies in clear plastic |
Advantages: |
It does it's job |
Disadvantages: |
Limited cutting depth |
Recommendation: |
Highly Recommended |
This
is the first Roden kit I have purchased and having
seen what is contained within the solid cardboard box - I am impressed!
The
kit itself comes packed in two seperate bags: one containing both the
instructions and decals; the other containing the three sprues. The
instructions are an A4 sheet with a short history of the aircraft (in
three languages), followed by what I consider to be a well layed out
set of instructions relating to the construction of the aircraft. The
parts have a small amount of flash on a few of the parts, but this
can easily be removed with some wet and dry or even a sharp scalpel
blade. There are a few options with the kit: mainly three (3) different
propeller designs, as well as the inclusion of a complete engine for
installation in the nose. The kit is approximately 25cm wide and 18cm
long when contructed.
The
wings are one piece items for both upper and lower sections and have,
what I consider as very fine ridging for the ribs underneath the fabric.
As the Brisfit has struts between the fuselage and the lower wing I
think that this could prove to be a bit tricky for most modellers'.
The fuselage has only small locating holes for these struts to go in,
so a jig of some sort will be needed for these. The rest of the struts
for the wings have better locating holes to my eyes, but I shall see
when I make it in the not too distant future. (Feature Build).
The
fuselage comes with internal detail for the ribbing that looks quite
good and should paint up quite well. The only visible ejection post
marks are located inside the fuselage, but they should not be seen
once the model is put together. There are also injection post marks
on the engine cowls that will need to be removed if the engine bay
is to be open in order to display the completed engine. The engine
itself comes on a separate sprue and consists of 15 parts which will
paint up quite well if posed open.
The
kit contains a large number of very finely cast items, for example:
there are four Lewis guns that have the front sight
moulded onto them as well as a number of magazines that are cast separately
from the Lewis guns. The kit also comes with under wing bomb racks,
containing a total of eight bombs that are moulded onto the racks.
As I have said previously, there are three different propellers, one
four bladed and two others with only two blades. The double bladed
propellers are different in that the blades are set to different directions.
There are also two small pieces of acetate included in the kit to make
up the windscreen for the pilot so you get a second chance if you stuff
up the first one.
The
kit comes with six different options, two of which I am happy to say
are of Australian aircrafft from1 SQN AFC. The decals look thin and
are well printed but there is no indication of who they are printed
by. The options are:
-
Acft
D8061 of No 48 SQN RAF Western Front, Mericourt, flown by LT
F.N. Griffiths and Observer/Gunner A.E. Ansell, July 1918.
-
Acft
C851 of No 141 (HD) SQN flown by LT E.E. Turner, Observer/gunner
H.B. Barwise, May 1918 on the night they shot down Gotha G.V.
979/16 of Boghl 3.
-
Acft
D8063/D, No 139 SQN RAF, Italian Front, Vilaveria, flown by
MAJ W.G. Barker, Gunner/Observer HRH Prince Edward of Wales,
summer 1918.
-
Acft
A7288/7, No 11 SQN RFC, Western Front, flown by LT A.E. McKeever
with Observer/Gunner LT F Powell, November 1917.
-
Acft
A7198, No 1 SQN Australian Flying Corps (AFC), flown by CAPT
R Williams in 1918.
-
Acft
A7192, No1 SQN AFC, Palestine 1918.
This
is a very good kit by the looks of it and contains a multitude of fine
parts to make up a good looking model. As this will be one of the first
Biplane kits I will be making it should be interesting to say the least.
If you are feeling very keen you can also try doing the rigging for
the aircraft as well. I think that Roden has produced a kit that is
very well made and for $27.00 AUD from NKR Models,
you can’t go past this kit.
Kit
courtesy of my wallet but if someone wants to give me kits for
nothing………..
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