First look at Trumpeter 1/200 aircraft kits
Postman Pat delivered my Trumpeter kits from Hannants this morning, the Wildcat, Arado 196 and Walrus. Each box contains 5 transparent sprues for each aircraft, plus decals and in some cases an etched brass sheet. You are going to have to find crew for your planes (or paint the canopies) as these are not provided. Heaven knows why those inscrutable Chinese in the Trumpeter factory thought 5 Walrus and 5 Arado in one box was a good idea, but I suppose 5 Wildcats makes sense. All appear well proportioned although I haven't had a chance to run a ruler across them yet.
Each box has a basic coloured illustration with a colour scheme on the side, but you are probably going to use your own reference material.
The Wildcat is a nice little kit comprising 10 pieces (2 of which are lowered undercarriage, so the attachment holes will need filling if not using these) with few surprises. The glossy decal sheet has wing and fuselage stars and a set of code numbers. The illustrations show stars on both upper and lower wings - I thought there should only be one upper and one lower.
The Walrus comes with a brass fret with bracing wires. Normally I would probably ditch these, but given the fragility of the struts at this scale I will probably use them, despite looking a tad wide. 23 bits make up the Walrus. The wheels come extended so will need a bit of surgery to get them into the wing recesses. Only roundels (wrong type for wartime upper wing) and tail stripes are included on the decal sheet, so you will need to find your own codes.
The Arado 196, now this is where it gets interesting. 11 plastic bits and a brass fret with float bracing struts and - the cockpit frame! You have to fold this into the right shape before you can stick it on to the plane. Whoever though this was a good idea at this scale wants a boot up his rear end. If you have sausage fingers like me this is going to provide hours of mindless entertainment and make a substantial contribution to the swear jar
Decals provide wing and fuselage crosses and 'not-swastikas', so along with appropriate codes you are going to have to find swastikas as well.
So all-in-all nice kits, shame about the decals (and etch brass). I cannot comment on the Kingfisher, Dauntless or Devastator kits as I didn't buy them (already have the Arii Kingfisher and not interested in the Pacific at the moment), but I am sure these follow the same pattern as the above.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Flying Helmut
Bookmarks