1/72 Unicraft FW P.127 by Allan Wanta

Designers at Focke-Wulf had great liberties when designing potential fighters late in the war. One paper design was a single turbo-prop fighter, similar in overall design to the FW-Flitzer design, the dual tail design was altered to a single tail configuration.

The P.127 was unlikely to become reality owing to the situation in late War Germany and knowing that the Germans had no Turbojet/propeller engine ready for combat use. It took many years for the United States to come up with a reliable turboprop engine after many disastrous attempts.

And what a kit it is! This is one of Igors' best kits. A bunch of cleanly cast blue pieces resplendent with some thin flash. This kit was before the new tan resin was used; it still feels good and has good modeling characteristics.

Upon close inspection, I can see some rework of someone else's kit, but on the whole the castings look very clean and well detailed. The two pieces that make up each wing fit well, after a bit of putty, they smooth together easily. Interior is spartan, some bits from the spare parts bin are needed, and I used the supplied instrument panel with a decal from the Hasegawa FW-190 for extra detail. A resin seat from some unknown accessory set was used as it had seat belts molded on, but for the most part the stock kit items would make up for a good looking interior.

The tail section is made up of a rudder assembly and two horizontal stabilizers that need to be carefully sanded to fit, location points are clearly marked so you shouldn't worry about misplacing them. The kit has an overall similar appearance to the FW project III by Planet Models, minus the turbo prop. Take care when fixing those stabs; keep them at a 90-degree to vertical.

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The landing gear is do-able, if not a bit heavy handed in the case of the nose wheel that looks a bit larger than it really needs to be. But I have seen sketches where the nose gear does appear to almost dwarf the main gear. Gear doors are commendably thin and actually match the profile of the cut out in the wings and fuselage, in case anyone out there wanted to make this model wheels up! Mind you to put a bit of lead shot in the extreme nose area before joining the fuselage halves, just in case.

My impression of the model depicted on the box art was one that I had to do this kit in natural metal livery. Granted a bit of artistic license, as I doubt this plane, if built, would use metal skinning. But let's just say a large supply of aluminum was found and used to make this aircraft, less some wooden gear doors and access panels. What would a last ditch effort look like, if you were there? The Japanese late in the conflict didn't even bother to paint the natural metal undersurfaces, probably didn't have time or supplies either. Fact is, paint has weight, weight is one of those 4 forces on an airplane that is not so good, say as thrust might be. So less paint will save fuel, increase payload and increase distance traveled in flight. Let's make it natural metal, with a light spray of RLM 81 on the upper surfaces and simplified crosses in all the right spots. Also we need to putty and primer those seams and flush rivets, say with some hand applied RLM 02 gray.

There! One not so finished looking P.127. Silver is a hard color to paint don't you think? Mine ended up being overall Testor Chrome silver, yes that evil chrome paint that nothing sticks to. That's all right, I was careful not to have to mask anything, the decals gently laid down, then I bathed the entire model in Future wax. HAH! See if that paint comes off now. A couple other details like elevators and ailerons a different color and that shiny silver paint surely must reflect some glare in the pilots' eye something fierce. How about a Matt black anti-glare panel? Decals are from the spare parts folder, all crosses are simplified for this late war 'could-have-been'.

Gear down, canopy open, by the way, a very crystal clear canopy! Fuel pump off, battery switches to off, brake on, chock up another Unicraft masterpiece on the shelf. It was that easy too, a bit like modeling in my mind, not just assembling. Cool factor rating of 7 out of 10, ease of assembly 8, and a darn good value for $25.00 USD, (bucks to most of you). Thanks Igor, and keep'em coming!