OzMods
Scale Models is an
Australian company that has been quietly giving modellers very big
grins. This latest kit is their 8th model kit and it is a beautiful little
example of the Martin B-57B Canberra. It is a multi-media kit consisting
of mostly styrene parts with some resin cockpit parts and 2 vacuformed canopies.
There are a variety of 1/144 kits
on the market and surprisingly enough they have very good detail....recessed
panel lines and such. As far as I know...this is the only 1/144 B-57
Canberra on the market. There are certain areas where 1/144 kits fall flat
on their faces......cockpit detail and canopy thickness. This kit shines
in these 2 areas and all others. The cockpit on this kit is all
resin. Now....this isn't the sort of detail you'd expect to see in a 1/144
scale kit, but for 1/144 scale...the detail here is first rate. On main
stream kits the cockpit is nothing more that blobs of plastic....here you have
finely crafted resin seats with molded in seat belts with impressively done
headrest and side detail. Try to understand the size here....the Canadian
penny below is the exact size of an American penny. We're talking very
tiny here. The cockpit is a beautiful example of recessed detail. My
guess is you would paint the cockpit and follow that with a "wash" to
bring out all the recessed detail....switches etc. The length of the
cockpit tub is slightly longer than the width of my thumbnail.
The instrument panel is quite
well done, considering you can get 15 of these on my thumbnail.....it is quite
impressive. The detail is recessed, so the plan here would be to paint the
2 instrument panels in the proper shade of grey(?) and add black to the recessed
instruments by doing awash and maybe follow that up with some tiny amounts
of Future if you have the skill for that. There is a tiny bit of
flash on the wheels that will take a few seconds to clean up. Detail on
the wheels and they even added ribbing detail to the nose and main landing gear
bays.
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cockpit
from front |
cockpit
from rear |
The panel lines on the wings and
fuselage etc are all recessed and very fine....these should take a wash with
great ease. The kit comes with 2 vacuformed canopies, which is good for
those of you keen on opening up the canopy to expose the stellar cockpit
detail.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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wing
showing recessed panel lines |
vacuformed
canopies |
There are 2
decal options.....US Air Force and Pakistan
Air Force. The USAF version is a B-57B #52-1567 of the 13th TBS, 35th TWF,
USAF in a standard camouflage of Shadow Green (FS34079), Green (FS34102
and Tan (FS30219) with black lower surfaces and a Red rudder. The
Pakistani Air Force is a B-57B #53-3846 in standard black and red USAF
finish. The decals are printed on a clear carrier film so you'll
have to cut each decal from the carrier film separately, but this isn't a
big deal.....go slow, don't scratch the decals and you'll do just
fine. |
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The opening picture in this
article shows open air brakes. This kit does not have open air brake, but
you can definitely do this if you have a bit of patience. OzMods
Scale Models has a resin
detail that will permit you to do the flaps and speed brakes as on Roberto's
B-57B at the beginning of this review and these are available from OzMods
Scale Models for Aus$5.50
(the flaps are also suitable for their B.2 Canberra).
The kit plastic is a hard
styrene....neither good or bad....just letting you know. I test fit some
major parts and they seemed to fit well with panel lines lining up etc.
There are 2 pages of B&W
instructions. Pretty straight forward stuff.
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Click on
images below to see larger images
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You can order this
kit
Drop by their
website for full details on ordering and prices.
I highly recommend
this kit for anyone wanting to add a 1/144 Canberra to their display case of any
1/144 builders. If you've never built 1/144....then you've never really
had fun.....1/144 kits are a blast to build and a challenge to detail if you are
so inclined.
Special thanks to OzMods
Scale Models for the review sample.
Steve
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