Here's one of the projects on my worktable. It's an HPM Hobbies 1/72 de Havilland Sea Vixen FAW.2. The kit is made from the old style light blue HPM injected plastic. Incredibly detailed and probably the most accurate kit in 1/72 scale of the plane. Although much like the old HPM kits, it takes a lot of love when putting it together with all the flash and uneven joints. Test fitting is a must to ensure proper alignment for these old kits as these were from an era when the sandpaper industry was supported by the model kit business (old joke here).
The kit comes with resin parts for the exhaust housing and ejection seats. The main canopy is vac-formed but the radar operator's canopy and side-panel window were missing and needed to be replicated with clear plastic. The cockpits, wing fences, belly air-brake fins, exhaust nozzles, intake details, refueling probe, wing pitot tubes and other miscellaneous fin antennas needed to be scratch-built. The landing gear parts were also resin cast and has incredible detail, but the nose landing gear covers are not provided and need to be replaced with styrene sheets.
The most difficult part of this build would be the intake and exhaust details as these needed a lot of test-cutting and fitting to create a reasonable facsimile. It's also a tail-sitter and needs about 200 grams of counterweight in the nose.
The kit comes with six hard-point pylons with the outboard pylons mated with fuel tanks, but alas, no Redtop missiles or 2-inch rocket pods are included. The panel lines are all sunken but some are a tad shallow and needed to be re-scribed.
As the box says, "NO decals included", so those need to be either from aftermarket and/or home made versions. There are other kits out there that are much more user-friendly and even have poseable parts like air brakes and flaps, but these are lacking in accuracy in fuselage proportion, especially the nose section. I have the Cyber-hobby kit as a comparison in my stash for this purpose.
So, the kit is not for the "weak of heart" indeed, but it does make for a satisfying build once all the missing bits and bobs are worked-out. The kit is still available at HPM Hobbies for those who are interested in building this beautiful RN aircraft.
Next, painting, decals and finishing...
The kit comes with resin parts for the exhaust housing and ejection seats. The main canopy is vac-formed but the radar operator's canopy and side-panel window were missing and needed to be replicated with clear plastic. The cockpits, wing fences, belly air-brake fins, exhaust nozzles, intake details, refueling probe, wing pitot tubes and other miscellaneous fin antennas needed to be scratch-built. The landing gear parts were also resin cast and has incredible detail, but the nose landing gear covers are not provided and need to be replaced with styrene sheets.
The most difficult part of this build would be the intake and exhaust details as these needed a lot of test-cutting and fitting to create a reasonable facsimile. It's also a tail-sitter and needs about 200 grams of counterweight in the nose.
The kit comes with six hard-point pylons with the outboard pylons mated with fuel tanks, but alas, no Redtop missiles or 2-inch rocket pods are included. The panel lines are all sunken but some are a tad shallow and needed to be re-scribed.
As the box says, "NO decals included", so those need to be either from aftermarket and/or home made versions. There are other kits out there that are much more user-friendly and even have poseable parts like air brakes and flaps, but these are lacking in accuracy in fuselage proportion, especially the nose section. I have the Cyber-hobby kit as a comparison in my stash for this purpose.
So, the kit is not for the "weak of heart" indeed, but it does make for a satisfying build once all the missing bits and bobs are worked-out. The kit is still available at HPM Hobbies for those who are interested in building this beautiful RN aircraft.
Next, painting, decals and finishing...
