Jeeves
Well-known member
So I just happened to check the GM website last weekend to see they had a President's Day sale going on-- they apparently found these "lost inventory" items...normally for $57 and they are selling them for $20 so I jumped at the chance to pick up another dive bomber for my collection...especially one I have been wanting a while now.
First off-- the instruction booklet...a much different format than I am used to...
Notice in the assembly instructions, there are no color call outs. I figured I would be having to dig out my reference books...but then realized halfway through- after the actual assembly instructions are the call outs...with the assemblies redrawn and colors carefully pointed out-- thumbs up!
Now for the sprues...A is the fuselage sides...with delicate panel lines and very thick pour stubs...careful attention when cutting free from the sprue will be in order!
Sprue B represents the wing sections...same deal with the panel lines...very minor amounts of flash...
Sprue C holds the lower center fuselage and rear horizontal and vertical stabilizers...
D holds the nacelles and areas for the landing gear boxes...
E is a small sprue with a few cockpit parts and the other horiz. stab section...
F is the brunt of the cockpit details (seats, panels, controls, bulkheads, etc) as well as the tail wheel section. From the angle on the pic, all things look just fine (but for some small amounts of flash)-- but the other side of the tail wheel has a huge pit in it which ought to be pretty tough to fix up...I may go looking for an alternative...
There are two sprue Gs and they features bombs and racks, main gear and their assemblies, dive brakes, props and hubs, and the guns.
The kits clear parts were bagged separately with the decals and added PE. The lines are subtle but should be enough to aid in masking. The decals represent schemes for a Czech AF bird, two from the Baltic Fleet (one summer and one autumn), one from the Black Sea Fleet, and a Yugoslav scheme as well. The PE fret is sweet-- including panels with an acetate sheet of gauges, gunsights, seat belts, and a very nice set of alternatives to the kit's styrene dive brakes...
That's about it! This Czech company really did a wonderful job on the Soviet "Mosquito" and I look forward to adding it to the Stukas and Dauntlesses in my collection of dive bombers. Other than some slight flash and the previously mentioned bubble in the tail wheel, this ought to build up very nicely!
