Well, People, this is definitely the kit of the year as far as I’m concerned… Only, just maybe, BraZ Models’ 1/144 Tupolev Tu-144, hopefully due out before Xmas can top this…
Yes, I finally bought it, the brand new 1/72 (!) Airfix/Heller kit of the Concorde…[8D]
So what did I get for my £19.99 (that’s $32 to most of you)…? [8)]
Well, first of all a huge box (by my standards anyway), quite sturdy in fact, cardboardyish, containing lots of plastic. There’s, obviously, numerous bits for the airplane, but also a big stand (if you ever wanted to display your model in flight), a huge sheet of decals, 12 little acrylic paint containers, 2 brushes (consigned to plastering duties I’m afraid), a tube of glue (consigned to the bin) and a tube of Clearfix for the fuselage windows (which I kept).
The kits parts are molded in three colors, white, black and silver, completed by a sprue of clear plastic and some rubber for the tyres.
Engraving is maybe not as fine as you’d find on a 1/72 kit from the Far East, but it’s definitely not overdone and looks adequate. There’s a bit of flash on the black plastic. Nothing really.
The breakdown of the parts is rather ‘normal’. The fuselage is in 5 sections (if you include both the tail and nose cones), and I’m wondering whether this might allow for a conversion to the earlier pre-production and prototype Concordes…? The wing is also in 5 bits, to which are added the flaps and flap actuator fairings.
The detail is adequate for the scale in the wheel wells, undercarriage legs (some plumbing needed but that’s quite normal) and the cockpit with the stuff (including decals) for the 3 ‘work stations’ (the flight engineer’s post is there too!). The main legs of the u/c are, rather unfortunately, split in two, but this allows for a metal pin (provided) to be inserted, giving some extra strength I guess…
The clear parts are really nice, the supersonic ramp is correct in shape (unlike the one on the 1/144 Revell kit) and can be built so that it goes up and down with the nose.[:)]
The decal sheet provides the three variants of the British Airways scheme as worn by the Concorde fleet between 1976 and 2003. Lettering is provided to model all Concordes in the BA fleet. There are tons of stencils too! Having built the Revell kit that already had plenty of stencils but to which I still had to add plenty, this decal sheet looks very comprehensive… However, no Air France markings in this box…[xx(] My bet is that the Heller box will have no British Airways markings! [}:)]
So, what are you waiting for??! Get yourself one too! At that price - I still can’t believe it - it’s dead cheap… I bet you the price will go up soon too!