Pro Resin

1/72 McDonnell F2H-2/2B Banshee resin model kit

Product # R72-052

Product Article by Steve Bamford on Feb 3 2012

 

This resin model kit is the McDonnell F2H-2/2B Banshee which was immortalized by James Michener in the novel "The Bridges of Toko-Ri".  McDonnell Aircraft Corp built 895 Banshees and they established the company as a new star in the US aircraft manufacturing industry.  The Banshee was a multi-mission aircraft: used as a day fighter, as a night fighter and for photo reconnaissance; a variant was specifically strengthened to carry nuclear weapons.  It went inot combat in 1951 and served as one of the principle fighters with the Navy's Seventh Fleet for the duration of the Korean conflict. 

 This new resin kit from Olimp Models is part of their Pro Resin line of resin kits.  This little 1/72 kit comes packed in a VERY sturdy little box.  Upon opening the box, I was impressed by the huge number of resin parts, but you also get 2 clear vac-u-formed canopies and a decal sheet with options for 2 US Navy aircraft.  This model ha s a separate resin cockpit tub with raised detail on the side consoles and a separate resin ejection seat with molded in seatbelts. 

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Now....this is a resin kit, so it will require the use of CA glue (Crazy Glue) to assemble it and the parts are going to need a tiny bit of cleaning up, but this is very minimal and will not in any way detract from the joy of building this kit.  If you've ever done any work with resin parts before you will have no problem tackling this kit......go slow....be patient and enjoy the build.  I did a dry fit of the fuselage halves and they lined up very well but you will need to clean up the mating surfaces before assembly.....this kit should go together well if the rest of the kit has the same very good level of fit.  

As you can see from the sample of photos of the resin parts, the fuselage detail on the exterior of the fuselage is well done.  The wings and fuselage have excellently done recessed panel lines and will look quite convincing on the finished kit.  The seat is amazing....as is the cockpit  and once you paint it up....it will look very good.

The attachment points for the resin parts is wonderfully thin making the removal of the parts from the resin casting blocks a quick and easy job.  Detail is very crisp on most parts and the finished products will be a treat to behold. 

it's good to see this 1/72 Banshee kit from Pro Resin as they produce kits of an interesting variety of aircraft .  

The kit parts are pretty straight forward and the 6 pages of instructions cover the assembly process in a clear and easy to follow way.  The instructions include paint codes in Humbrol, Model Master and Revell colours.

There are two decal options that include:

  • McDonnell F2H-2 Banshee, VF-11, BuNo 125674 in October 1954, Korea  
  • McDonnell F2H-2B Banshee, VF-101, BuNo 125067 in September 1955, USS Midway (CVA-41)

The decals are very clearly printed....not too thick...not too thin and of good colour coverage.  

In 1/72 you are dealing with tiny tiny model kits but this kit goes to great lengths to provide the modeller with excellent detail.

I am very excited to see this kit being released.  You can buy this Pro Resin kit directly from Olimp Models.

I would like to thanks Oleg at Olimp Models for sending me this product sample.

Steve Bamford

 

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Photos and text © by Steve Bamford