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.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
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
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
|