The Little World

Grom, Grom, Grom…

I set out this morning to find a Hobby Boss kit of the F-84 Thunderjet to build as a companion to the Boeing KB-29B tanker that is taking shape. Inspired, as usual, by a Squadron profile book that showed just this combination linked together in flight. I’d researched the HB kit and figured that I’d seen any number of them in the local shops.

So I had – the number was zero. A perfectly valid mathematical concept, but little use to me on the trail of stash planes. I prepared myself for disappointment by building up a well of tears and screams in the aisle of the hobby shop.

Then I passed by the Mister Craft shelf and there she was. The Polish version of old Plank Wing. No sense grieving over Hobby Boss or Tamiya kits that were never to be – here was the extremely cheap answer I was looking for. And, like most Mister Craft kits, it is a fascinating tale of remoulded glory.

The plastic is light grey, hard, and of a shape somewhat similar to an F-84 Thunderjet. There is little flash but plenty of ejection marks. One is in no danger from a paper cut when rubbing a finger over what may possibly be the trailing edge of the wing.

The canopy is simultaneously approximate, scuffed, and translucent. The armoured windshield is so thick as to suggest that it would, indeed, stop a Russian cannon shell. I look forward to reshaping and polishing the plastic in an effort to make it look adequate.

The cockpit is so bare as to suggest a fashionable Swedish designer’s living room. The pilot’s seat is derived from a Spanish garrotting chair. I can’t tell you how appealing it all is…

But the instructions are printed clearly and the three decal sheets look good – these planes had very complicated paint schemes, despite being natural metal finishes. There seem to be two choices but in both cases it may be prudent to paint and decal the main aircraft portion separately from the horizontal stabiliser and carefully glue them together as one of the last steps.