The Little World

I pulled the Revell baggie of the Boeing N2S-5 Kaydet out of the stash with mixed feelings. On one hand it was a pretty good looking silver airplane and on the other it was so old as to be listed by the National Trust – was I going to build it or desecrate it?

The kit is originally from 1965 and has had more revivials and repeat tours than Johnny Farnham. This baggie was made in New Zealand from the English moulds but it has since gone to Germany and come out in a number of reboxes. I count 13 iterations on Scalemates. I don’t think the sprue trees have changed a millimetre since the originals – the only variations have been the decals and the price.

This baggie cost 50¢. The current kit in Hobbytech costs $ 14.99. I make that 30 X increase for the same plastic. I’m not going to say it’s rude, but I’m glad my mate Paul donated this one to me.

The silver plastic of the sprue trees is very reminiscent of the brittle styrene of Revell in the 1950’s. There is a real sheen to the surface of the silver, however, so the mould was in good shape back in the 70’s. The silver plastic was rewarding for junior modellers when they could not afford spray paints.

Flash and burs? Yes , some, but not as bad as might be feared. SInk marks, however – particularly over the centre tank on the top of the wing – and ejector pin sinks on the wings meant that there was a deliberate step of filling and sanding needed . In the end I shied away from filling the top wing tank as it had a lot of detail there. I’ll just pretend a cow dropped on top of the aircraft at some point in its service career.

The little windscreens are pretty well made but they appear to have been packed with just a sticky Avery label to tie them together. New Zealand…

The decals have stood up well for the age of the kit. No yellowing and no cracking. I’ll overcoat them and see if they cannot be used. There are a lot of different Stearman trainers and private planes still out there but I have no US Navy trainers yet and this would make a nice addition SOOTB.