The Little World

If the first plastic model kit I remember building was a Revell 5-ship set in the mid-1950’s, the first plastic airplane kit I remember seeing was a Lockheed F-94 Starfire. It was being built By Mike Baker – a kid across the street. He was also engaged in building a wooden model of a B-50, so we’re not talking simplistic stuff here. I remember he came over to our house and scrounged a wooden broom handle for the engine nacelles.

I suspect the kit Mike had was a Comet model. I remember being immensely impressed by the nose of the aircraft but not really understanding what it was I was seeing – the idea of internal rocket bays was not something a little kid would have seen.

This Emhar kit has been languishing on the shelves of an outer suburb shop for a goodly time, along with the later J model. My experience with Emhar has been very positive  – the Bedford tanker truck I built a few years ago showed me how good a model a Chinese company could turn out. This model may be a re-box of someone else’s kit, but I have my hopes.

The two basic sprue trees seem sturdy and there’s little flash. No sink marks or ejection pins. And the very odd inscription on the inside of the lower wing piece that it is a Pocketbond Ltd. product made in England in 1993. The outer box says it is made in China. I have no idea who is zooming whom.

I intend to build it SOOTB as the decals are decent enough to decorate a silver airplane. The interceptor role this plane performed was at bases in Newfoundland and Iceland but the specific callout for this sheet places the plane at the Air Proving Ground Command in 1953. Good enough for me.