The Little World

This Dragon Models kit of the Curtiss A-25-A has been sitting in Hobbytech for ages. In the early days I would have put it down to a high price…but this has been surpassed by Czech kits since then. Or to the odd-looking box art. But this is no worse than some Eastern European stuff. Or by the fact that no-one here has ever seen a Shrike.

Well, they nearly did. The RAAF ordered one during the second world war but just as it was ready for delivery, it was cancelled by Canberra. The factory had painted it up and all. That’s the basis upon which the model making firm included RAAF decals with this USAAF plane. But nobody round here bit.

Except me. I built a short-run model of an SB2C recently and it fired up my admiration for this design. I always did admire them when i saw pictures of the aircraft in wartime National Geographic magazines.

The fact that it is a Dragon Model kit out of Hong Kong counts as well – I built the Gloster Meteor F.1 from this company and was immensely pleased with the fit and finish of the model. I look forward to this from the Shrike.

The sprues promise a lot. There is a very detailed cockpit and gun mount and delightful canopies. This will definitely be an open job to show off the detail. I don’t even begrudge the P.E. inside it for this purpose. No resin, so we are going to be safe.