The Little World

Not just the bare bones, but the entire animal! A nationalist Chinese fighter of the 1930’s straight out of the box!

And it is one I haven’t built before. How could I refuse the email lure from Metro Hobbies? And it’s an AZ model from the Czech Republic so I know it’ll eventually be good.

The two sprue trees are typical Czech plastic – slightly soft but not too much so. There is minimal flash and the ejector pins are deep in the fuselage.

No PE. No resin. Not at this price.

Good colour call-outs. good decals. Luftwaffe option, plus a pre-anschluss Austrian one – plus the featured image from the box art – the Chinese fighter.

The box art and the instructions of the kit are at variance regarding the exhaust stacks but internet research may sort this out. If the box art is right the stacks are short, but if the instructions win an entire system will have to be installed after the main paint is finished. A trap for young players…

The only daunting feature is the struts – 12 separate things have to meet top and bottom to secure the main wing of this sesquiplane. Strut day will require sobriety beforehand and strong drink afterwards. The landing gear is two castings per side plus the teardrop spats but each portion is of triangle geometry and should yield easily.

And I have learned over the months to wait until final rigging to attach tail struts – you cannot mask effectively around them.