This resin model kit
is the Bristol T.188 prototype British jet. This jet dates from the late
'50's to the early 1960's. The hope was that it would be the fastest
aircraft on the planet except for the X-15 and the top speed for this jet was
projected to be MACH 2.75. A second aircraft was added to the program and
a top speed of MACH 1.9 was achieved. The aircraft flew 70 flights and 40
hours of flight time. Fuel consumption was a problem and the aircraft
could only do 2 minutes of flight at top speed before having to return to
base.
This new resin
kit from Olimp
Models is part of their
new Pro
Resin line of resin kits.
This little 1/72 kit comes packed in a VERY sturdy little box. Upon
opening the box, I was treated to a beautiful sight of a delicate little
multi-media kit which includes resin parts, two clear vac-u-formed canopies
and a decal sheet. The parts breakdown makes sense, but this will be a
complicated kit to build. Patience will be your best ally. Included
in this kit are 8 tiny little resin screens, sadly 2 were shattered, possibly
due to all the parts being packed on one large plastic bag. Separating the
larger parts from the more delicate parts would possibly avoid this sort of
problem. Panel line detail on the wings and fuselage really is
outstanding. The cockpit detail is ok, but considering this will be a
closed canopy sort of model, you won't see much in the cockpit anyways.
The instrument panel detail is very well done as you can see in a photo
below.
Now....this is a resin kit, so it
will require the use of CA glue (Crazy Glue) to assemble it and the parts are
going to need a tiny bit of cleaning up, but this is very minimal and will not
in any way detract from the joy of building this kit. If you've ever done
any work with resin parts before you will have no problem tackling this
kit......go slow....be patient and enjoy the build. I did a dry fit of the
fuselage halves and they lined up very well but you will need to clean up the
mating surfaces before assembly.....this kit should go together well if the rest
of the kit has the same very good level of fit.
As you can see from the sample of
photos of the resin parts below, the fuselage detail on the sides of the
fuselage is well done. The wings have excellently done panel lines and
will look quite convincing on the finished kit. I really liked how well
done the engine intakes were done.
The attachment points for the
resin parts is not always thin on the larger parts and considering this is hard
resin, you should keep your modelling saw handy. Detail is very crisp on most parts
and the finished products will be a treat to behold.
I really do get a kick out of
seeing the latest kit from Pro
Resin as they
produce kits of an interesting variety of aircraft.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The kit parts are pretty straight
forward and the 4 pages of instructions cover the assembly process in a clear
and easy to follow way. The instructions include paint codes in Humbrol,
Model Master and Revell colours.
There are one decal option for
the second Bristol T.188 prototype "XF 926" on April 29 1963.
This aircraft is overall Steel due to the high temps (250C) from the friction of
the Mach speeds this aircraft flew at. There is a flat black anti-glare panel in front
of the canopy on the nose.
The decals are very clearly
printed....not too thick...not too thin and of good colour coverage.
I had never heard of this jet and
I am pleased that Olimp
Models is
going to the effort to release this historical jet from British aviation
history. You can buy this Pro Resin kit
directly from Olimp
Models.
Steve
I would like
to thanks to Olimp
Models for
sending me this review sample.
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