Bristol Blenheim Mk.IVF Model Kit

The de Havilland Mosquito is truly an RAF legend and surely one of the best-looking twin-engine designs of its era. Arguably, it was the world’s first true multirole combat aircraft, serving successfully in several different roles during WWII. This Airfix 1/72 offering is the light bomber version, the B Mk.XVI. First released in 2021, this kit is typical of Airfix offerings over the last few years which are uniformly of a very high standard and this kit is no exception. Some real thought has gone into the design of this model and how it all goes together. For instance, the main undercarriage units are assembled using the inside of the wings as a ‘jig’, meaning the landing gear can be put together and painted before finally being glued into the respective nacelles towards the end of the build. And it’s really clever how the cockpit and bomb bay are constructed as one complete sub-assembly, fitting precisely within the fuselage halves. The fit of all the parts was exceptional and only a few dabs of plastic putty was used whilst constructing my model. Detail on this kit is excellent for a 1/72 model and transparent parts are all crystal-clear and well fitting. Decals are manufactured by Cartograf, meaning they’re pretty much as good as it gets; all went down with minimum setting-solution and practically no bubbles or silvering. The instructions are comprehensive, with no obvious errors. Additionally, the kit offers some nice options – you can choose to make a day bomber or night bomber, undercarriage up or down, and bomb bay doors open or closed. In fact, the detail in the bomb bay is outstanding, with a view of the internal fuselage fuel tanks, and four 500lb bombs on their racks. So, any gripes? Well, the pilot figure… I personally don’t like crew figures in my builds. But if it’s your thing, firstly, there’s only one figure and this Mosquito was definitely a 2-crew aircraft! And secondly, the size of the figure. At 1/72 scale, it’s just about as straight forwards as it gets; a guy who stands around 6ft would be 1 inch. The pilot provided looks like he’d be less than 5ft tall, clearly under-scale! This is odd, because it’s obvious that Airfix have been meticulous in getting the aeroplane detail spot on and getting this wrong just seems lazy. In conclusion, crew figures notwithstanding, this is a truly excellent model. You can build this straight out of the box and get a decent result. One day, all model kits will be designed and manufactured like this! Highly recommended.

Husband loved it he did one in balsa wood so thought I would get him this one. We both love doing these and the product is great. Instructions easy to follow and he is loving building it. Great value for money and the paints in it are also very good.

The Boulton & Paul Defiant is one of the most underrated aircraft of WW2. Although popular press would have the world believe that the Spitfire won the Battle of Britain single handed, the Hurricane was the real work-horse of that battle, and this strange little aircraft also performed reasonably well. It's built and looks like a fighter, so in the early days confused German pilots attacked from behind - a common area as it is unprotected. Of course, with this one they got a nasty surprise. Unfortunately the weight of the turret slowed this aircraft a fair amount and it better performed against the bombers. Later moved from daylight sorties to night fighter the Defiant performed fairly well. Allowing of course that this is in the days before radar and accurate detection. Night flying was a very dangerous affair. Airfix have done well representing this ugly duckling aircraft and the moulding is fairly clean and nicely detailed. Assembly is relatively easy with a little cleaning up prior to gluing. Interior detailing is minimal and the crew provided are not clearly molded, so a little creativity is needed here. However, as the model is quite small that's not really so much of a surprise. This is another under-represented model and it's nice that Airfix recognised the value of this plane and made a kit for it. Even better, that they did a pretty nice job of the kit as well. There are some small and fiddly bits in this model, so adult supervision is needed if this is bought for a young relative. Worth the money in my opinion, and a good job by Airfix.

Usually a Tamiya man, but heard some good things about Airfix's recent new tool model kits, the Bristol Beaufort in amongst them. Decided to bite the bullet and give it a bash, even though it's in 1/72 scale and not my preferred 1/35 scale. Box work is very nice looking and the added piece of history of the aircraft depicted is a nice touch. The sprues were a nice light grey plastic, not brittle, and had very good detail. None to very little flash encountered and no filling was required for this build either. I was worried about the amount of clear parts that had to go together to make up the front canopy, but it went together really well with no dramas at all. Airfix decals are a treat and they went on with no problems, definitely better thanTamiya decals. Airbrushed and a little bit of weathering finished it off. A really nice kit to make and I'm now ready to try their latest new model, the Avro Anson. Hopefully the pictures will do it some justice.

Fairly easy instructions to follow. Injection moulding was good with no flash. However the bomb bay doors were badly designed and appeared warped. Fitting them in the open position was a nightmare. Care needed when taking very small parts off the sprues. The glazing panels were good and fitted accurately. Some details appeared to be missing, presumably make construction easier, but overall a very nice kit.

Nice kit to put together for the scale quite detailed took me about two weeks very relaxing and enjoyable to do.

Excellent My 14 year old boy loves it

Great kit, takes me back to my much younger days !

Dieses Modell der Bristol Beaufort von Airfix besticht durch seine hervorragenden Wiedergabe auch von kleinen Details im Maßstab 1/72, da gibt es wirklich nichts u meckern. Ein Toller Bausatz...

this product was absoloutely great. There were no fit issues whatsoever, and the surface detail is great. The only thinh I'd change about the kit is the instructions, as they were a little confusing, but could still be easily followed. All in all, I have zero regrets with buying this model and might purchase it again.

英国面を具現化したような飛行機です。実戦だと操縦手と射撃手の息が合わず射撃位置に 占位できないなんてこともしばしば。パッケージのように動きの遅い爆撃機相手なら 善戦したらしいです。これ乗って戦えと言われても全力でお断りしたいww ただ、こういう設計的に野心ある機体は個人的には大好きです。デファイアントって名前が 「挑戦的」とかいう意味合い。名は体を表しますね。 プラモ自体のレビューに移ります。 まだ組んでないのでランナー眺めただけですが、他の方がレビューしてるように 主翼後端のフラップ部分などが厚ぼったいという話ですが「若干」「いわれてみれば」程度で 確かに厚い感じはします。気にならない人は気にならないんじゃないかなぁ。 モールドもシャープで墨入れが映えそうな感じ。ハセ〇ワやファ〇ンモールドの1/72とそんなに 遜色ないですよ。 説明書については英文ですが、絵でも説明しているのでまぁ大丈夫でしょう。 ただし、塗装についてはハンブロールの色番号ですからこれは困りますね。 特に英軍の迷彩色は、調合するとけっこう大変。レシピがないと思った色になりません。 タミヤカラーとかの色番号も載せてほしいです。 肝心の4連装機銃ですが、1/72スケールの7.7㎜機銃だけにさすがに銃口開いてません。 ドリルで穴開けるしかないですね。４つもあるから大変。 それら差し引いても、出来のいいキットなので星5です。 実機はRAF博物館にあるから英国行ったら見てみたいものです。ただし、デファイアントは ヘンドン(ロンドン近郊)からコスフォード(中部イングランド)に展示場所が移動したらしい けどね。(昔はヘンドンにあったのにね)

Good quality. I have not built it yet. Michael

parfait