Great looking kit Tony never built or even seen one of these built so will follow with interest regards Phil

Nice model Tony, good luck in the comp.

Mark

Looks a good kit and good luck in the comp

Good luck with the comp Tony, look forward to seeing it come together.....

Regards

Alan

Hi Tony,
Nice choice of build. Excited to see what you do with it. Good luck with your build and the comp.
Regards Gray

SUNDAY 14th January 2018 1:48 Airfix Tomahawk

Over the course of the last week nearly all of the bits and pieces for my Tomahawk build along with the actual kit itself have arrived.

There are still a few items to arrive and I want to assemble all of the parts before I make my final decision on what markings to put on this kit. 99% sure of what I want to do but as that version requires a change to some of the parts I want to see what these updates look like when they arrive. If no good then I go with one of the other marking setups.

Ok so onto the kit itself and what you get for your money.

BOXING

What did surprise with this one is we get a nice Union Flag in the bottom right corner of the box top not just declaring “Designed in Britain but also Made in Britain”. Now I am not sure if this is a change to all Airfix production or just a one off because some of the few kits I have purchased over the last few years while designed in Britain have actually been made either in India or China.

The Box art on this one is very much keeping with the Airfix heritage and the type of artwork produced for them by Roy Cross. On this occasion we have the aircraft in the markings of 26 Squadron flying over a German airfield. Presuming on a photo recon mission as this aircraft does carry a sideways looking camera.

INSTRUCTIONS

Not a great deal to be said other than they appear very clear and easy to follow. They are printed in Greyscale with callouts to the sections you are working on printed in Red.

With this kit you get 2 marking options:

No 26 Squadron RAF Army Cooperation Command Gatwick Sussex England 1941
No 112 Squadron RAF Libya 1941 Flown by Sgt William Earl Houston

This section of the instructions is printed in full colour with paint call outs for colours in the Humbrol range

DECALS

All nicely in register and matt finished. What is nice is they look and feel very thin. Now that is the preferred option but overlaying this onto a camo base will mean watching out for how well they block the colour they are laid over.

PARTS TREES

Similar to a few other manufacturers Airfix individually bag the clear parts but these along with the kit trees are then all placed onto one large bag and sealed. In my example the packing is very tight so little chance of the individual trees rubbing against each other in transit and get marked.

As Excess plastic packing is major news at the moment I have no issues with Airfix’s choice of packing.

In this kit there are 3 parts trees plus the clear parts. The parts are all flash free and from initial looks I cannot see any pin ejector marks in places that would cause issues when building the model.

Going back to some earlier Airfix kits I have had in recent years I was a bit concerned that the plastic might turn out to be the very soft, lightish blue stuff they had used for a short while but no we have now moved onto a much harder plastic which would come as no surprise to people used to making Tamiya kits for instance.

My other initial concern, not knowing this kit in detail, was the fear that the engraved panel lines might be overdone (again something Airfix came under criticism for some years back). Pleased to say the panel lines look spot on. Nicely in scale and all even on each area of the kit.

As to the clear parts we get the option of having an open or closed cockpit. The parts are incredible thin and amazingly clear. I could not see any blemishes on the parts I have and what did surprise me was just how shiny these are straight from the box.

Ok, well thats the base kit I will be using. Next up I will show some of the parts I have added to upgrade the model and also to give me some parts to add to a mini diorama should I actually get to that point of the build 😊

BIG ED SET

While at first view it might beg the question why bother with this as it duplicates some of the other parts I have purchased I wanted the Dropped flaps etch set.

Depending from were you get just this one set you could be looking at over £21.00 just for the flaps kit.

I picked up the BIG ED set for not much more and it includes the canopy masking, internal and external detail parts, the dropped flaps set and seat belts.

BITS AND BOBS

I have also added a number of aftermarket parts that may find their way onto the build.

Might seem odd to purchase parts that may or may not be used but to be honest must of these are relatively inexpensive but WHAT IS expensive is the postage. So, I would rather weigh up the costs and get what I need under one postage charge rather than order something that costs say £3.00 only to see the postage comes out the same.

I have added the follows:

Eduard Brassin Wheel set.

Eduard Brassin Exhausts. And its these they will determine which version I build. For the model I want to make it needs fish tail exhausts. I have a set on order but depending on how they look and more importantly fit will determine which route I take.

Seat Belt Set. This looks really interesting as all of the buckles, connectors and other fittings are in etch with the actual belts being in a type of plastic material. Looks like a mini project in its own right but if they actually work the finished result should be really nice.

Camouflage Painting Masks – Really designed for one of the other paint schemes and these may be pulled into action depending on which version I finally go for.

Master turned brass gun barrels. Not just barrels in the pack but also the tiniest shaped brass piece I think I have ever seen in the form of the “Dot” marker that sits in from of the gun sight. These too are included as etched parts but not shown in the picture.
These parts really are tiny.

Yahu Instrument Panel. Not a very good picture but this really is a fantastically finished piece.

Still too arrive I have the resin wheel well set for this model