FLY 48019 1/48 RAF Jet Provost T.4 - Inbox review

BAC Jet Provost T.4

RAF BAC Jet Provost T.4 FLY 48019 1/48 inbox review

FLY 48019 1/48 - Inbox review

Special thanks to my partners from FLY models for providing me with the review sample.


Video inbox review is available here: BAC Jet Provost T.4 inbox review

The airplane

The BAC Jet Provost (originally built by Hunting Percival) was a British jet-powered trainer aircraft used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1955 to 1993. The Jet Provost was also successfully exported, serving in many air forces worldwide. The T4 was fitted with the more powerful Viper A.S.V. 11 of 2,500 lbs static thrust and first flew on 15 July 1960.
source: wikipedia

Inside the Box

 The 1/48 BAC Jet Provost T.4 scale model kit from Fly models is the latest to date from their Provost / Strikemaster lineup. It comes in side opening box with nice "painting" box art. On the back there are four four-view drawings of the different markings.
  Kit 48019 is comprised of two solid injection molded sprues, one transparent, eight blocks with resin parts, decal sheet and instructions booklet. 


Instructions
They are A5 (ish) size and quite straight forward. Page one shows two colored profiles of the aircraft, the parts breakdown, colors legend and step 1 which is the painting of the resin seats. Paints call outs are only true for the instructions. The colors for the camo schemes are given on the side of the box. All in all instructions seem OK to me. There are only two things omitted - the amount of weight needed in the nose and dihedral  values for the wings.

*Click on the images to enlarge them

Decals and marking options
 Decals are in register and glossy. Carrier film is trimmed very close to the actual markings and seems to be with good thickness. There are instrument faces on the sheet but for some reason the majority of them are just black dots which makes them useless.
  
RAF BAC Jet Provost T.4 FLY 48019 1/48 inbox review RAF BAC Jet Provost T.4 FLY 48019 1/48 inbox review  RAF BAC Jet Provost T.4 FLY 48019 1/48 inbox review  RAF BAC Jet Provost T.4 FLY 48019 1/48 inbox review

Color profiles shown on the back of the box give four marking options:
  • Jet Provost T.4, Royal Air Force, "Red Pelicans" display team, Central Flying School, RAF Little Rissington, Glos, 1964
  • Jet Provost T.4, Royal Air Force, RAF College, RAF Cranwell, 1966
  • Jet Provost T.4, G-RAFI (wearing the colors of No.1 TWU/No. 79 Sq. RAF), Cold war jet collection, Bruntinghthorpe Aerodrome, 2011
  • Jet Provost T.4, Royal Air Force, College of Warfere, "The Macaws" Display team, RAF Manby, late 1960's

On the sprues
  The injection molded parts come in two beige color and one clear sprues. Panel line detail is super fine and crisp. There is flash present here and there but that's not much of a problem. There are also some ejector pins inside the wings that might need to be removed in order to have good assembly. 

RAF BAC Jet Provost T.4 FLY 48019 1/48 inbox review  RAF BAC Jet Provost T.4 FLY 48019 1/48 inbox review  RAF BAC Jet Provost T.4 FLY 48019 1/48 inbox review

  Sprue 1 contains the fuselage halves. Sprue 2 holds the wings, horizontal stabilizers, wingtip fuel tanks, cockpit and undercarriage details. On the transparent sprue there are the canopy and a transparent section that sits behind it and various lights.

There are also eight blocks of resin which provide with: two ejection seats, cockpit side walls, center console with throttle quadrant, wheels, exhaust nozzle, intakes, main gear bay detail, control columns, suspension details and two other bits.

RAF BAC Jet Provost T.4 FLY 48019 1/48 inbox review

Closer inspection

  As I said earlier, panel line detail is very nice. It is crisp, fine and sufficiently deep to hold washes (well that depends on how much paint you will put on it :). They are consistent throughout the scale model with only a few exceptions on some hatches. Raised details are also nice and crisp. The trailing edges on the wings and horizontal stabilizers seem to be very thin. The instrument panel is looking rather well detailed for injection molded part. Location slots are provided for the wing to fuselage assembly, but for the tail planes and the wingtip fuel tanks there is not. There is also some panel detail missing from the wingtip fuel tank root. You'll have to scribe it by yourself.  



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 The clear parts also look good, the canopy is with good clarity and mostly distortion free. Unfortunately it is in one piece with the front windshield. and if you want to pose it in open position You'll have to cut it. Thing is though that the canopy is so big that noting will be left unseen even if it is closed.

RAF BAC Jet Provost T.4 FLY 48019 1/48 inbox review

  The resin bits are also with good quality and will provide your build with fine detail. 
  The ejection seats being the most obvious item in the cockpit are really nice. They have the harnesses molded in and only need pull handle to be added. 
  Side walls are also nice and there are some decals going on them. In general all the cockpit components will add to one busy looking office and with some minor scratchbuild it'll be magnificent.
   The engine intakes are provided in resin and they look the part, there is some minor clean up to be done on the inside but hopefully it'll be easy job. Exhaust nozzle is also a nice touch.
  Wheels have excellent tread and rim detail but don't have weighted appearance.

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Conclusion
This kit is well made and will be excellent foundation for a great scale model of the BAC Jet Provost T.4 .  With a little bit of scratch build and good paint job this scale model is ready to become a masterpiece and a winner of any contest.  
  I would't recommend this kit for the beginners because it definitely demands some experience (resin bits and lack of location points at some joints) but for those of us who have some builds behind our backs I think it is highly recommended.


Please visit and subscribe for my YouTube Channel to get updated on the forthcoming full video build log of this kit.     

Best regards and happy modeling.
Metodi Metodiev

FLY 72004 1/72 RAF Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk.I-II - Inbox review

RAF Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk. I-II

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review

FLY models 1/72 - 72004

Special thanks to my partners from FLY models for providing me with the review sample.

The airplane

  The Armstrong Whitworth A.W.38 Whitley was one of three British twin-engine, front line medium bomber types in service with the Royal Air Force at the outbreak of the Second World War (the others were the Vickers Wellington and the Handley Page Hampden). It took part in the first RAF bombing raid on German territory and remained an integral part of the early British bomber offensive until the introduction of four-engined "heavies". Its front line service included maritime reconnaissance with Coastal Command and the second line roles of glider-tug, trainer and transport aircraft. The aircraft was named after Whitley, a suburb of Coventry, home of one of Armstrong Whitworth's plants.
Source: wikipedia


Inside the Box 

 The AW Whitley .38 Kit N 72004 from 2014 is rebox from their initial release from 2011. Everything is packed in side opening box with nice boxart. Inside all is in one plastic bag with the transparencies, resin parts and photo etched parts in separate bags. There are four plastic sprues in total, one of which is in clear plastic. Kit provides a lot of resin details and a small photo etched fret. 

Instructions
They are A5 (ish) size and fairly complicated. Page one shows two profiles of the aircraft, the parts breakdown and colors legend. Colors are given in generic names.  Generally with enough attention there should not be any issues. A bit of a shortcoming is the fact that assemblies which are optional for the different versions are marked with "?" but it is not stated which option concerns which version. So some research will be necessary. 

*Click on the images to enlarge them

Decals and marking options
Decals also come in A5 size sheet. They are in register and glossy. Carrier film is trimmed very close to the actual markings and seems to be with good thickness.


Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review  Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review

Color profiles shown on the back of the box give four marking options:

  • Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk.I, K7219/10-D of No.10 squadron RAF in 1938, Dishfort airfield, North Yorkshire.
  • Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk.I, K7200/78-V of No.78 squadron RAF in 1938, Dishfort airfield, North Yorkshire.
  • Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk.II, K7229/OF-A of No.97 squadron RAF in 1940, Armstrong airfield, Berkshire.
  • Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk.II ,K7233/51-P of No.51 and 9 squadron RAF in 1938, Lintin-on-Ouse.
Colors are stated as Dark Green, Dark Earth and Night Black

On the sprues
  The injection molded parts come in beige color and one clear sprue. The non-clear parts are super glossy and have no visible surface defects. There is flash present here and there but that's not much of a problem. There are also some ejector pins inside the wings that might need to be removed in order to have good assembly. 
  On the first sprue there are the fuselage halves, engine nacelles, propellers and interior parts. On the second sprue you will find the upper wing parts, the horizontal stabilizers and parts from the undercarriage. The third solid sprue holds the lower wing parts with each wing comprised of two parts. There are also some interior and undercarriage parts as well as the wheels.

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review  Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review  Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review

  The clear parts are on one sprue. Here you have the cockpit "greenhouse" canopy, the turrets and other smaller transparencies. 
   There are also eight blocks of resin holding parts for the interior as seats, controls etc, two engines, two main gear wheel wells, MGs, exhaust pipes, propeller hubs etc.
    On the small PE fret there are the antenna loop, wheel well door hinges and some control surface movement mechanisms.
Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review  Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review

Closer inspection

  As previously stated the parts are very smooth. The panel lines are very crisp and delicate with minor cases of inconstancy. Where appropriate there is raised surface detail is nicely depicted. 
 The injection molded interior parts are OK for the scale and the internal ribbing structure on the inside of the fuselage halves is very nice. 
 The undercarriage parts are looking good too but I am concerned if they are sturdy enough to cope with the weight.
  A bomb bay would have been a nice option. Also location aid is not provided everywhere. 



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  The transparencies are not to the same level as the rest of the model. While the "greenhouse" canopy is OK the turrets and their surroundings are not. The have heavy orange skin effect and I am not sure on which side it is molded in. If it is on the inside then in might be curable with some careful sanding and polishing. On the other hand the framework is really nice. It is fine and thin yet prominent enough to help masking which it this case will be labor intensive process. Holes on the fuselage for the smaller transparencies are not present and not all of the small windows are actually meant to be fitted on all versions so check your references.

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review  Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review  Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review

  The resin parts will add significant amount of detail to your scale model. The interior will be spiced up with seats with molded in seatbelts, a table, control column and some nice MGs if you choose one of the turreted versions. There are two really nice Armstrong Siddeley Tiger radial engines accompanied by beautiful propeller hubs. Along with them there are exhaust pipes, air intakes and radiators that goon the nacelles but You'll have to check your references which option had them. The main wheel wells are also very well made.

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review  Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review  Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox reviewArmstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review  Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review  Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review

 The contents of the PE fret will add the finest details to give the model that true to scale appearance.
Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, RAF bomber command, Fly models 72004, 1/72 scale model inbox review

Conclusion
This kit is well made and will be excellent foundation for a great scale model of the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley. Yes there are a few hiccups (mostly the transparencies) but with a little bit of work and care the final result should be excellent.  
  I would't recommend this kit for the beginners because it definitely demands some experience but for those of us who have some builds behind our backs I think it is highly recommended.


Please visit and subscribe for my YouTube Channel to get updated on the forthcoming full video build log of this kit.     

Best regards and happy modeling.
Metodi Metodiev