Review; Airfix Bristol Fighter 1/72 Model Kit WW1 Aircraft Biplane RAF British

After a long time, absorbed by work and other things of life, we return to our reviews at Toy Soldier Chest. This time a classic, the Bristol Fighter model kit from Airfix.

The Box; A nice artwork full of that vintage flavour, well detailed and with a supreme 1910s feeling.

Alternative box.

The Kit; this is a very old Airfix mould, so all the parts are very basic in detail and shaspe. This is luckily not too important in a WW1 airplane, so it does not compare so bad to other modern model kits as some WW2 kits which shared production years.

I am slightly concerned about the undercarriage position, it kinds of look like too low and too far back, examining real photographs. That would be the biggest criticism on the model (besides the moulding marks on the lower wing, which are very noticeable).

The pilots are completely unusable (at least the ones on the original kit, which was the one I built) so I have used a two replacements from my bag of spare pilots (sorry- don't remember from where they came). The machine gun could be substituted for something better, but it still has a minimum quality. 

If you are building the original issue, there is not many problems of fitting, provided you use solvent glue to make fit everything nicely. The only objection to this is the fitting of the lower wing, that needs to be heavily sanded to achieve a good fitting.

In the kit I have added the electric generator which was omitted from the model and gives a extra realistic touch, made with clear plastic and a small bit of plastic sprue. Impressively, the decals after 40 years were still in great shape (well done, Airfix!)

The model I made depicts an unusual experimental camouflage of 1918. The cockerel has been hand painted (I would have preferred to print with decal paper, but as it is white I would require a white ink printer which I am not lucky to posess).

The Veredict; A nice and easy model kit that you can finish in an afternoon (unless you want to top it up to a highest level of detail), while still giving the right feeling about the aircraft. I would you try to grab some early issue, as the crisper parts will save you whole hours of work, sanding and even having to substitute many parts. Even for me which I am not a super WW1 enthusiast, I find this model very appealing.

Review; Airfix WWI German Infantry 1/72 Plastic Soldiers Hät Figures Miniatures World War One

A truly super classic, one of the best sets from Airfix, from the deep and muddy trenches of the Somme comes the German WW1 Infantry!!!

The Box

Looks like a comic strip from the 1930s. It looks like you are going to have some very skinny soldiers like the  1st release of WW2 German Soldiers. Lucky that at those times there were windows in the boxes so you saw what you were really getting. 

Now comes the classic box, the one most used. Full of life you must say, although in the illustration they wear cloth covers on their helmets, which none of the soldier does. It is different from the typical illustration, but I really miss seeing more of the actual soldiers you are getting, you see better the British soldier than the Germans you are buying!

Finally, as an alternative, we can see at the artwork of Hat, which during some time were the only producers of this set. Frankly, in my opinion one of the worst artworks of plastic soldier history, it looks like a medieval miniature representation of WW1.

The Figures; representing the first and most iconic of the German Infantry at WW1, with the spiked helmet. 

These figures differ from nearly all other Airfix sets, as they are very chubby and fat looking, maybe only like the British WW2 Paratroopers. This makes them look very different and unique. The range of poses is simply impressive. 20 different poses makes me wish all sets where like this one!

It is a very fun set too, really it has everything you could ask for. A man surrendering, a casualty, a soldier with a rocket launcher (which, although not widespread, is historically correct), the commander, which has been fantastically portrayed, Airfix nailed the Prussian nobility of this man, and the medical staff carrying a wounded man.

It is also, one of the few sets which has two men about to hit with their rifles, and at least one of them, looks mighty strange. (although you could think this as being a bit stupid and unrealistic, during WW1 it was very common that weapons got stuck by poor ammunition cartridge quality, and terrible, desperate hand fights with rifles and bayonets went on both on the forests and trenches).

The grenade thrower has a beautiful greek athletic pose, and it seems that it will throw his grenade at any moment. The other men might be a bit static, but then again, it was mainly a defensive war, so no complaints either in this aspect. 

The casualty one must admit it looks quite strange, at least it is different than the usual casualties given. As it is strange also the prone man looking at his left side.

The machine gun team is a must in any German WW1 set (who could imagine a set without a Maxim gun?), and maybe the most weak spot in this set. The three men seems to be discuting on how to operate the machine gun, or the rise on the prices of frankfurters. None of them seems to be really in combat, and the Maxim is poorly done, and it is very small and puny (and it has huge tendency to get lost as it doesn't fit well either). And you could that three men are unnecesary for such activity.

Figure Production; The figures are the examples of the best figures picked up from various sets I've been amassing through lots purchased from the internet, and sadly there is many qualities to be found. It looks as if the first sets were very nice, without no flash and very crisp, but as production went on, you can find some examples with astounding quantities of flash, making it one of the worst Airfix in this respect. Also, some soldiers ended up losing their feet on the mud! as you can look at the grenade thrower, or the man hitting with his rifle, one of their foots is completely invisible, while there are some examples where this doesn't happen so clearly. Also, some soldiers end up with reduced spikes on their helmets. However, I've had some modern reissues on my hands and these doesn't look so bad, so maybe the problem now has been reduced.

Veredict; All in all, my favourite German WW1 Infantry, and my favourite set amongs the other Airfix WW1 sets. Possibly, even my favourite WW1 set from any manufacturers.... at a dirt cheap price, and being easily available on the shops and internet, I can't see any reason you shouldn't get this set. Possibly the Airfix set which better has survived the passage of time. 

I curiously discovered these soldiers as "WW2 Romanians", as I bought a bootleg set back in my childhood years. Of course, I inmediately realized these were really WW1 Germans for the spiked helmets, no matter I was 6 years old :) . (I suppose they were labelled as such as the shape of the helmet was slightly similar). The bootleg version were very much smaller than the originals, which made them more similar to the other Airfix sets, and they came in a nice yellow and orange-pinkish colour.

ICM 1/72 URAL 43203 COMMAND VEHICLE Russian Army lorry truck model kit

Today we'll review a very recent and up to date model, which is still used operationally nowadays. The ICM Ural Command Vehicle.

THE BOX

This is the first box, in an all-white background, which is rather impressive and makes it stand out among other boxes and models. The artwork is realistic and good, although it is maybe slightly dull.

This is the second box you can find, which the background has been used and it seems not so black & white. I think the red background makes it look like amateurish and old-fashioned.

THE KIT

The quality of the model kit is high, with very finely moulded pieces, and without flash. The wheels are able to turn round, as the rims are separate pieces. Another nice feature is the movable suspension, that is very good for dioramas and is a nice touch to the kit.

A bad thing is that some pieces are so fine that sometimes can come broken in the box, or they can break very easily when you cut them, as the rear mirrors.

It is moulded in green plastic and black for the wheels, which if you are an eager wargamer you could even leave it unpainted :)  (I left it like that for 10 or so years, in my case for lack of a interesting paint scheme).


VERSIONS

There are many versions to make, as it is still used in our days, new paint schemes can appear at any moment! and it is used by a long list of countries. Here I have added some interesting versions;

OVERALL

Quite surprisingly, there are only two model kits of this vehicle made, this one and the ZV Models one, which at least share all the main body parts (apparently the command cab has been redone but I cannot confirm it since I don't own the model) so if you need this important vehicle of many armies from today, you need to buy this kit. It is a very nice model, I usually don't like too much modern equipment, but you have to accept this has a certain character.

It can be a bit tricky for the novice modeller, because there are many small bits which are very fine and fiddly to build, but for example all the cab is moulded in one piece, which makes it far easier than old school Esci or Airfix where you had to glue each wall (doors, radiator, etc) and there was many possibilities of ending up with a totally deformed vehicle :) .

You will be surely surprised by the dimensions, as it is not a small lorry, you get a good chunk of a kit for your money, something very appreciated as there are many armed cars like the Ba-65 which makes you wonder why you spent 15 €/$/GBP for it.

Built Examples;

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Frog / Novo BRISTOL 138 A RESEARCH PLANE 1/72 model kit RAF prototype

Welcome again to another ToySoldierChest review! today, we'll review a model kit classic, the Frog Bristol 138 A.

THE BOX

A very unusual box to say the least, where the people gets more focus than the model itself. Frog did give extra figures in some model kits, like the Fokker Southern Cross, but this was not going to be the case, so the box ends up looking rather stupid. The pilot figure given is slightly different, but the only difference between the early standard frog pilot is that he is wearing a bucket on his head, a extremely poor depiction.

With this ilustration, you get better the feel of the airplane and what you are buying. A quite energic and powerful artwork, it looks like if it is being used as a nightfighter.

Finally, the last is very fitting for model kit reissued by it's third manufacturer, just a faded copy of the previous one. It has certainly a pop art 1930's feel, though.



THE KIT

Yes, the kit. This is the only 1/72 kit of this model, so you'd better like it :) . It is not bad, a standard middle age Frog kit, not as crude as some of the first ones, but not as detailed as the last kits they made.

It isn't a plane that has a lot of panels to be seen, and these are dealt with the unaccurate method of making the panels stick out, but it doesn't affect the general look. The worst aspect of the kit I would say is the vosp, in the actual it sticks out more, and the starter tube is more prominent, in the kit is nearly flat. As commented, the pilot is laughable, and even myself which I am a model kit maker which nearly never changes a original part, I had to through into the bin of the unusable parts as he was extremely awful.

Another negative aspect is the lack of the wing ladder (not the extractable one shown in the original artwork, the built in in the wing) very remarkable aspect of this aircraft and not shown in the original artwork.

VERSIONS

You need inspiration? you will not leave this kit on the stash for weeks and weeks in a dilemma about camouflage and version, as there is only two versions of this aircraft, as only one example was built. The first, it is the typical that appears on most plates, and the other is the one that had wheel covers on (the kit doesn't include wheel covers). There are floating on the net various illustrations, some varying on the finish of the black wing, but I think it is just an artistic discrepance. Other than that, there are people that paints the propeller brown, grey and black. I've went for black as it looks nicer.

OVERALL

It is an interesting kit, of the golden 1930s era of aviation, where records sets and it was a heroic race for constant improvement. In my opinion, it is much better to build and have this kit than the kit of a prototype that never came out of being a design on paper, albeit if circumstances of history made that it never fought.  It is a very cheap model to get nowadays on internet, almost impossible on physical commerce.

Built Examples;

This was a family build, as my father built it, my brother made the modifications, and I finished the kit. The modifications are using a Airfix pilot and modifying it like Lt. Swain, with his altitude suit, sculpted the wheel covers with epoxy putty, and modified the vosp and the pitot tube to make it more close to reality. Also, I used chrome powder to get the metallic effect. (click on the pics to see them in bigger dimensions)

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