So, you're
wondering, what did Alvis do to this model to make it silly or weird or
whatever? Well, I hate to tell you, but the ugly truth is that I didn't do
a thing to mess with it, it's straight out of the box, no aftermarket, no
scratchbuilding, no fuzzy dice or space aliens.
The kit was actually
pretty straight forward to assemble and paint, lacking only swastikas for the
tail. Fortunately, I was able to access a huge variety of swastika decals from
aftermarket sources to find one the right size and style.
The interior is
actually very detailed, sadly, you can't see much once the model is buttoned up.
Did I take pictures of the inside before I closed it? Nah, why be that
organized? I did leave the aft door open and scattered some papers on the desks
inside.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The most
difficult part of the model to assemble was the landing gear. Compare this to a
B-17, and you can see it's a mass of struts and pipes and tubes and stuff,
making a slightly complicated buildup, but hats off the Revell Germany, not only
did it all fit nicely, it was robust enough to survive my ham-fisted attempts to
insert into the gear bays at the end of the buildup.
The
anti-shipping missiles, the Hs 293s were nice little kits into themselves, and
slotted perfectly into their cradles. They were painted RLM 65, which doesn't
really look a lot different from RLM 76 in these photos.
I found the
nose mounted antenna to be a tad overly thick looking, but for injected styrene,
they do the job ok. If I was a sticklere for accuracy (which if you know me,
I'm most defintely not) I'd replace them with etched metal.
I built this for a
friend, and he requested I do the squiggly camo. How hard could it be, I
thought? Good thing the wife and kids weren't home the day I did it, as it
took a tad longer than the hour I had anticipated I also got to practice my
German swearing...never again will I try squiggle camo with Model Master
acrylics, or any acrylic for that matter. The paint kept drying on the tip of
the airbrush, and splattering was a constant occurance. I had to repaint several
sections of fuselage several times before I got it kind of done. It still isn't
as good as I'd like, but done is done. The majority of the plane is the
suggested RLM 72/73 over 76. The kit decals went on great. Overall, I liked the
model, hated the painting.
Alvis 3.1
Click on
images below to see larger images
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