MustHave are a fairly new company based in France, who have put out 2 kits so far (as far as I can tell - they don't have a website): this and the F-86K Sabre Dog, also in 1/48. The Mohawk is a re-boxing of the older HobbyCraft kit but with lots of extra goodies
Some nice box art...
On a sturdy box packed with goodies, all nicely wrapped and packed:
This kit includes both PE and resin parts, but let's look at the plastic first:
Three sprues in nice crisp grey styrene, just what we like. In a little more detail:
Panel lines are about right to my untutored eye, neither canyons nor so subtle you can't actually see them. Some nice detail of the canopy runners there as well.
Good amount of interior detail there, though the kit has a resin cockpit anyway.
Some nice wheel well detail. I'm not right sure what it's supposed to *be*, but it looks good.
And of course a clear sprue with two windscreen options.
The extra goodies next. The resin comes in two little bags stapled inside the box, presumably to stop it knocking around and breaking, so I'll leave it be and point you towards AeroScale's In-Box review for more detailed shots.
Suffice to say, you get engine gubbins, a new cockpit tub, a rudder (with cutouts for PE actuators and the like), wheels and flaps.
The PE covers cockpit detail, actuators, more engine gubbins, flaps and a gunsight (there's an acetate IP as well, but it didn't photograph well.
Now onto the docco. The instructions are very thorough, beginning by listing their references
And once inside you'll find some pretty detailed explanations in two languages - though the English is occasionally a little wonky so it's worth reading the French as well if you can - as well as fairly detailed pictures.
As well as helpful hints ...
The kit offers four decal options, each given an equal share of the documentation (unlike some kits where there's distinctly a "main" and "other" options)
Dutch East Indies and the box-art option, an RAF Mohawk IV based in India
Vichy French (though early enough not to have the red & yellow stripes) and Free French...
And a colourful, in-register decal sheet
All in all then, I suspect I've got my money's worth here. I haven't done a test-fit, but the guys at AeroScale (see link above) suggest that it's generally good, with a couple of niggles but nothing major. It certainly looks a bit tricky in places, but then it's definitely a kit for advanced modellers with that price tag anyway. I may well look out some cheaper versions of the subject to use the alternative decals, as I really want to build all four of these!
