The Unofficial Airfix Modellers' Forum

Thanks to someone (you know who you are ) pointing out that this had been released, somehow I ended up with one which arrived today....
The box is the now normal Revell end opening affair, made seemingly from thick toilet paper, and with no thought to those of us who have a stash that requires stacking more than one box on top of another
However; the printing is nicely done and provides a nice CGI image and also photos of the completed model.
The Instruction booklet is also a new departure (in my experience anyway) and is printed in colour on shiny paper! Another new feature is that although the usual letter(s) are allocated to each required colour call out, they are also printed in the correct colour....so as you work your way through each construction stage, the coloured flags indicate required painting; great idea!!
The sprues (of which there are many) are moulded in grey and the detailing is excellent; finely engraved panel lines, and even more finely reproduced rivets are present along with nice touches like the inside faces of the bomb bay doors having detail moulded in, open radiator fairings with separate radiators behind etc. etc..
There is not as much interior detail as is contained in the new tool Airfix Shackleton, but that may not be a bad thing!!
Decals are provided for two aircraft; Zebedee and Mr Rusty, and look to be very nicely printed and in register where applicable.

All in all, an exceptionally nice looking kit; a bit pricey perhaps for some tastes, but pound for pound on weight of plastic, in proportion to any smaller new tool kit from Revell or Airfix I would guess. I haven't weighed it though, so that may be incorrect , I'll leave it to an AMS sufferer to do that....
I also didn't count any rivets either

Grrr lovely surface detail but lacks the accuracy of the Airfix kit. Allegedly it's a hodge-podge of nose and wings from other variants but I think only an expert could tell. I think it looks more the part because of the surfaced detail (albeit inverted rivets) as they are very much part of the real thing.

Nice nice nice. Onto the shopping list..

Arcwelder wrote:Nice nice nice. Onto the shopping list..

"muttley snigger"

I have the Airfix MR2 and was set to get one of these, but I'm thinking about hanging on for the Airfix one, which I hope will be issued next year.

Interesting point about the rivets, James. They are quite rivetty, even though it's not always so apparent. You can always get the old Frog kit.

Here's an MR3.

Chuck E wrote: You can always get the old Frog kit.

Which of course doubles as a handy-cheese grater for those in-modelling snacks

I must admit that I do like the Revell detailing of the aircraft surface, and it will be interesting to compare the both once painted (although I suspect that could be some time off for me anyway!)

I just got to take some detail close-ups of Mr. Rusty today (stop sniggering at the back!):








I'll post a walkaround next week, after I return to Flagstaff

Some nice photos there, Paul. I have made a small riveting wheel that I could use on the Airfix kit. I've actually been in a Shackleton at RAF Catterick, before it closed. I have some photos somewhere. I must scan them.

Scusi - it was Mr McHenry I was getting close up with today....

Great photos Paul, will look forward to more when you can!