I
was recently delighted to be sent the above named model to review direct from
the manufacturer. I was immediately impressed with the quality of the finely
cast light brown resin parts and the fidelity of the sculpting throughout.
As
has been the norm for so long this has been an area of our hobby that has been
overlooked by all but a small number of manufactures. PJ Productions
kit comes in a small box with the parts in a poly bag to stop them getting
lost. On the cover of the box is a photo of the finished figure. The lack of
instructions and painting guide will not stop the modeller using logic to
figure out the placement of the 4 parts of the complete figure. Please note
that there are two heads one with the visor up and one for those who feel
their painting skills may not be up to doing eyes on this scale with the visor
down.
The
figure is thoughtfully cast and only minimal cutting and cleanup is required
in order to prepare for assembly and painting. I assembled the figure with
superglue and found only very minor joint lines that needed filling with
Milliput. You could easily use thicker superglue and not need filler. Once
assembled the figure has a friendly pose giving thumbs up with his left arm
and holding the control column with his right. His head is looking to the
left. The face mask has the oxygen hose attached and will need careful
aligning to get it to join up with the rest of the hose which is an integral
part of the body part .
He
is in a very upright position and might benefit from some adjustment to fit
the seat you put him on, I tried him on a Tornado seat from Revell and as you
can see he seems very erect in his pose. I think that he might well be made
for the early ejector seats rather than the current laid back style. Looking
at his flying suit I get the impression he is fairly similar to the European
F-104 pilot as seen near the end of their flying lives.
He is not wearing the very common may west life raft around his neck
but this was not always worn. He as I said is sat ready for flight and as
would be expected he is fully strapped in ready to go.
All
that will be required is a good paint job and we have a superb addition to the
limited number of pilots available to us. Review model kindly supplied by PJ
Productions.
Please
visit their web site @
www.pjproduction.net
