Trumpeter 1/72 Fairey Gannet AS.1/4
|
 |
Overview
The need for antisubmarine aircraft was painfully obvious during the
Second World War. With the emergence of the Soviet Union as a global naval
power the need became even more pressing and England quickly decided to
try and fill the void. A combination of endurance and payload resulted
in a need for a new type of powerplant. Armstrong Siddeley took a pair
of ASM.3 Mamba engines and mounted them back to back, resulting in a very
compact powerplant with high output. This engine was packed into the fuselage
of the Gannet and contra-rotating propellers were fitted to the front.
This resulted in excellent power for takeoff and landing, while once in
the air the ability to shut down one of the engines allowed the plane
to have a very long endurance.
The Gannet quickly found itself in fleet service, where it performed
admirably. So much so that several countries expressed interest, including
at least two navies that had no ships to operate them from. The navies
of Australia, Germany and Indonesia all purchased the Gannet, putting
the Fairey aircraft over just about every ocean in the world.
The Kit
 Trumpeter’s
1/72 Fairey Gannet kit is just about the only game in town for those wanting
to build an injection-molded Gannet. There is the ancient Frog kit, but
from what I remember it was not all that great of a kit. For the true
Gannet lover, there is the Czech
Master Resin kit, which is simply stunning in its detail. If you are
planning on doing one superdetailed Gannet, I would suggest going with
the CMR kit, as its price of more than twice the Trumpeter kit would limit
building a bunch of them. For the rest of us, there is the Trumpeter kit,
and it looks like it’s a good one out of the box. Molded in the
typical light gray plastic, it comes on three main sprues, with one of
clear parts. The overall surface detail is good, with recessed panel lines
throughout. The decal sheet provides options for three aircraft, and if
you’re looking for colorful variations, look elsewhere: all three
are finished in dark sea gray and sky.
 Diving
into construction, there really is no surprises here. The cockpit is basic,
with the minimal of detailing, but since the canopies are small and the
cockpit opening tight, not much can be seen anyway. The instrument panel
and radio boxes offer enough variation and relief to make the interior
busy enough, and about the only addition needed would be a set of seat
belts. Now if you plan on opening up the canopies, then you’ll want
to add a bit more, and I’m sure it won’t be too long before
we see some photoetch from Eduard for this kit.
 The
fuselage halves get quite a bit of stuff crammed in between, from the
nose wheel well to the front and rear cockpits to a very useful twin wing
spar. The latter is a nice touch as it gives a very solid attachment point
for the wings, which are just butted up against the fuselage. Since there
is no fillets or smooth blends to the wing/fuselage joint, this is one
spot that you’ll want to take a lot of time fitting, as there’s
nothing to blend into here. The landing gear is sturdy and should hold
up the kit well enough. There is no mention of placing weight in the nose
of this aircraft, but given the large amount of plastic behind the main
gear, I’d plant a good chunk up front to keep it on all three. Luckily,
the nose piece is separate, which allows you to add more weight if needed.
 The
wings and tailplanes are simple assemblies. The tailplanes have the vertical
finlets separate, fitting into notches in the stabilizers. The wings have
separate flaps, but the detailing inside the wing is, well, none. Most
photos of the Gannet on the ground show these flaps up, but the interesting
mechanism used would make for an appealing point on the finished model.
Of course, if you want REAL appeal, you can fold the wings, but that’d
take a lot of cutting and cursing to get the double fold lined up right
on each side.
The kit is clearly engineered for a future COD variant, as it has the
forward conduit bulges on the fuselage molded separately. These were different
on the COD bird, as is the rear lower fuselage. This is a separate piece,
with this kit incorporating the radome. The COD bird is simply faired
over. Now if you have already built up a Czech Master Resin kit, it looks
like the COD pieces would fit almost perfectly onto this kit, so you could
use those leftover parts and do this one up as a COD Gannet. If you can’t
wait for Trumpeter to release it, that is.
The
decal sheet is well printed, with perfect alignment. This is really impressive,
given the many colors in the pirate’s head and squadron badges.
While on the subject of pirate’s heads, that decal is for the Gannet
XA322 of No 796 Squadron (the instructions have this wrong, listing 769
Squadron), seen at RNAS Culdrose in 1957. This was a training unit and
it has that pirate’s head on the stabilizer finlet, with the number
771 on the nose and the letters CU on the tail. The second FAA Gannet
is XA402 of No 820 Squadron off of the HMS Bulwark in 1956-57. This happens
to be the same aircraft I illustrated for the Czech Master Resin kit,
and it has red and white vertical stripes on the finlets, a matching spinner,
and the number 327 on the nose. Finally, there is a single German option,
UA+112, from MFG 3 in 1960. It is clear that these decals were based on
the illustration found in the Warpaint on the Gannet, as it includes the
MFG 3 badges for the nose and the finlet. However, the photo of this specific
plane in that same book clearly shows no badges, and the addition of the
aircraft number (in this case, 12) on the wing leading edges in Sky. Leaving
the badges off is no problem, but sourcing a set of Sky Luftwaffe numbers
could be rather challenging.
Conclusion
This is a nice kit overall, and much better than the old Frog kit. Out
of the box it should build up into a very nice replica of the Gannet.
For those more ambitious, it offers the potential of a real show stopper
by folding the wings and opening up the weapons bay, perhaps. I’ll
leave that to the masochists, though, and I am looking forward to building
this one straight out of the box. My thanks to Stevens
for the review sample. |
|
