Miniwing 1/144 Westland Wyvern S.4
By Don Joy
The Wyvern is an interesting subject and draws a lot of people's attention. It has to be the only turboprop fighter than actually saw active service and is best known for its participation in the Suez Crisis in 1956.
The Miniwing Wyvern S.4 is a cleanly molded little kit in their usual yellow resin.
Pluses:
1) There are no visible bubbles in my first review of the parts. Some may appear during the painting process, but so far so good.
2) Clean decal sheet featuring markings for 3 aircraft. Includes the Suez ID Stripes.
3) Two vacuform canopies are included. This is good, because one of the canopies in my sample kit has a wrinkle in it.
Neutral:
1) So-so instruction sheet showing an exploded view of the model. Could be better
2) Lots of flash around the small parts, but nothing that can't be handled with a sharp X-acto knife.
3) Prop spinner molded into fuselage
4) Vertical stabilizer is a separate piece instead of being molded into the fuselage
Minuses:
1) Wing has a molding vent on the leading edge. This needs to be removed and cleaned up
2) The color view on the instructions is small and unclear on the placement of the underwing decals. Builders will have to double check other sources on these.
3) Eight underwing rockets are provided. These were all broken free of the tree on my sample. This usually included the forward mounting pin on the rocket. It will be a lot of detailed extra work to make these usable.
4) Jet exhausts have no indentation. These will take some Dremel work to open them up on both sides of the fuselage.
Looks like it should build up into a good model of the subject. I will have to decide whether or not to use the rockets and the extra work they will entail. That and the extra research for decal placement are the biggest shortfalls I see in the kit, but nothing the average modeler can't handle. It should look good next to the Miniwing Sea Fury when it's completed.
Review sample courtesy of Miniwing.