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Kit
No: RH*** Decal options: None Comments: Resin kit with white metal parts. Excellent quality casting and detail throughout, a class product of an unusual project. |
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Reheat
Models 1/48 Focke Wulf Triebflugel
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| One of the Luftwaffe's "paper projects", the Triebflugel's unorthodox
design seems more like something out of a Dan Dare strip than reality. Designed
as a VTOL fighter, the wing-tip mounted ram jets were intended to rotate
round the fuselage like some kind of aeronautical windmill. Had the Triebflugel
ever made it a prototype stage, let alone flew, it would have been truly
bizarre creation.
Reheat's Triebflugel is their first aircraft kit and of their own original tooling (and not a reissue of the ARBA kit). The engineering of this is beautiful, the rear fuselage (?) is moulded in two, one-piece sections hat simply slot into each other. The same goes for the ram jets, while the wings and tail fins slot into place with ease. A small bags of white-metal parts caters for the undercarriage legs, wheels, clamshell doors and a few cockpit parts. Reheat have used a layered photo-etched parts in the mastering process to get complex details like the interiors to the clamshell doors -the results in places are fantastic. The canopy is vac-formed in a single price. The forward fuselage, which is moulded in two halves to accommodate the cockpit, but even here the breakdown falls on what would/might have been a natural panel break. Putting this kit together was swift, not because it was rushed, but because the fit is so smooth. No photo-etched part are supplied - for cockpit laps straps and rudder pedals you'll have to turn to other Reheat sets. Likewise, decals are not provided either, but the kind of modeller this kit is likely to appeal too will probably have a surfeit of Luftwaffe decals stashed away. Similarly, Reheat leave the final colour scheme to modellers imagination. The instruction sheet is clear, concise and professionally illustrated - Reheat have clearly put a lot to of effort into this kit. The finished model is quite big, but the space is taken up with its height rather than wing span. In fact, it's a surprise at how so much is tucked into such a small box, but Reheat have bagged everything efficiently so that the kit will stand up to the rigours of mail order. The £39.99 price tag may seem a little steep at first, but you are paying for an intelligently mastered and almost faultlessly moulded kit that is simplicity itself to built - a Tamiya resin if you like. If your tastes lean towards the Luftwaffe that never was, then it's worth every penny. For further information, contact Reheat Models, 1A Oak Drive, North
Bradley, Nr. Trowbridge, Wiltshire BA14 OSW, England. |
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