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FROG Gloster E28/39 (Whittle Jet) Scale l/72nd. Price U.K. 2s.6d.
Moulded in bright trainer yellow plastic, at first sight this seems to be an excellent little kit,
and the quality of plastic and mouldings is up to the usual Frog standard, but we must advise members that many kits have had to be
returned by their purchasers owing to faulty mouldings, the most common faults being an incomplete upper port wing tip, incomplete port
fuselage half and, very bad 'dimples' where the internal fitting pegs have 'pulled' the external' skin inwards. However, ignoring these
faults, which are being remedied, the kit is very pleasing; all components fit well and the cockpit canopy fitting is very clever indeed.
Instead of merely being stuck to the fuselage surface, the canopy is moulded with a deeper 'rim' that fits snugly into the cockpit opening,
thus doing away with the canopy/ fusel age joint .line that never looks right on any model. The cockpit interior is moulded in two halves
and this is carried forward to form the two halves of the airflow splitter inside the nose intake of the aircraft. Some minor details are
missing from the undercarriage oleos, but these can easily be added after assembly, Decals are for W4041/G and are complete with the yellow
encircled letter 'P' (for prototype). Unfortunately the camouflage instructions are limited to a half-plan view on the box lid and a general
view on the back of the box; the camouflage pattern - or what little of it is visible on the drawings - is wrong, as the artist has worked off
a well-known photograph of W4041/G which has been printed in reverse. -In spite of this criticism, this is a very good little kit and makes up
into a most pleasing model. The original aircraft is on display at the Science Museum, London, and a visit with a notebook and pencil
will solve any queries that are bound to arise when making this model.
The IPMS magazine, september 1966"
SCALE COMMENTS
by J. D. McHard
Editor of Meccano Magazine
Something very nasty happened to the fuselage of the Frog Gloster Whittle now—at last—in the shops. Reliance on drawings supplied by the manufacturers without careful cross-checking has resulted in a grotesquely oversize fuselage. Scale modellers be warned—again—makers' drawings are usually the worst available ! It should, perhaps, be explained that this model got caught up in the move of the Frog organisation from its traditional Merton home to more spacious premises at Margate.
AeroModeller SEPTEMBER 1966 Vol.XXXI No.368
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