I really want a line-up of these incredible and colourful speed machines in my collection so I purchased the Contrails 1:72 Strega kit a little while ago, and I must say that it is quiet simply the WORST resin kit I have ever dealt with, (even more horrible than the dreaded and ghastly Gremlin 1:72 Cessna 404
). Even the instruction sheet sucked and was indeed unreadable. This is surprising as the Contrails range is generally pretty dam good.Most of the kit is simply unusable, so to have any chance of successfully building it at all, I had to buy current-issue Airfix 1:72 Mustang, (which by the way is a great kit!!), and use it as a donor kit to replace the many unusable resin parts from the Contrails kit. This has given me at least some chance of finishing the "Straga" kit to a reasonable standard. So here is where I am at right now....I did some work on her today while waiting for "Mr Surfacer" to dry on my Airfix 1:72 A-4 refurb project.
Here is the Contrails kit as received:
And here she is with the donor parts from the Airfix kit, (this was the same kit that your prop came from Damo)
As can be seen, the whole nose had to be replaced because of huge air bubble holes in the substandard resin. I couldn't even use the supplied pewter prop and spinner because of significant pitting in the casting.
Hopefully she will turn out at least half presentable.
TOR
PS: it also has one of those horrible vac-form canopies that I have to somehow cut and match to the model....not looking forward to that
.PPS: and here she is in the flesh.....did I mention she is ex-RAAF!!!
http://www.airliners.net/photo/North-Am ... a7ce75066b
