Revell 1/72 Shackleton at Telford

[K5054NZ]

Hi all,

I'm not sure if the Shackleton attracts much interest on the ARC boards, but I thought I'd share this link: http://imodeler.com/2015/11/back-on-stage/

Revell had a painted test shot and sprues of their new Shackleton AEW.2(I think?) on display at ScaleModelWorld...and it looks pretty good. I'm still going for the Airfix kit as it has my preferred markings already in the box, but what great times for Brit Cold War types!

[VMA131Marine]

The Revell Shack looks nice from those pictures but there are some problems. Most notably, why does kit have dihedral in the horizontal tail? One hopes this was just an assembly mistake but could be a pain to correct if not. There are some other detail problems of which the most notable is that the wing panel line detail is correct for and MR.3 but not an MR.2 or AEW. On the MR.3 the fuel tank access panels are on the top of the wing while the tanks were accessed from the bottom on the earlier versions. The wing that Revell showed appears to have the correct planform for an MR.2/AEW, but the MR.3 planform is different having a rearward kink in the trailing edge starting at the inboard edge of the ailerons. Since it's clear that Revell intend to do an MR.3 I would hope that they don't plan to use the wing from this MR.2/AEW. The FROG wing, by the way, is substantially correct. I have copies (3) of the Airfix MR.2 kit and I'll probably get the Revell as well, although the tail dihedral problem is a near show-stopper if it's built into the kit and not just an assembly mistake. Apparently, release of the Revell kit has been delayed until February of 2016 though Revell have not provided a reason for this.

[Dmanton300]

The dihedral was not symmetrical on the model. I'm reasonably certain it's just a construction faux par.

Edited November 12, 2015 by Dmanton300

[PMG Offramp]

Then there's the fuselage cross section which is said to be too rounded.

The detailing overall, however, looks to be absolutely superb. Looking forward to reading a detailed review when the kit's available.

In the meantime, I'll get the Airfix kit, looks like an "again" improvement over previous kits, in terms of recessed details, etc.