KIT: Fantastic Plastic 1/72 Horton Rocket-Wing Fighter
KIT #: ?
PRICE: $48.00 from www.fantastic-plastic.com
DECALS: two options
REVIEWER: Scott Van Aken
NOTES: Resin with vacuformed canopy

HISTORY

Germany's Horten Brothers are credited with being some of aviation's earliest champions of the "flying wing" concept.  In addition to designing both propeller- and jet-powered flying wings, the Brothers Horten developed plans for an advanced fighter powered by twin rocket motors.  Discovered by the Allies in the waning days of WWII, these plans never got beyond the initial design stages, yet even in their crude, undeveloped state suggested a plane that -- if built -- would have been one of the most elegant and beautiful ever to take to the skies.

The above was blatantly cribbed from the Fantastic Plastic instruction sheet as I could find nothing about this design in the few Luft 46 references I have.

THE KIT

Molded by Anigrand Craftworks in Hong Kong, it has all of the attributes of kits from that maker. Engraved panel lines, a single vacuformed canopy and generally well detailed parts. It also has a few molding glitches that the builder will have to deal with like some small air pockets, attachment holes that will need additional drilling out, a few broken pins and some seams from mold slip (on the wingtip pods) that will need to be sanded down and/or filled. I also found some resin build-up in the back of the wing pod skid wells which will be best taken care of with a motor tool. While this may sound like a lot of additional work, it is pretty much part and parcel of what one normally has to go through with resin kits. Anigrand moldings are by far better than the majority of kits I've seen over the years.

The aircraft basically lands and takes off on skids. The skid wells in the fuselage and wing pods are provided along with the skids, retraction struts and doors. The doors are a bit on the thick side so you may want to sand the ones for the tip pods down a bit. The main one is just fine as it is. This kit includes a pilot figure lying prone with his hands on the control wheel. It means that if you do not include the figure, you'll have a rather large empty cockpit. The figure is well molded and appears to be wearing late war garb. He also could be a figure from an old Airfix or Matchbox kit for all I know!

Instructions are very well done with step by step building guides and photos of the actual kit for each step. Definitely helps a great deal to be sure that all the bits are where they should be. Included are painting information and markings for both a Luftwaffe and Soviet Air Force aircraft. The decals are nicely printed and if like the last kit, they are very thin, on a single carrier and will need to be cut out. You get extra swastikas and small red stars to place on the tail boom. Of course, since this plane never got beyond the concept stage, you can paint and mark it any way that you wish.

CONCLUSIONS

This is another really superb kit from Fantastic Plastic. The subjects they have done recently are quite interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed building their 40 foot Flying Disc and can see no reason why this one won't be equally as neat.

My thanks to Fantastic Plastic for providing the review kit. You can get yours direct at the link.

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