Valom 1/72 Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer CC.1

I have a sort of love/hate relationship with Valom kits. I very much appreciate the subjects that they choose, but I also find that some of their kits are a real bear to build and can be very difficult. I have several on my 'shelf of doom' that will take some increased motivation for me to complete.

Overall, the kit is nicely molded. The majority of parts are butt joins and this is fairly typical of Valom kits. The cockpit is fairly complete with seats, pedals, control columns, and instrument panel. Some of this will probably not be seen in the completed kit. There is no cabin interior though Valom does offer seats as an aftermarket extra to put on the floor if you want to spend the additional money. Thanks to the somewhat thick transparencies, it is not known how much can actually be seen

Valom provides an etched set with rudder pedals, some interior sidewall detail, control wheels, and lots of little levers for the central instrument column. Belts for the front seats are provided as decals. All of the cabin windows are to be installed from the inside so one should paint the interior before installing these parts. With the fuselage halves closed, the tailplanes are built up and then installed. The main wing is five pieces with an upper central piece that juts out and includes the upper engine nacelle part. The lower piece is full from the fuselage to the tip and the remaining upper sections are fairly short.

Next is building up the nacelles with the engines. Engines are simply the front half with a backing plate. Thankfully, the forward cowling is a single piece so no worries about a tricky seam. With those built up, the landing gear are built up. Note that the wheel halves, like several other parts, have short ejector towers that need to be removed. The final steps are the installation of the various wing/landing gear braces along with the landing gear itself. There are also some flap track pieces to fit on the aft section of the inner and middle flaps. Props and a few small p.e. parts (antenna, windscreen wipers) finish things up.

Instructions are fairly well done, but can be confusing in some parts so it is well worth looking things over several times before any sort of gluing is done. A well done painting chart is provided with several paint companies referenced. Two schemes are offered. One is the box art scheme in light earth and sand over black with 78 Squadron based in Aden in 1961. The other is a standard light blue-grey with a white upper fuselage with 152 Squadron based in Oman in 1961. These aircraft are fairly devoid of any unique markings other than possibly an aircraft number/letter. The decal sheet looks to be well done and provides a complete wing walk marking, which is a nice addition. Note also that the original sheet did not have the proper roundels so an addendum sheet has been provided.

I bought this kit because when I was quite young, living in Harrow, I recall seeing a television show that had one of these doing a flying display and was obviously quite impressed with what I saw. I don't recall if it was BBC or ITV, but it was probably on a Saturday or Sunday. In those days, television was not on the air 24 hours though it did start broadcasting early on Saturday. Anyway, I now have a kit of this interesting type and time will only tell if Valom decides to do the single engine Pioneer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Aviation_Twin_Pioneer

December 2023

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