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PREVIEW
MPM L39 Albatros
1/48 scale
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Today I got a great surprise in my mail box. It
was none other than the brand new release of the L-39 ZO Albatross from MPM in
1/48 scale. The kit comes in a decent box with the ends that open (I hate those
kinds of boxes) but it has some really cool box art of two Libyan Albatros's
over the desert.
Upon opening the box I was very pleasantly surprised by what I saw inside.
Contained in the box are 93 plastic pieces moulded in dark gray plastic
with surprisingly small sprue gates. The kit also has two beautiful
vacuform canopies and four resin pieces. I wish they had bagged the canopies
separate though. A few scratches but no big deal.
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The markings included are four three aircraft from either Libya, Syria or The
German Democratic Republic. The Libyan one is in two tans and green over gray
while the the Syrian one is in a very similar scheme. The GDR one is in Khaki
and Green over Grey. All are very cool looking. The decals are also printed by
Cartograpgh and seem very thin and complete. There must be 500 stencils on the
sheet!!
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Well now on to the kit itself. First and foremost it has very fine recessed
lines with excellent consistency. Also there is not one ejector pin mark or a
hint of flash to be found. I am assuming that MPM uses a much different type of
injecting machine than the big boys do. One thing I did notice is that the
plastic is very hard but not brittle at all. I am also thoroughly impressed with
the thinness of the trailing edges of the flying surfaces. Also, after dry
fitting the kit and doing the obligatory measurements it seems to be pretty much
spot on in all areas. Can you ell I am impressed with this one?? It is no
average Limited Run kit.
Now to the meat and potatoes of this kit. Starting with the cockpit. It consists
of a floor , two seven piece seats with resin headrests, two, sticks, rudder
pedals, separate side consoles and two control panels. All of the detail
is of the raised variety and a bit on the heavy side. All in all it is pretty
sparsely detailed and in need of some help from the detail oriented modeler out
there. The resin headrests are the strangest part of the cockpit. They are
really nice while the seats are really well.....not!! I honestly don't
know what mark of sea is in the Albatross but if a replacement is made, I for
one would get them.
On to the fuselage, wings and other major parts. As stated before the scribing
is recessed and very nice. The rivet detail is especially delicate for a kit of
this nature. The fuselage is split vertically and seems to fit pretty nice. The
wings also seem to fit the fuselage in good condition. The horizontal stabs are
moulded as halves and when assembled ( I already did mine) look great. Remember
the trailing edge thickness comment I made earlier?? Well the horizontals proved
me right!! The intakes are two piece affairs with a splitter plate and the
intake itself. The fuselage is blanked off about an inch inside of the intake
and contains no detail inside at all. Although on the plus side. The intakes are
small in cross section and there isn't much to see anyway. At least they aren't
see through like a certain Revell Rafale that was released not long ago. The jet
pipe is basically a 1/2 inch tube with no detail contained at all inside. Not
even a fan etc. You also have a fairing that blends the exhaust into the
fuselage here. There is a bit of an oddity here though. You get a plastic piece
for this fairing or you get a virtually identical piece of resin that appears
only slightly "cleaner" to go in its spot. Curious. Both parts seem to
dry fit fairly well though. Also there is no mention in the instructions about
any differences or what nationality uses which one. If anyone knows please
enlighten me.
Moving on to the landing gear. This seems very straight forward. The struts are
moulded fairly nicely but maybe a bit on the heavy side. Luckily all of the
doors are moulded shut just like they are on the real aircraft on the ground.
The wheels are the split in half type and are very basic. They will work when
assembled and cleaned up though. Overall the gear is decent enough and
will work fine if detailed a bit.
The ordnance included in the kit is basically nil. Of course this is a
"trainer" but also a light attack jet. All you get are two drop
tanks and an extra set of pylons in case you want to add some rocket pods or
something. The hardpoints are ok but once again a bit basic. Now I will
say that this is a Limited run kit so pretty basic is not bad considering what
we are talking about.
I would have to say my overall impression of this kit is great!! Bravo MPM!! Its
nice to have manufacturers come out with really cool stuff that the Tamiyagawas
wont even touch. Add this to an overall great model and you have a winner. I
will be building this kit soon and will see if I can do a build up review in
more detail to put on ARC. Go out and buy one or two. At $35.00 plus change you
get a nice model of a really cool jet. On top of that you keep a company like
MPM in business. Everyone's a winner!!
Also take a look at the L39 Albatros Walkaround
here on ARC. It is very helpful.
My Thanks to Steve Stohr and North American
Hobbies for letting me review this gem