Miles M.5A - SBS 1/72nd resin

The Miles M.5 Sparrowhawk was born from Mr. Miles' sudden and irrepressible need to participate in the 1935 King Cup air race on short notice, modifying for lacking of time a Miles M.2 Hawk as G-ADNL. After this prototype, four more were built with a modified fuselage (according to Brown's Miles Aircraft Since 1925) that differ from the prototype and from each other in one way or another. Two more were built for the Royal Aircraft Establishment for experimental purposes. The plane in beautiful blue and silver represented by the kit flew in the Portsmouth to Johannesburg (England to South Africa) air race.

 The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2022/08/miles-m5a-sbs-model-172nd-resin.html

This SBS kit, like all their releases, is of high quality and great detail. Besides their usual practical engineering this time an innovative solution is provided for the wing-to-fuselage joint, an interlocking system that guarantees alignment and greatly simplifies construction minimizing seams. Masks, decals, photo-etched parts, printed film, good instructions, color prints, and absolutely clear transparencies complete the contents, as usual sturdily and nicely packed to protect the contents.

As per their excellent standards the casts are refined, the small parts well protected with "ears", and no blemishes whatsoever are present. In general it's easy to remove the parts and the cleanup is minimal, but occasionally an extraction will need some thinking and skill, and cleanup will need to be careful. Casting tabs of course vary in thickness according to the part, making removal once in a very while a bit more challenging. But this thicker tabs may be a requirement of the casting process to ensure what I just praised: flawlessly molded parts. I found in my sample a minor issue that needs a modicum of reworking and care to fit properly, the parts involved are the fuselage nose insertion plug and the wing lower lip. This will be discussed during the build.

SBS keeps releasing superb kits of very appealing subjects, long live SBS! 

Contents:

Superb decals:

A nice set of photo-etched parts:

Film and mask:

The innovative wing-to-fuselage interlocking system:

Flawless and superbly clear transparencies:

Good instructions:

Remove carefully the remains of the casting tab from the wing lower lip, or it will interfere with the nose. And watch out when you handle the nose, as it has very realistic thin "gills" behind the cheeks. You can see in the photo the stress line, I almost broke them:

The lower portion of the  inserting plug on the nose will have to be carefully trimmed, otherwise it makes the wing and fuselage spread apart a little:

The "gills" mentioned above that produce the depth effect. The plug in the process of being reduced:

A nice wash:

And the parts are ready for painting. The smaller bits are better kept in their blocks:

As molded in my sample, the nose and wing lower lip force the fus/wing apart:

The fit at the top is perfect:

And the fit of wing/fus is perfect too:

Thus is the nose insertion plug and wing lower lip what is generating a minor issue here, the lower lip of the wing as well as the lower portion of the nose plug have to be sanded down a bit to allow the nose to be closer to the fuselage, again, in my sample, other kits may not need this. An easy fix in any case.

 To better represent the kit subject, Number 3, you may add two details: a light over the headrest fairing, and a mass balance projecting from the rudder à la DH88:

I am almost sure there was a blister over the fuel cap on top of the fuselage nose, but can't find a clear photo of it.

Some base colors are applied:

Instrument panel assembled. The minute door and the seat painted, and other parts wait for the metal color after the gloss black base coat:

 After masking the black on the back side of the blades aluminium is applied, also to other metallic parts:

All the minuscule fuzzy etchy parts are glued and painted:

The inst. pan. goes inside the fuselage:

Fuselage and wing joined:

Nose added:

This system makes things incredibly easier, provided you do your duty too cleaning the parts from their blocks and checking the fit. It eliminates hard to fill seams and much puttying and sanding. It's a keeper!

The M.5 was a relatively small plane, and the Monomail was a big one. Here compared side to side:

The hole for the mass balance spigot is drilled. CMK "nav lights" will be used to provide the light as seen a few images above:

A piece of thin steel wire is inserted, and a blob of white glue will simulate de lead weight:

Landing gear legs (sided, watch out!), horizontal tail and rudder now in place, quick and easy helped by SBS locating devices. Still, check alignment and fit as you glue, the kit does not self-build or provides automatic perfection:

A coat of primer is airbrushed on the fuselage. Wheel hubs are masked and tires painted. The control linkages and Pitot are painted metal. A sample of the blue I may use is created. Prop and door are masked in preparation for the oncoming blue (so I don't forget to paint them):

A relative of the sparrowhawk is visiting this morning:

After painting the tires and unmasking the wheel hubs, I realized that the tiny wheels have even tinier manufacturer lettering! "DUNLOP"and something else that my failing eyes can't read.

A coat of gloss white is laid down as a base for the blue color, without forgetting the spinner and door:

The blue color is airbrushed, not forgetting the spinner and small door:

The exhausts that were painted before will now be added. These are tiny and easy to twing and twang, so SBS kindly provides two spares:

The photo-etched parts are added. All their locating holes had to carefully be made a bit bigger, as the spigots in the metal parts wouldn't fit (this is because of primer and paint). A light was added as per photos of the original plane on the headrest fairing:

The rudder control horns and linkages were a nice fit as was the Pitot; the aileron linkages were not a good fit and had to be very carefully trimmed; the darn things are tiny! The wheels are now in place, their fit is perfect. You can see in the background a piece of Tamiya tape with the windshield masked -with the mask provided in the kit- that I forgot to paint with the model (darn!):

Decal application followed. The decals are very good, thin, sharp, with solid colors and with minimum carrier that disappears once the decals set. SBS has made another improvement here: they separated the large wing registration letters, avoiding the spanning carrier to show. This is something that many modelers do by themselves, thus it is nice to have it done from you. Because of the thinness of the decals (which is what makes them good) you have to be very careful on applying them, but they are not fragile to a point that hinders the job, they can take some repositioning and prodding provided there are provided with a wet surface. In the photo below, the decals are still wet, just applied:

Another bonus provided by SBS is the little door, that can be posed open or closed (if the latter, the door has tab that is inserted in a groove on the fuselage side, nice touch).

What a nice little kit.

 The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2022/08/miles-m5a-sbs-model-172nd-resin.html