Miles M.2F England to Australia MacRobertson air race- Plastic Passion 1/72nd resin in progress

 

(The completed model can be seen here):

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/02/miles-m2f-macrobertson-racer-plastic.html

A beautiful light plane that participated in the 1934 London-to-Australia MacRobertson air race, mastered by Gábor Szabó and released in resin by SBS. The kit has a relatively small number of parts, as the original plane is not complex. The fuselage is molded virtually in one piece, with a cover for the cockpits. The tail feathers are keyed, but the wings and the wheel trousers are a butt-joint affair, necessitating metal pinning for safety and strength. Even in its apparent simplicity, I think this is not a kit for beginners. The casting is flawless, but like any other resin kit you will have to separate the parts from their casting blocks, something that has to be done with care and patience. Some parts are easy to separate and some are not as easy, but I encountered no problems. There is nice detail in the cockpits, and you are provided with instrument panels with some instrument relief that you can paint, or cover with a more detailed film that is part of a sheet where windshields are also provided. There is a little issue there, the instrument panels seem wood overall in photos, but the kit film will have them black. I opted to paint the panels wood, and highlighted the basic detail molded-in. Additional die-cut windshields are also included. Two clear parts beacons are provided (you only need one I believe). The instructions sheet is well-printed, clear, and contains relevant historical information plus good modeling advise. The decal sheet looks good, the kit box is sturdy and contents come well bagged, all in all a very nice package. There are minor fit issues:

In my sample, if you glue the seats where they should be placed according to their pedestals molded in the pan, they won't align with the openings in the cover. I had to cut a couple millimeters at the front of the cockpit pan to get a good alignment. In my sample the cockpit cover had a little bit of a fit issue, necessitating puttying and sanding at the seams. Mayhaps that cockpit cover could have been made to coincide with panel liners already existing, thus alleviating the seam issue that it creates.

All in all a nice kit of a well-known type of remarkable history, that will now be added to the growing numbers of MacRobertson runners I already have (A MacRobertson start line may be one day?).

This model is being built in parallel with the very similar inject offer by KP, the Miles M.2H Hawk Major in injected plastic. This kit precedes the KP kit by many years.

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/02/milesd-m2h-kovozavody-prostejov-172nd.html

My thanks to Alex Bigey who kindly and generously gifted the kit.

Contents:

 

Parts perfectly cast:

Detail is molded-in inside the cockpit in spite of being a one-piece cast:

Parts washed and separated from their casting blocks:

Only the tail feathers are keyed, the rest is butt-joint:

Metal pins will be required:

Same here:

I tend not to trust the very fragile resin tailwheels and tailskids. A similar white metal Aeroclub item will be used. This particular plane had a skid (comes with the parts), but a tailwheel is also provided:

Painting starts:

All wood parts are treated with oils to simulate grain:

The seats are painted. They come with molded-in belts, a benefit to some modelers, something rather not having molded on for others (like me):

 A metal tailskid is fabricated:

The interior is in and the cover is on:

A little detail is added in the form of a photo-etched control horn for the rudder (corresponding holes for the cables are drilled in the fuselage):

The tail feathers are on, the vertical tail requiring just a touch with the sanding stick to fit well:

Wings on, secured by metal pins:

Trousers on, also metal-pinned. You can see a little filler that was necessary to tidy the wing joints. The trousers will also need a smidgen of that:

A coat of primer to reveal the spots that need attention:

Well, that's interesting, the wheels won't fit in the trousers. The walls will have to be thinned down about half a millimeter from inside using -carefully- a rotary tool:

The fairings for the aileron linkages were missing, as well as the location hole for the Pitot, so those are easily added:

A comparison of the two kits. Since my knowledge on the type is basic to say the least, you draw your own conclusions:

As a side note: the KP kit has a boxing that includes the same markings as this Plastic Passion kit (Mac Robertson race) but that is not very accurate, as the trousers -and other details- are different (accurate in the Plastic Passion kit, inaccurate in the KP kit).

I realized I was making the wrong Pitot substitute, so the proper one is made (with spares for further use):

Color is applied:

The windshields and beacon are on:

Now I understand why Plastic Passion in its wisdom included TWO beacons. These things are tiny and very slippery! I immediately lost one to the Twang Dimension! If you lose the two (please don't), there is hope in the manner described below, but it may take several attempts. Get a length of clear sprue:

Carefully heat and bend:

Cut the top of the curve to obtain a "half drop" shape:

The instructions missed that there was a wingwalk pad:

I have built many SBS kits and I declare them EXQUISITE. I never had trouble with the decals, but this time, I may have gotten a bad decal sheet. Once wet, the images took about 40 minutes to loosen. Two of them went to smithereens without provocation (I was able to rejoin the parts and fix it, phew!). One good thing is that the Reg. letters come separate (there is no common carrier), which eliminates the carrier that sometimes shows between letters. The decals are otherwise thin and have excellent color density and adhesion:

Another issue was the registration letters size. In the instructions there is enough space between the Z and J and the leading edge, but the actual decals are bigger:

And even after prodding them a bit tighter (which is not really kosher), there is barely any space between the letters and the L.E. Also please note that the direction of the registrations follows the aileron hinge inclination, so they are not perpendicular to the fuselage as in other cases:

All is done now:

But we will have to wait for a better day for the completed model photos, as this is an unstable weather front in California and may take a few more days (we welcome the ever-scarce water nonetheless):

Rain stopped for a little while, so:

(The completed model can be seen here):

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2023/02/miles-m2f-macrobertson-racer-plastic.html