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Skyray Replacement Wingfold Set Cutting Edge
Reviewed by Darren Mottram
During his visit he asked if I might be interested in doing a couple of reviews on some new Cutting Edge items. Having seen and used some of this companies previous offerings, I couldn't refuse. I have always found Cutting Edge's products to be amongst the better examples of the after-market industry's art. This set is packed in a resealable plastic bag within the usual, sturdy, clear plastic flip-top box. Like the canopy actuator in the cockpit set, the actuating rams are protected from damage during transit by two solid bars either side of it moulded onto the casting block. This set is designed to replace the outboard wings and wing fold detail components of the 1/48 scale Tamiya Skyray kit. Of the 12 components, the two outer wing pieces are moulded in a Dark Grey resin (which the instructions say has added strength) and the remaining ten (main wing bulkheads, actuating rams and six rods) are cast in a lighter Grey resin. Unusually, the outboard wing sections have rather noticeable file and sanding scratches on their surfaces but these should disappear under an undercoat of paint. Otherwise the mouldings are very crisp. The wing sections and main wing bulkheads have casting blocks attached which will need removal. The bulkheads in particular are rather thin and attached to their moulding blocks along the flat, rear face which means it will be challenging to remove them cleanly. Another aspect which seems odd is the inclusion of the six "rods" as cast pieces. These items are very small in diameter (about 0.5mm). Two of these rods do have very small eye-ends on them but trying to remove them from the casting block and then cleaning them up without breaking them may prove difficult. I feel these items may have been better if supplied as plastic rod (The modeller can easily make their own replacements with stretched sprue anyway). The single-sided instruction sheet lacks a little of the usual Cutting Edge clarity. The basic direction is that the outer wing and bulkheads replace the kit parts and to assemble the actuating arms as per the technical drawings on the instruction sheet. As some of these drawings have not been reproduced well and due to the extra (and irrelevant) detail included on them, I found it a little difficult to decipher what was required. The sheet also mentions that this area was usually Insignia White on the real aircraft. With the very limited trial fitting possible with the components "out of the box", I found that the locating points on the outer wing parts were very slightly too close together to be able to engage with the appropriate area of the kit wing. It will be necessary to remove about 0.5mm from the rear attachment point on the wing to get the parts to sit correctly. Plastic has it's limitations as to what level of detail can be achieved within a reasonable number of components and cost, especially for a part of a kit which is only an option and will not be used by all modellers. The level of detail possible with resin however is far greater and this set caters for those who do wish to display this aspect of their model with a similar level of detail to the rest of the kit. I would recommend this set to those who want that "busy" look to the wingfold of their Tamiya Skyray. My thanks to Brett Green and Meteor Productions for supplying this set for review.
Cutting Edge Modelworks Resin is available from Meteor Productions Website Review and Images Copyright © 2000 by Darren
Mottram
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Not
long ago I was blessed with the good fortune of running into Brett Green at our
local model club meeting during one of his rare forays away from HyperScale.