Fine Molds

[ChernayaAkula]

"The Sky Crawlers" is an anime by director Mamuro Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, among others) that came to Japanese screens in early August of 2008. For the details, I'll refer you to the WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE.

As soon as I saw the links by Dave in THIS THREAD on ARC, I knew I had to get these kits. :banana: I ordered them from HLJ.

So, today the first one arrived. The 1/48 kit of the Rostock F2B Sanka Mk.B by Fine Molds. The aircraft itself looks like a Shinden on steroids, with counter-rotating props (that really work via a little gear assembly!  ) and in-flight refuelling capability (probe can be displayed deployed). I've read elsewhere that they wanted the aircraft to look like the pinnacle of prop-driven fighter design. Looking at the design of the planes, I think they succeeded. 

Box-art:



Sprue A, containing the upper wing halves and parts of the undercarriage:



Sprue B, containing the lower wing halves, canards, rudders as well as a drop-tank that looks very "Me 109"-ish  :



Sprue C, containing the fuselage halves and fuselage parts:



Sprue D, containing the engine assembly and propellers (of a pretty cool design).



The transparencies...



... that live up to their name. They're quite thin and don't distort all that much.



Decals and painting instructions:



Only one marking option for an aircraft of the Rostock Corporation Air Force, 262th Independent Fighter Unit, Yuichi Kannami (pilot's name?) at Urisu Base.
A lot of the colours are given in RLM codes. And the decals are an interesting mix of English stencils, such as "No step" or "Armament" and German, such as "Reifendruck" (tire pressure), "Federbeindruck" (oleo pressure) or "Sauerstoff"(oxygen).

[ChernayaAkula]

The sprues are crisply moulded with no apparent flash or sink holes. The detail is delicately engraved all-round.

Detail of the rear fuselage:



Fine Molds gives options for a hand-painted instrument panel as well for one using a decal. Pretty nifty!



Part of the instructions showing the gear assembly that should allow for a working counter-rotating prop. Careful glueing advisable! 



The very nice instruction booklet also contains some technical background, both for the story a and for the real-world aircraft that influenced the design of the anime planes. However, it is in Japanese only. But there's a nice drawing of two other planes that look rather cool.



This looks like a very nice kit. Major thumbs-up to Fine Molds for releasing kits like these.


Hope you liked my review! I'll post reviews of the 1/72 kits once I have them.

[sotoolslinger]

Very nice review and the model gives me plastic wood

[pyro-manic]

I'll definitely be picking up the 1:72 scale kits from this series.

[Scooterman]

OH YES, Scooterman will have one of these!  Bigger canopy, modern cockpit, shed load of bombs and rockets and of course the BFG.  Mud fighter here we come!

[ChernayaAkula]

User TSP over on Flugzeugforum.de posted THIS LINK to some nice wallpapers of blueprints of the film's aircraft.

[Madoc]

Wow, cool stuff indeed!

If FineMolds is involved then you know the quality is top shelf.

Are the 72nd scale kits actual kits or prepainted "toys?"

Madoc

[ChernayaAkula]

<...> Are the 72nd scale kits actual kits or prepainted "toys?" <...>

They're actual kits. The Sanka boxing is a "twofer" with two complete kits in the box. The J2 Skyly is just a single kit. Both have normal, actually working counter-rotating propellers as well as shaped clear discs to replicate running props. 

[Jschmus]

Both of those twin-engine designs are awesome!  I think I just figured out how to waste my next paycheck.   

[Madoc]

Moritz & all,

Looking around online I found this listing:

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10075552t3/60/3

This brings up scans of the Skily J2 kit pieces, box art, instruction sheet, and so on.

These 72nd scale kits are made by Bandai as part of their EX line.

Looking over the images of the kit pieces and the scans of the instruction sheet I'd say the mouldings are more on the simplified "Junior Modeler!" end of things than the level you'd find from FineMolds.  However, the kit looks very nicely designed and could easily be done up as the equal of a FM rendering.  The contra-prop gearing is a neat trick but I'm more concerned with the crispness of moulding and details.  From what I can see, the Bandai rendering does this very well.

Madoc

[jcf]

Moritz & all,

Looking around online I found this listing:

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10075552t3/60/3

This brings up scans of the Skily J2 kit pieces, box art, instruction sheet, and so on.

These 72nd scale kits are made by Bandai as part of their EX line.

Looking over the images of the kit pieces and the scans of the instruction sheet I'd say the mouldings are more on the simplified "Junior Modeler!" end of things than the level you'd find from FineMolds.  However, the kit looks very nicely designed and could easily be done up as the equal of a FM rendering.  The contra-prop gearing is a neat trick but I'm more concerned with the crispness of moulding and details.  From what I can see, the Bandai rendering does this very well.

Madoc

The engineering and moulding is typical Bandai, their 'glue-less construction' is a feature of their Gundam kits (including the $300.00 + mega kits) and is incredibly good. Nothing 'junior modeler' about the construction method and calling the kits 'snap-fit' is a gross understatement. Their mouldings are also crisp and very well detailed.

I'm currently working on a 1/35th hover-truck from the UC Hard Graph Gundam series and the parts fit is phenomenal with minimal seams, and often the seams fall on natural breaks or as natural as fictional subjects get.
http://www.hlj.com/product/BAN948085

One thing to note, dry-fitting is not a good idea with some assemblies, the fit is so tight and positive that getting the thing apart again can cause damage. Ask me how I know. 

Jon

[Madoc]

Jon,

One thing to note, dry-fitting is not a good idea with some assemblies, the fit is so tight and positive that getting the thing apart again can cause damage. Ask me how I know. 

Gee, Jon, how do you know that?

What's that you say?  I'm sorry, all that blood flowing out your forehead is making you sputter as you talk there.  Here why don't you take this compress to try and staunch that...



Madoc

[Zaskar24]

Very cool looking.  Where are these available from online?

[ChernayaAkula]

<...> One thing to note, dry-fitting is not a good idea with some assemblies, the fit is so tight and positive that getting the thing apart again can cause damage. Ask me how I know.  <...>

TZhanks for the heads-up!  So no dry-fitting!

Very cool looking.  Where are these available from online?

I got mine from HOBBY LINK JAPAN, but it seems to be on "backorder" at the moment. It is also sold out at1999.CO.JP.

[Zaskar24]

Very cool looking.  Where are these available from online?

I got mine from HOBBY LINK JAPAN, but it seems to be on "backorder" at the moment. It is also sold out at1999.CO.JP.

Thanks for the links Chernaya.  I think that the top of the two twin engine pushers looks sweet.  Kind of has A Robotech look to the fuselage though.

Scott