Cyber-hobby’s Meteor has excellent recessed exterior panel lines and detail throughout the majority of the kit. Separate control surfaces, flaps, and canopy sections allow the model to be posed in various ways.
The kit’s got great wheel-well and landing-gear detail, and there’s ample detail inside the separate flaps (though none in the flap wells). Not indicated in the instructions, the main wheels have a very slightly flattened area of the tread, so care needs to be taken to get those “on the bottom” when the wheels are glued in place. A photoetched-metal fret contains speed brakes plus two optional dorsal antennas to replace the kit’s plastic if desired. The open speed brakes look great, but their attachment points are somewhat fragile, since there are no mounting holes for them.
The instructions have no color callouts for the cockpit. My references showed it to be interior black, but the cockpit opening is small enough that the kit’s fine detail gets somewhat lost in the “coal hole” effect. Dry-brushing and some lighter details help.
The instructions have no color callouts for the cockpit. My references showed it to be interior black, but the cockpit opening is small enough that the kit’s fine detail gets somewhat lost in the “coal hole” effect. Dry-brushing and some lighter details help.
The sprue gates for all three canopy sections are on the bottom of each, rather than the sides, which makes removing them from the trees and cleaning them up a snap – with no marred canopies. Position and landing lights plus a gunsight are included as clear parts.
Six markings options are provided for four basic schemes, with variations for three aircraft from one Royal Air Force unit. I painted mine in probably the least complicated (but most interesting) scheme of overall white, from 616 Squadron, the pioneering Meteor unit. These aircraft were used during World War II in an unsuccessful attempt to lure Me 262s into climbing up to intercept them, where presumably other Meteors would await in strength. The white paint overspray was an identification measure to help protect them from friendly fire. This would’ve been the first jet-on-jet combat had it taken place, and I won’t speculate on the outcome of such a fray — but I do wonder how the pilots felt about being live bait.
The white finish got grungy fairly quickly, which gave me a chance to do some interesting weathering on the model with different shades of white. The Cartograf decals were terrific and settled right down; open areas, such as zeros, Rs, and such, are actually open, not covered by clear carrier film. This minimizes silvering. The carrier also conforms to the contours of letters and numbers, instead of being just a rectangle of clear over a string of numbers. Excellent!
Cyber-hobby’s Meteor went together well and showed ample evidence of modelers’ influence in its development, with many features our hobby fraternity likes. I spent about 20 hours building it, average for me with a kit of this size and complexity. A big well-done to Cyber-hobby on this one!