Manufacturer: Battle Axe (France), available from Squadron Mail Order, 1115 Crowley Drive, Carrollton, TX 75011-5010, 972-242-8663.
Scale: 1/48
Price: $64.98
Comments: Injection molded, 87 parts, decals.
Pros: Generally accurate shapes, markings for three aircraft.
Cons: Poor fit, poor exterior details, canopy too wide and deep, tops of nacelles much wider than bottoms, poor instructions, translucent decals.

The classic Beech 18 “Bugsmasher” has not been featured in kit form in popular 1/48 scale until now. A little research revealed that this design holds a record: more than 9,000 examples of Beech 18s were built in the longest production run of any aircraft! The first flew in 1936, and the last (a Super 18H) rolled out of the Kansas City assembly plant on Nov. 26, 1969.

Marketed in a clear plastic bag, this is one of the few kits today that enables the modeler to see what he’s buying before plunking down the money. The two gray plastic trees of unnumbered parts are accompanied by a one-sheet set of assembly drawings and three color profiles. There are no photographs or box art – no box at all! There are no written instructions or an assembly sequence, but a complete parts color suggestion list is given.

The decal sheet has markings for USAAF, U.S. Navy, and French Navy versions. Two vacuum-formed canopies with vague frame lines are provided along with six thick, die-cut plastic cabin windows, and four vacuum-formed porthole windows.

Surface detail is engraved, but the panel lines are too shallow, and sometimes disappear in mid-length. The finish is rough and should be sanded smooth no matter which paint scheme you choose.

The pair of nine-cylinder engines have no pushrod tubes, but the fire walls are detailed. My sample had partially molded cabin and crew seats – apparently, not enough plastic was injected into the mold. This also left sink holes in the twin fins. The cabin includes separate seat cushions, control wheels and columns, rudder pedals, and an instrument panel with raised dials.

The landing gear wells are detailed, but the tail-wheel assembly doesn’t look like the real one I photographed at the 1999 EAA Airventure fly-in at Oshkosh. Four unidentified parts, when assembled, form two large wedge-shaped items – and I have no idea what they are or where they go.

If you choose to build this kit, study the assembly drawings carefully and dry fit parts before gluing anything. Some parts are difficult to identify because of soft detail and the vague assembly drawings. Despite that, the wing and fuselage parts fit is OK, and panel lines meet from one side to the other.

There are real problems with the nacelles, though. The upper halves of the nacelles are significantly wider than the lower halves, and you must correct this before adding the cowls. I ended up shaving a lot of plastic from each side of the upper nacelles to get even an acceptable fit. Before you close the wing halves, you must install the landing gear bay sides and main struts; they won’t fit in after the wings are assembled. Trust me.
The vacuum-formed canopy was too wide and too deep for the fuselage. To make the cockpit area wide enough, place styrene strips between the fuselage halves beginning about the middle of the cabin and continuing forward to the nose. It is difficult to compensate for the depth of the canopy. I removed a little of the bottom edge of the side windows to get rid of the ridge at the back of the canopy, but then the front of the canopy didn’t fit properly on the nose. Mounting the instrument panel on the raised pedestal on the cockpit floor helps.

After fine sanding and polishing all of the exterior surfaces, I masked the canopy and windows with frisket paper. I had to rescribe most panel lines because they disappeared in the sanding process or weren’t there to begin with. I painted the USAAF machine with Testor aluminum. The decals were thin, resistant to tearing, and responded to a little Solvaset while still wet. However, the decals are translucent and show the red fuselage stripes through the insignias.

More than 30 hours were required to finish this model; fitting the canopy (unsuccessfully), fixing the nacelles, installing the landing gear after the wings were glued together (oops), and rescribing took a lot of time.

I can recommend this kit only to experienced builders who are up to the challenge of dealing with major fit problems and to those who just must have a Beech 18 in this scale.