Kit: No. 11626
Scale: 1/48
Manufacturer: Minicraft Models Inc., P.O. Box 3577, Torrance, CA 90510, phone 310-325-8383.
Price: $25
Comments: Injection molded, 77 parts, decals. Pros: Fine recessed panel lines, good detail, optional parts, two-piece canopy, gun bay in nose, excellent decals, unusual subject. Cons: Lack of positive fit of gear doors, paint scheme may be difficult for beginners.
Grumman built only one XF5F-1 Skyrocket for the U.S. Navy; the concept of a twin-engined carrier aircraft was radical for its time. Flying between April 1940 and December 1944, it logged more than 150 flight hours before succumbing to a landing-gear failure. Much of what Grumman learned from the Skyrocket went into the design of the highly successful F7F Tigercat.
Minicraft's Skyrocket is the first kit in 1/48th scale kit of this plane. It's molded in flash-free light gray styrene with a clear canopy. I found a couple of shallow sink marks on the left half of the fuselage, but the rest of the model shows excellent recessed surface detail. Options provide alternate fins, wing-root fillets, and a detailed weapons bay, which can be displayed open. The two-piece canopy allows open or closed positions. A detailed instrument panel, rudder pedals, seat, control stick, and side wall consoles provide a fine interior.
Before I started construction, I considered the final paint scheme. You can get around complicated masking by building the kit in subassemblies, then painting and putting them all together.
Though I wasn't planning on displaying the gun bay open, I did decide to install the four gun assemblies. When I test fit the nose cap over the guns I found it would not slide far enough back to mate to the fuselage. I quickly removed the guns before the glue had set, cut off the barrels, and glued them inside the gun ports in the nose cap. The nose cap also required some filing and sanding at the bottom to achieve a good fit to the wing. The rest of the fuselage and wing parts fit almost perfectly.
The engine nacelles and landing gear assemblies were a bit tricky to align. I built the engine modules separate from the wing and prepainted them. This approach proved challenging. Everything fit fine, but applying glue without marring the finish took time and a steady hand.
There are no tabs or pins on the gear covers (part No. 30 and 31), so attaching them was puzzling. My reference showed a horizontal strut connecting the doors to the gear, but none is given in the kit.
I painted my Skyrocket with Gunze Sangyo acrylics and Testor enamels. The decals are beautifully printed and include all markings for the single Navy bird. They were easy to apply and reacted well with decal solution.
I had to dig a bit for reference material. I found William Green's War Planes of the Second World War - Fighters Volume Four useful, but you'll be better off if you can find Steve Ginter's Grumman XF5F-A & XP-50 Skyrocket. The kit appears right on in span but a few scale inches short in length.
While the Skyrocket never saw combat with the Navy, it was the mount of the fictional Blackhawks comic book characters. You'll enjoy the markings options for Blackhawks' Skyrockets on FSM author Dan Thompson's web page:http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Labyrinth/1693/index.html.
The Minicraft Skyrocket required 18 hours to complete, and an impressive "X plane" is the result. It's easy to build but that pretty pre-war yellow and silver finish will be a challenge.
- Jim Zeske