Kit: No. 72058
Scale: 1/72
Manufacturer: Special Hobby, available from Squadron Mail Order, 1115 Crowley Drive, Carrollton, TX 75011-5010, 979-242-8663, www.squadron.com
Price: $24
Comments: Injection-molded, 56 parts (3 photoetched metal), decals
Pros: Fine recessed panel lines, good clear parts, good decals
Cons: Fit problems, landing gear retraction struts are poor, machine gun barrels not included

America’s first jet aircraft has not been well-served in 1/72 scale, with only obscure plastic, resin, and vacuum-formed examples dotting the modelscape. Special Hobby’s new kit rights that wrong. The first issue is the “production” version with the squared-off wings and tail – the prototype’s flying surfaces were rounded off.

Typical of injection-molded kits from this manufacturer, the Airacomet comes with an adequate cockpit interior and a pair of one-piece canopies on the same sprue (the earlier rounded windscreen example is not used on this issue). If you like to have your canopies open, you’ll have to do some careful cutting.

The fit of the cockpit within the fuselage is good, but some of the other kit components didn’t fit so well. Filling was necessary at the wing/fuselage joints. The complex intake trunkings at the leading edges of the wing roots are made up of shock cones molded to the fuselage halves, and scoops molded separately. They didn’t fit well, and I had to test-fit, file, fill, and sand. Seams around the bottom fuselage pan also had to be filled.

I had the most trouble with the landing gear. Perhaps I didn’t install the nose-wheel well properly, but the hole for the nose gear ended up too far forward, causing the strut to slant backwards. I shaved off the strut pin and glued the strut a few millimeters farther back in the well to correct it. The mounting holes for the main struts also were misaligned with the gear-well openings, and I had to re-establish the mounts. The retraction struts for the main and nose gears did not fit at all as the diagrams show in the instructions, so I just glued them where they landed naturally. The main struts are a bit too long.

Special Hobby provides one small plastic part for the cannon muzzle, then gives dimensions for the machine gun barrels that you have to make yourself. I substituted stainless-steel tubing for all.

I painted my model with Alclad II lacquers over black Krylon primer. The decals worked fine. In addition to the “Smokey Stover” markings that I chose, there is an overall orange “Reluctant Robot” scheme that will turn heads.

I spent about 30 hours on my Airacomet. Fit problems, the necessity of adapting the landing gear parts, and making the gun barrels increased my time. Special Hobby provides the correct pot-bellied look of America’s first jet, and after some work, you can add this to your collection, too!

– Paul Boyer