Special Hobby 1/72 Hunting Percival P.66 Pembroke C Mk.54

SPECIAL HOBBY 1:72 HUNTING PERCIVAL P.66 PEMBROKE C MK.54
'INBOX Review'

Reviewer: Carlos Giani (carlos_giani2002@yahoo.de)

Kit: Special Hobby 1/72^nd scale Hunting Percival Pembroke C.Mk.54 (Kit N° 72078). Produced in Czech Republic

Aircraft: Manufactured by Hunting Percival Aircraft Ltd at their plant at Luton, Bedfordshire, the Pembroke was designed as a communications aircraft to replace the venerable Avro Anson, entering service with the RAF in late 1953. Powered by two Alvis Leonides 127 radial engines, the Pembroke was developed from the Hunting Percival Prince, a civilian feeder-liner and executive transport aircraft and its Royal Navy version, the Sea Prince. It had a larger wingspan than the Prince and standard RAF rear-facing seats, a safety feature in many RAF transport aircraft to increase survivability in case of crash-landings.

The prototype first flew on 21 November 1952 and the first production aircraft was demonstrated at the Farnborough Air Show of 1953. When the final aircraft was delivered to the RAF in 1958, a total of 45 Pembrokes were in service. As well as being used for communications duties and VIP transport, the Pembroke could also be configured as a „flying classroom“ for navigation and air signal training. In 1956, six Pembrokes were converted to take air survey cameras and were known as the C (PR) Mk I, serving in Malaysia with the RAF 81th Squadron. The Pembrokes remained in service till the late 80´s; other users than the RAF were Sweden, Belgium and Germany. One unit is still flying for private duties at Duxford, UK.

Parts: In a typical Special Hobby sturdy end-opening box with beautiful cover art you get a plastic bag containing four sprues in ocean grey and one sprue with transparencies; a small additional bag contains a few resin parts. The decal sheet is bagged separately and the instructions are floating lose. Total parts are 157, having good surface quality, well defined engraved panel lines and high detail level; 7 parts are not used in this kit. Except for some ejector pin marks/extrusions, there is less to clean, just some mold seams; there's no flash visible. There are no locating pins at all.

The fuselage is split vertically, and you are provided with a whole interior arrangement, the specific kind will depend on what version you will build (German transport or Belgian telecommunications platform); unfortunately you won't see much of your work through the small windows. For the cockpit you get a floor, bulkhead, seats, pedals, instrument panel and controls; again, the small canopy windows won't show much of it. The fuselage's nose to be used depends on the version you choose to build.

Each wing consist of four parts (separate wing tips), and you can choose between a painted navigation light or making a small cut-out and use the clear parts included. The engine nacelles accommodate a non-detailed well's floor and have the main doors molded in (the Pembroke´s wells doors were closed after the landing gear was lowered); the radial engine is trapped between two cowling halves, the exhaust and air intakes varying depending on the version to be built. Pleasingly, the wings and horizontal stabilizers are not butt-joined to the fuselage, which is rather unusual for short run. Finally, some antennae round up the model. It is recommended to put some weight in the nose, to avoid tail-seating.

Instructions: A 12-pages A5 booklet, in usual Special Hobby / Azur / MPM standard. Page one brings some history and data in Czech and English, pages two and three shows the sprues layout with unused parts clearly identified. Pages four to nine shows the construction in 12 steps, being clear enough for the modeller with some experience; the choice of the version-depending parts is easy to follow. Pages ten and eleven shows the coloring /decaling instructions in 4-view diagrams, the paint codes given for Gunze; detail painting has only generic names given. Finally, page twelve brings some publicity for Special Hobby and begs us to visit www.mpm.cz.

Versions: Two versions can be built: German C/n 1018, 54+26, 4/Fml/Vsu Regiment 61, Lechfeld, Ulrich Kaserne 1968-1975; Belgian RM 4, OT-ZAD, Belgian Air Force

Decals: Printed by Aviprint, they look good and rich in color, also having beautiful stencilling. They ´re not too thick, and carrier film looks very transparent.

Detail: Very good detail level, as usual with Special Hobby.

Options: The options depend on the version built. The propellers cannot rotate; with a minimal scratch-build a wheels-up subject can be represented.

Impressions: Looks very satisfying, and I presume that there will be no major problems building this kit. A few dry-fits seemed to confirm this supposition. I would congratulate Special Hobby for their subject choice, specially for having been the only company to provide us at last with good substitutes for some of the old Frog „exclusive ones“ (Beaufort, Baltimore, Vengeance, Hornet, Sea Fury, Fiat G.55[*]).

Recommendations: Recommended for every modeller with some experience, and maybe a good „first short-run attempt“, since it has only 7 resin parts, no etched ones and injected canopy. An important addition to any post-war collection.

FOOTNOTE: [*] Supermodel produced a Fiat G.55 and a Fiat G.55S, together with the Regiannes 2000, 2001 and 2002. Although having been high quality for its days, this kits are no more „state of art“, despite being very, very hard to find. Special Hobby also produces a Re 2000 and its Hungarian derivate, the Mavag Heja.

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