DUJIN 1:72 SLINGSBY T67M FIREFLY
'INBOX Review'

 


Photo credit - taken from the Slingsby site (no boxart available, as it is a bagged kit)

Reviewer: Johan De Wolf  (rec.models.scale)   

Kit Detail

History

The Firefly is basically a development of the French Fournier RF6B. The Fournier was of mixed metal and wood construction. Slingsby redesigned the aircraft and it is now made of composites. This has has made the construction lighter, stronger, more durable, and thus less costly to maintain. Where as the RF6B was a tourer and sporting aircraft, the T67M is aimed more at the professional training market. It is available in several versions differing mainly in engine fit. The aircraft is ideal for pilot screening and short basic introduction courses. The Firefly is fully acrobatic and the airframe can withstand up to +6G and –3G forces. Over 250 aircraft have been sold so far. The single biggest customer was the US air force which bought 113 machines designated T-3. Through civil operators and lease contracts the Canadian, British and Dutch armed forces also operate the Firefly. Other users are the Belize Defence Force, the Hong Kong and Turkish governments and the KLM.

The Kit

This is a typical Dujin kit. It comes in a compartmented bag. The only documentation you get with it is a, pretty much useless, photo copy of a photograph. The bigger parts are separate with only the one piece wing having a thick pour gate that needs to be removed. The smaller parts are contained in two wafers of which one is quite thick. There are a few bubbles in the parts but nothing serious. You get 3 different cowlings, two sets of seats, and the choice of two propellers. While this is very nice, it would have been very helpful to have some drawings that show which part belongs to which version. After looking at pictures on the web, I came to the conclusion that it should be possible to make all four major versions of the Firefly out of this kit. These are: theT67M260/T-3A(USAF, Belize, UK), the T67C (Canada), the T67M200 (Dutch, Turkey) and the T67M Mk2 (UK). The canopy was a bit matt but a good rub on my jeans soon cleared it up. There are no decals with this kit.

Accuracy

The dimensions of this kit are spot on. As this is an aircraft made of composites there are few panel lines. The ones that are there are finely engraved. The rear end of the carburettor intake should be a bit deeper, something that is easy to correct. In all this kit represents the purposeful no-nonsense lines of the real Firefly well.

Construction

As there are only 16 pieces needed to complete this kit, construction out of the box couldn’t be simpler. First the smaller parts need to be carefully removed from the wafers and cleaned up. The fuselage halves also need to be rubbed down a bit to get a good mating surface and a thinner fin. You will need to track down some pictures of the aircraft you want to build, so you can determine which parts you’ll be needing. Construction starts with joining the fuselage halves. Trim down the cockpit sidewalls a bit as they are rather chunky. Then add the rear bulkhead and the instrument panel. Now the wing, that doubles as cockpit floor, can be glued under the fuselage. A bit of filler will be needed to smooth the join, nothing excessive though. As for the question of which seats belong to which version, your guess will be as good as mine. Anything else you might want to add to the cockpit, like seatbelts and control columns etc, will have to come from the spares box. Any extra effort you put into this area will be visible through the large canopy. The tailplane simply slides into a slot between the fuselage and the fin. Again filler will be needed to smooth things over. Before adding the nose/cowling you will need to drill this part out and stuff it with lead. Without doing this you’ll end up with a very determined tail sitter. Don’t forget to add the two exhaust piped under the cowling. There are locating holes for them, but they are not present in the kit. Next the landing gear and prop can be fitted, and finally the canopy. Depending on which version you built a whip and a blade antenna may have to be added too.

 Colour schemes and decals

As mentioned before, this kit comes without decals. If you want to build a T-3A you could probably pinch some decals from a T-38 sheet. For the civil registered Dutch, British and Canadian examples you’ll have to raid the spares box. As far as I know there are no Belize roundels available as decals, so hand painting might be your only option if you want to build this colourful aircraft. 

Judging from the pictures I found, I would say the Firefly cockpit is black all over, except for the floor which seems to be a dark brownish grey colour. USAF machines are painted all over white. UK trainers are yellow all over. Canadian machines are white with a red spinner and a red and black cheat line over the fuselage sides. The Belize machine (BDF 04) is the most colourful of the lot. It is painted in a very light grey with bright orange cowling, wingtips and rudder. It caries the BDF roundel on the fin, on the right wing and below the left wing. I haven’t been able to find pictures of the aircraft of other users.

Conclusion

This is a simple and relatively easy kit. The problem is the lack of decent documentation. It could be a good introduction to resin kits, but you will need to do a fair bit of research. For such a small kit the price tag is rather high. Nevertheless if you are looking for something out of the ordinary this kit is surely that. Even built as a USAF T-3A it will leave quite a few people scratching their head.

Reference

 

 

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