AML 1/72 B5M1 Mabel

AML 1:72 MITSUBISHI B5M1 MABEL

Reviewer: Myself ( smakr webmaster )
Kit Review submitted: November 1999
Addendum supplied by Carlos Giani

Kit Details:

AML 1/72^nd scale Mitsubishi B5M1 Mabel (Kit N° 72002). Produced in the Czech Republic

Aircraft:

In 1935 specifications were released by the Imperial Japanese Navy for a modern carrier borne torpedo bomber, with a wingspan of 16 m or less with folding capacity, the ability to fly for at least four hours, have an 800kg bombload capacity and a speed of at least 332 km/h. The Mitsubishi type to be submitted as a proposal was a three seat, all metal, low-wing, single engine monoplane with fixed landing gear. While the Nakajima proposal, the B5N1 was superior there were enough problems (mainly with undercarriage) for the Japanese Navy to accept both proposals to be put into production under the "Type 97" designation. Once these problems were overcome the Mitsubishi B5M1 production ceased at 125 examples. Initially the nickname by the allies given to this aircraft was "Mabel" but this was later changed to "Kate 61". The Mabel saw limited service in Southeast Asia on land bases before later being relegated to training duties.

The Kit:

This is a limited injection run kit (LRK) from AML and shows all the traits of being one as well. You are provided with two sprues of 77 light grey injection molded parts with engraved panel lines in a plastic bag. In a separate plastic bag you are supplied the decal sheet and two one-piece vacuform canopies (in case you stuff one up!). The parts are quite nice for an LRK but all need just a slight clean for there is a minor amount of flash. However, one thing you notice straight away is that Ejector Pin marks are prolific (read shocking!) and as you will find out, will require a lot of work removing during the construction process, so invest in some cutting tools before attempting to build this kit. Kit number is 72 002.

Instructions:

This is produced in an A5 booklet of about a dozen pages featuring an inventory of the kit (sprues, decals etc), brief history and about a dozen assembly steps - adequate but vague. There is a four-view diagram showing the markings of the only version produced by the kit. Painting instructions is by letter code, with each letter defined by the Humbrol range in name and number. The initial couple of pages of the instruction manual is quite good, with half a dozen or so assembly steps that include cockpit, engine, weapons/stores, wings and undercarriage. But on the following pages where everything goes onto the aircraft itself the steps are a bit too busy for my liking, and thus vague for exact positioning. Mind you, I have known other LRK's (Limited Run Kits) to have the same vagueness as well as the whole construction process in literally one or two assembly steps!

Construction:

Against my better judgement, I decided to follow basically the same process as what the instructions laid out in front of me! The cockpit detail supplied by the kit is superb in plastic. You are provided with a base that has pedals and side consoles already molded onto it. You are also provided with a control stick, bomb aiming instrument for the middle crew member, seats for two crew members and a stool for the rear gunner, plus bulkheads separating the individual cockpits and instrument panel for the pilot. Since there are no alignment rails or markings for where the bulkheads go, you will need to dry test first (as well as against fuselage half) to ensure they are positioned correctly. The consoles all have raised detail already molded onto it (which are a bit crude), or you can sand them down and use the decals supplied instead (which is what I did). Interior Green was used for the cockpit with red brown seat cushions and other components as instructed. Also, I soon realised that with the Revell Contacta glue I was using, the plastic was very obliging indeed, feeling as if it wanted to grip the moment parts were affixed.

Next was the engine. I followed the instructions to attempt a moveable propellor but failed. Later (the last step in my whole construction process) I simply fixed it with super glue. The engine has two blocks on a backing plate, of course only the front engine block is visible through the nose but is well detailed nonetheless. You are then asked to assemble the small bombs, 800kg bomb and torpedo, which are the stores options for this kit. As I hadn't yet decided on the final configuration of my example I assembled all these stores options. The pylons for the bombs needed sanding to smooth them out and the grooves for the bomb racks needed a going over with a triangular file. The small bombs needed cleaning up and careful attention was placed on affixing the bombs to the racks so that they would line up. The 800kg bomb also required cleaning/sanding and also needed to be trimmed to allow the separate fin to fit. The torpedo suffered from some ugly internal Ejector Pin marks (hereunder referred to as EP marks), so bad that part of it had molded onto the edges of either torpedo half. These needed careful removal and plenty of filing/sanding before affixing the halves together and encasing the fixed rear propellor. I also needed to use some filler to plug up the gaps on the torpedo and further sanding.

The undercarriage is the subject of the next step and the instructions would have you believe that the wheels can be moveable - good luck! The wheel spats are split into halves with the main half having a pin for the purpose of putting through the wheel to hold it in place so it can be moveable once the halves are put together. Unfortunately the hole in the wheel is much too small for the axle to fit and any coaxing will snap it off. You will need to enlarge the hole or do as I elected to do, which was to remove the axle and simply fix the wheel inside the spat. Since the wheel spat halves do not align correctly you will also need to fill and sand. See next paragraph for wheel spat to wing attachment.

The main wing is made up of two upper halves and one-piece underwing. Thick ejector pin marks need to be removed from the inside of all these pieces first. Dry testing the top halves being fixed on the fuselage first (held together and testing the underwing piece) revealed that the upper and lower pieces were unlikely to align correctly. I therefore decided to attach the upper pieces to the underwing piece and used pegs to clamp while drying. I also elected to attach the small flaps hinges and wheel spats at this point. The hinges are very small crescent shaped parts and were fiddly to attend to. The locating pin for the affixing of the wheels to the underwing was too large, both in length and width. I truncated a millimetre or two off the end and then trimmed it, almost to the point where the wheel spats were butt-joined to the underwing. These will fit quite well if Dry fit testing is utilised and the attachment points on the underwing are also sanded smooth.

The fuselage halves also have some shocking thick EP marks that need removal before proceeding to affix the cockpit unit. To remove these (and all the thick EP marks) I used blunt nose sprue cutters to cut away as much of it as possible, then removed as much of the remainder away with a hobby knife before filing/sanding to smooth them out completely or to an acceptable finish. I superglued the cockpit unit inside the fuselage half, ensuring it was straight. On dry fit testing the other fuselage half I found that it would not affix unless the cockpit floor received some trimming on the front corners. The engine assembly is also encased between the fuselage halves, while this fits okay, it needs a bit of coaxing and I allowed it to dry first. Then the fuselage halves went together, they don't align 100% but with the aid of rubber bands as clamps went together fine. Filling gaps and sanding the joint lines was then required. At this point (as touched on above) the moveable propellor came off, so I left it off until the final phase and simply fixed it into position. The blades were painted Natural Wood with thin double yellow stripes per matching reference photos, although the decal sheet has a single double red strip decal that you can cut and place over the propellors, best check your reference shots.

The wing assembly needed sanding to smooth out the leading and trailing edges as they were both clunky and not clean. The underwing would not fit in the area allocated for it in the aircraft's belly, and also resulted in a step at the rear. This rear mating section was therefore sanded and trimmed (as well as the front) plus the adjoining areas on the wing itself were sanded further. After this preparation process the wing did fit quite well with filling and sanding called upon to make the job complete. The tailplanes were then attached to the aircraft, the locating pins were far too large for their respective holes so they were removed and the tailplanes butt-joined.

Next to receive attention was the upper fuselage cockpit area. In spite of having a closed rear cockpit I still mounted the gun and it is possible for it to be seen - although the vague instructions would have you mount it upside down! The 'n' shaped frame immediately behind the pilot's cockpit with the supporting frame was fiddly to attach - and you need to bear in mind that the vacform canopy has to be placed over this, so it needs an ever so slight slant backward (or a tiny snip off the end of each 'leg') to achieve a flush canopy fit - obviously dry test first. This area was then painted before I fixed on the canopy. The vacform canopy was carefully cut to size, with an extra one in the kit in case you make an error, and then hobby glued (with needle for precision placement) to the fuselage. Since there were two canopies, I got the first try absolutely spot on - if we were only supplied with one, I would surely have mucked it up!! This went on really well, although I needed to use pressure on the canopy for a flush fit until it dried enough to grip. Of course if you wish to have an open rear gunner or pilot cockpit then you will need to cut the frames accordingly, and need to also bear in mind placement of the rear gun if you wish to have a closed rear canopy.

Underwing stores was the final construction phase and I chose to simply affix a torpedo to my model. The other option includes small bombs on pylons, which need to be sanded for a flush fit against the wing, and a 800kg bomb which is placed on a couple of bomb racks and affixed to slightly starboard centreline alignment holes. The torpedo also went into these holes and fitted quite well, one of the few times extra tasks such as trimming or sanding, was not required! The arrestor hook arches on the fuselage, and needed sanding. The hook itself needed a triangular file to make it more prominent. The tailwheel had a too small locating pin for the hole so careful positioning and a touch of putty for filling worked well.

Finishing, Markings & Decals:

After the construction the model had a going over again, plugging up gaps with filler and then sanding to smooth the exterior. Light aircraft grey was then applied to the undersides and the model upper surfaces was finished in Dark Green as directed by the instructions. The only version the kit provides for is a B5M1 Mabel, 33.Kokutai, operating in Southern China and Hainan, 1942. The decals are produced by Propagteam and are excellent in colour register, however, the smaller pair of the six roundels (which are applied to the fuselage) have the red circle slightly off-centre when compared the bordering white. You are also given only the six roundels and serial number for the only version provided for by the kit as well as a double stripe for use on the propellors. The decals need careful placement, being very thin, they will curl or disintegrate if you give them half a chance. But otherwise they go on very nicely and disappear into the paintwork as they should.

Conclusion:

Most modellers tend to like a model that goes together well, with decent fit and straightforward assembly. This AML kit does not fall into this category at all. I must say though, every now and then, I crave for a good quality Limited Run kit that provides a challenge and a little bit of extra effort to get a decent outcome without needing major surgery.

This AML kit requires extra work and attention to get a decent model but still relatively straight forward for the more experienced modeller to get a good result. For this reason I thoroughly enjoyed building this kit with the only annoyance being having to remove so many thick and frustrating Ejector Pin marks. Other than that this kit was quite straightforward to build. Novices and perhaps even intermediate modellers should avoid this kit unless they want to develop their skills further or perhaps be subjected to some frustrating kit bashing.

Overall the kit models to be an accurate replication of the Mabel, perhaps not up to the standard of Hasegawa's version, but definitely captures the shapes correctly with perhaps only a minor flaw in the outline of the main wing - although it must be stressed that my reference material is a little vague on this aircraft and photos are all I have to rely upon. Recommended for the more experienced intermediate modeller and up.

Addendum supplied by Carlos Giani, 2009:

Addendum: I totally agree with Mark’s review to this kit, so that I only will add a few lines to it. I really had to put extra elbow grease into this project, and there were some very difficult fits to tackle, mainly regarding the wings. These were extremely thick and malformed at the trailing edges, and it was very difficult to recognize where the part’s plastic ended and the exceeding styrene (flash) began. Also most of the panel lines had to be rescribed, even those found in areas not affected by sanding. At first glimpse it seems that I had more troubles than Mark with his kit.

This is correct, and I presume the explanation is as follows: this kit comes from the early days of short run, and I presume that at that time the molds really tended to get worn out very fast. All the parts in my kit show some superficial roughness, a fact that reinforces my opinion. That means, the quality varies strongly from one exemple to another, depending on the batch it comes from. On the positive side, the fit of the vacuum-formed canopy was very good, and the (thin) decals performed superb, with even the white of the roundels being very dense (the silvering of the code number was my fault).

I´m very pleased with the result but, would I recommend this kit? To the beginner definitely no. You, the expert, are accustomed to these kind of projects, and if you like exotic birds, then these one is for you. Further I would recommend this kit to the intermediate skilled modeler who is trying to jump to the upper league: tackle this one, and then you will be prepared for all the short run stuff out there.

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