Airifix 1/72 Avro Anson I

AIRFIX 1:72 AVRO ANSON I

Reviewer: Tim Beales (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 20 January 2003

Kit Details:

Airfix 1:72 Avro Anson 1 - skill level 2

Aircraft History:

The Avro 652 Anson was designed in 1933 as a civilian aircraft, but was militarised by the addition of a forward-firing gun in the lower port nose and an Armstrong Whitworth dorsal turret armed with a single Lewis gun. Although the Anson entered service a couple of years or so before WW2, it served in the RAF's Coastal Command during the entire conflict on reconnaissance, rescue, and anti-submarine duties. Ansons were also extensively used in a variety of aircrew training roles and for communication and liaison, both during, and after WW2. Many versions of the Anson were built in the UK and in Canada (21 marks). Canada in particular took the Anson to heart. The last Ansons were retired from the RAF in 1968, making it the longest serving aircraft on active duty in the RAF's history.

The Kit:

This is a very old kit, and has been around since 1962. The perennial favourite Anson appears never to have been out of print, and must have sold many, many thousands since its inception. This kit is the latest reissue of the venerable Anson from Airfix.


The first issue, series 2 but in a bag with a paper header.	The "type 3" box

The current artwork dates from the 70s. There were 3 slightly different Type 4 boxes!	The 1980s release, still had the original decals

American release (All boxart in this section supplied by David Byrden)

The kit has 49 parts that are moulded in the stock Airfix light grey, pliable polystyrene. The overall quality is adequate, with minor flash and injection pin marks on items such as the inner parts of the wings. Many parts needed cleaning with a No. 11 scalpel blade, as there was a mould line running down the centre of most of the smaller parts, for example, around the pilots. The Anson was extensively glazed, and the Airfix clear parts that compose over 50% of the area of the front fuselage are made from thick plastic. As I have made this kit many times before, on this occasion I decided to replace the kit's clear parts with a Falcon Clear-Vax Canopy from the Falcon Set No. 8 "RAF Bombers WWII (Part 1)".

Instructions:

The instruction sheet is typical Airfix, being composed of seven sheets of A4-sized instructions. Although at first glance this looks meaty, the first two sides comprise of a short history and aircraft specifications followed by general modelling instructions and warnings in the various languages of Euroland. The nine construction stages form the next two sheets, with the rear showing painting guides for three Ansons with colours given in Humbrol numbers.

Construction of the kit:

Construction begins by assembling the pilot cockpit area. The pilot is located on a basic seat that cements onto a cockpit floor, and the control column and the instrument panel are glued into the cockpit floor in front of the pilot. A decal is supplied for the dials of the control panel. The next stage is to construct the (empty) gun turret, which is composed of a base unit, a glazed top, and a rudimentary Lewis gun with mount.

The third stage is to glue the pilot assembly and gun turret to the starboard fuselage. Two other crewmembers are then glued to the port fuselage, with the pilots sitting on crude individual seating units. The inside of the aircraft has some minor detail representing tables etc. If one is using the Airfix glazing, then this is also added at this stage, and is composed of a thick, clear plastic strip for each fuselage half.

The two fuselages are then cemented together. The fit appeared to be OK. Some Humbrol filler was required to smooth out the top and the bottom joints though. In addition, there was some warping around the glazing area, which meant that the tops of the two fuselage halves were difficult to join. This did not bother me, as I cut this section away. However, it may present minor problems for the modeller who is using the Airfix glazing.

I must admit that I used the Falcon canopy with some trepidation, because I am always reluctant to cut into perfectly good plastic. To fit the Falcon canopy, one has to cut into the Airfix fuselage a few millimetres ahead of cockpit and at the rear glazed window section, and then remove the entire top of the fuselage. This exposes a huge gaping hole in the model. Sweaty stuff! I was nervous, knowing that once I began cutting into the precious plastic, then I had reached the point of no return. At this stage, you're committed to getting it to work, or you're going to have to write the model off! The Falcon Clear-Vax Canopy is a single piece unit that requires the modeller to cut it away from a backing sheet using a pair of sharp scissors. I took my time, and got a very good result. For people not familiar with Falcon, there are many canopies for different aircraft per set. Set No. 8 has (among others) canopies for the Whitley, Blenheims I and IV, Fairey Battle, and Wellington, as well as the Anson.

After spending some time manipulating, dry fitting, and adjusting the cut canopy and its location on the fuselage, I was finally happy with the alignment, and I fixed the canopy to the model with Humbrol Clearfix. I obtained a seamless join after using Humbrol filler on the canopy/plastic interface followed by gentle sanding once the filler was dry: I had to do this a couple of times for the front Clear-Vax join. With the unpainted Clear-Vax canopy in place the Anson had a very close resemblance to a large Airspeed Oxford!

The next stage of construction was the simple Anson undercarriage, which I have read was manually operated. The undercarriage is a four piece unit with a wheel, two long wheel supports, and a single two-leg axle piece that is connected by an upper bar. The Airfix Cheetah engine units are single moulded pieces, in which the propeller shaft passes through the single-piece engine, and is locked in place by a plastic collar. There were annoying mould lines running all around the engine units on my model, which took some time to remove, In addition, the cylinder housing blisters of the Cheetah engines were not aligned across the mould, and took some time to deal with. There are of course, two engines and two undercarriage units for the Anson.

The wings are simple two-piece upper and lower units with a single aileron clamped in place supported by two plastic nipples at either end. The wings went together without much problem, with only the wing leading and trailing edges needing a light sanding. However, the ailerons of both the starboard and the port wings were a little warped. The undercarriage assembly passes through a slot in the wing lower engine nacelle, and locates into four recessed anchor points set into the inside of the lower wing engine nacelle. The two Cheetah engine assemblies locate directly onto the wing engine fairings. Once assembled, I fitted the two main wings and the two single-unit tail planes to the fuselage. I needed some Humbrol filler in the joins, and the port wing gap was really quite wide and so needed an extra bit if stretched sprue to help fill the gap.

If one is using the Airfix clear parts, then at this stage, you would fit the front glazing and two top fuselage windows. I finished my model off by drilling two holes in the indented locations in the top of the Clear-Vax Canopy to accept the DF loop and aerial, fixed the tail wheel to the rear of the lower fuselage, and fitted the front lower glazing panel, engine exhausts, and the pitot tube on the lower front fuselage.

Colour Schemes:

Despite what the cover of the box says, there are in fact, three decal options provided: (i) No. 321 Squadron, RAF, St Eval (1940) being the usual Dark Earth/Green over Sky Type S (H29, 30, 90); (ii) No. 71 Squadron RAAF, Queensland (1943), camouflaged as Light/ Dark Grey upper, Matt White sides, and Satin White underneath (H31, 79, 34, 130); and (iii) No. 31 Air Navigation School, RCAF, Ontario (1941), painted all over Gloss Yellow (H69).

Decals:

The decals are unfortunately, typical bottom end of the market Airfix. They are thin, out of register, and silver badly. They would be unusable for a more serious modeller, and would have to be replaced by an aftermarket source.

Accuracy:

A reference guide I have gives the dimensions of the Anson as: span = 17.2 m, and length = 12.88 m. In 1/72, these scale as 23.88 cm and 17.88 cm, respectively. My model measures 24 cm in span and 17.9 cm in length.

Overall:

A nice kit and the reason for its longevity is clear: it's an attractive airplane to have in your collection! I have made this kit before, and I will no doubt make it again. The falcon canopy makes a HUGE difference, with the cockpit interior now looking cavernous and empty! I believe that there is an aftermarket set that provides internal detail for the Airfix kit to address this. If this kit was upgraded to today's standards and quality, (for example, the nose area has far more detail than is shown in the Airfix kit), then I have no doubt that it would sell by the truck load. Given their recent offerings in upgrading the early Frog/Airfix best sellers, it wouldn't surprise me if Pavla or MPM have an Anson upgrade in their sights.

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