Smer 1/48 Piper L4-H

SMER 1:48 PIPER L4-H

Reviewer: Richard Stracey (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 30 November 2002 (#55)

Aircraft History:

The Piper J2 and J3 Cub was already a successful design with over 3000 sold before it was militarised as the L4 Grasshopper and a further 5500 made. They first saw action as an observation, courier and general hack in the North African landings after which they served on all fronts in WWII. Powered by a Continental 56hp flat four engine they had a wingspan of 10.76m and a length of 6.80m.

The Kit:

I don’t know the origins of this kit but obviously it was an “orphan” picked up by SMER as some logo or brand name has been ground off the inside surface of the fuselage die. The instructions are fine but I estimate that at least three kits would easily fit inside the box! The kit consists of forty four parts with reasonable detail. Possibly the fabric effect is a little overdone but I can live with it.

Construction Notes:

Everything goes together very well with no filler required.

The engine looks a bit odd but be assured all is well in the end. Part #15 that looks like a radiator is in fact the fuel tank that fits under the cowling in front of the dashboard. Part #31 is the exhaust pipe and is way over scale. I replaced it with one made from a couple of lengths of Contrail tube. Other than seat belts, I didn’t add anything to the cockpit. It may look a little bare to start with but what with struts and canopy frames surprising little can be seen inside in the end.

A strange little spinner #35 is supplied. I haven’t found any pictures showing this so replaced it with the normal flat disc. In many pictures one can see a large gap between the rudder and fin. The kit, having a one piece item looks too good a fit so I cut the rudder off and re mounted it off set with a suitable gap. The fuel cap, just in front of the windscreen, was only half formed so I made another out of Contrail rod into which I inserted a bit of wire. This was simply a hi tech fuel gauge attached to a cork floating in the petrol! If required (for a diorama?) the door should be able to be cut away and fitted in the open position.

Versions/Decals:

The Propagteam decals offer five options but the instructions give no clue as to their units etc. One has the white star on a blue disc (pre June 1943). One has the star and bar with a red outline (June to Aug. 1943) and one has the “normal” star and bar (Aug.1943 to Jan. 1947) with the option of D Day stripes. All these are Olive Drab over Neutral Grey. The other two are Czechoslovakian. One military in Aluminium dope and one civilian in Crème with Red trim. Quite generous! Being a sucker for stripes I chose the D Day machine belonging to the Fifth Corps Field Artillery. This would have been close to D Day as most pilots got rid of the stripes as soon as possible. SMER recommends Humbrol 66 Olive Drab 41 over Humbrol 64 Neutral Grey 43 with Medium Green 42 round the edges of the wings and tail surfaces. For this I used Humbrol 116 (FS 34079). The propeller was varnished wood with light green fabric outer sections. Unlike most Propagteam decals these proved simple to use but still up to their standard of quality.

Overall:

A good feature called “US Liaison Aircraft in Britain” featuring L4’s and L5’s can be found in Scale Aircraft Modelling of March “87. All in all, a simple kit of a simple aircraft suitable for any standard of modeller.

RHS/55

web hosting • domain names • video sharing
free online games • photo sharing
free blog • short URLs