Czech Master Resin 1/72
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Introduction
CMR currently produce 29 1/72 scale glider kits ranging from the very clunky early birds through the German beauties of the Golden Age to the super efficient sailplanes of today. The three presently on my desk are:
CMR-29: Laister-Kauffmann TG-4
CMR-30: Pratt-Read LNE-1
CMR–G3: Let Blanik L-13AC (USAF TG-10C Kestrel)
Laister-Kauffmann TG-4:
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194 TG-4 gliders, based on L-K’s pre war civil “Yankee Doodle” design, were built for the US Army Air Corps starting in 1941 for use in the training of pilots for the large number of assault gliders the Army expected to use in WWII. The performance was high for a glider but only fair for a sailplane. The layout was the standard two-place tandem generally used at that time for training. The fuselage was built up around a welded tubular steel truss with wood formers and stringers to round out the shape. The wing was of traditional wood construction and the tail was made of welded small-diameter steel tubing. The whole airframe was fabric covered. Post WWII they could be bought as War Surplus for $500 and less. Many were bought by schools and private flyers. When I was flying gliders in the early fifties a “Flat-Topped L-K” was the hot ticket. The superstructure above the truss was removed and the plane converted to a single seater with a teardrop canopy. I believe Dr. Milton Raspet of Mississippi State University was the father of the “Flat Top”.
Pratt-Read LNE-1:
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This plane is unusual in several respects. First it is the only glider designed to meet a US Navy requirement. Second it features side-by-side seating. And third it is of an unusual form of mixed construction. The fuselage from the trailing edge of the wing forward is of welded steel tubing to which is attached a long narrow cone of plywood serving as the tail boom. The wings are of typical wooden construction. The Navy ordered 100 thinking the Marine Corps would be involved in many airborne assaults on islands in the Pacific. The Navy changed its mind. 76, of the 100 ordered, were actually built and delivered to the Navy. Three were retained for test purposes and 73 were transferred to the Army, which redesignated them TG-32. Many were never uncrated and were put up for sale as War Surplus during the war.
The LNE-1 still holds one outstanding distinction; in 1952 an LNE-1 was flown, as part of the Sierra Wave Project, by Larry Edgar and H. Klieforth, to a world altitude record for multi-place gliders at 44,255 feet. This mark still stands.
Our Seattle Museum of Flight has an LNE-1 being restored in its Everett shops.
LET L-13AC Blanik (USAF TG-10C Kestrel):
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LET Aircraft Industries of the Czech Republic currently build a pair of light twin turbo-props, two models of Blanik Sailplanes and the Solo sailplane. The L-13AC is an advanced version of the two-place tandem L-13and is stressed for full aerobatics. The United States Air Force Academy has over 20 LET sailplanes in its inventory. I believe they are used for ab initio training of cadets. This is a thoroughly modern, all metal airplane.
The Kits
These are relatively simple kits that can probably be built out-of-the-box, painted and decaled over a longish weekend. The confirmed AMSers can open the canopies, and add myriad small details but they’ll look good out-of-the-box. The only change I’d make is to separate the elevators from the stabilizers so that they can hang down against their stops. The Blanik and the Pratt-Read have one-piece fuselages and the Blanik has a one-piece wing making it, probably, the simplest and quickest of the lot to build. All three kits include Eduard canopy painting masks and pre-painted PE frets along with several photos of actual airplanes for your detail reference. All the good things that are routinely said about CMR’s resin castings apply to these three new kits.
The Laister-Kauffmann kit includes markings for four planes all in US Army blue and yellow.
The Pratt-Read kit includes markings for four planes, three of which are in the standard US Navy overall trainer yellow. I am dubious of the authenticity of the fourth color scheme shown for the plane in the Hoosier Air Museum with its dark blue bands around the wings and fuselage.
The Blanik kit includes markings for five of the USAFA planes. Several civilian schemes can be found on the internet; especially on Blanik USA’s web site.
Conclusion
Gliders make a nice change from the run of the mill subject matter offered to modelers by the major kit manufacturers. These are very nice kits that can be built up quickly into attractive additions to your collection. Try one.
Hannants have the three kits for about 11-12.00 pounds plus packing and shipping and Squadron Mail Order has them for about $35-37.00 plus packing and shipping.
Our sincere thanks to Czech Master Resin for the review samples of these kits.
References
This is a first for me; all of my research was done on the internet
via Google. There’s a lot out there. You can overwhelm yourself
with minute details if you’re not careful or you can simply go ahead
and build the models out-of-the-box and have a lot of fun. Also beware
of getting sucked into reading a lot of absorbing history on these and
other gliders/sailplanes.
