Cyber Hobby 1/72 de Havilland Sea Vixen
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
Overview
The Sea Vixen was de Havilland's last twin-boom aircraft, a heritage dating back to the Vampire of the 1940s. Designed during the missile era, the Sea Vixen had no gun armament and employed missiles and rocket pods for its weaponry. Entering service in the early 1960s, the Sea Vixen remained with the Royal Navy until ultimately replaced by the Phantom in the late 1960s, but the type soldiered on with various test units into the 1970s. Currently, restored examples can be seen flying at airshows today.
The Kit
British Fleet Air Arm jet aircraft have experienced a nice surge in recent years, and the Sea Vixen has been one of the more popular subjects covered. After decades of only having vacuform kits and the old Frog injection-molded example, we now have new-tool kits in both 1/72 and 1/48. The latest kit in the growing Sea Vixen lineup is this release from Dragon's Cyber-Hobby line. Molded in the usual light gray plastic, this kit features petite recessed panel lines and interesting engineering that should simplify construction. The decal sheet provides markings for no less than six options.
Construction begins, like most aircraft, with the front office. The cockpit assembly is fairly straightforward, with a one-piece tub getting separate side consoles, a center divider, and instrument panels. Right off we come across one problem with this kit, and that is with the ejection seats. While they look decent, they are quite noticeably too small. The pilot's seat, when viewed from the side, should be close to the top of the canopy, but in this kit, it barely clears the opening in the top of the fuselage. As this is very noticeable, replacing these seats is pretty much essential here.
Once the cockpit assembly is finished, attention turns to assembling the center fuselage pod. This is split into upper and lower halves, incorporating the wing center section. Be ready to add quite a bit to the inside here, as all the landing gear bays, intakes, and exhausts are separate. The intake assembly is split into upper and lower halves, with separate splitter inserts and separate engine faces. The exhausts have separate tubes and a one-piece exhaust face. The engineering in this area suggests that, while numerous in parts, assembly will actually be straightforward and have minimal issues. Once all those inner bits are in place, the upper fuselage piece can be attached, a bit of extra weight in the separate nose cone added, and the center assembly is done. A quick note on that separate nose cone, it is a bit blunt, whereas the original is pointed. A bit of sanding could fix this without too much effort.
Exterior details for the center section include a separate ventral speed brake that can be positioned in any one of three positions, separate scoops, and a pair of rocket pods with pylons. The tail booms are molded as one piece (mostly) using Dragon's signature slide mold technology, and feature separate rudders. Also separate are the ailerons and flaps, and there is an option for raised or lowered arrestor hook. The outer wing panels are separate, allowing for them to be folded or straight. The folded option has nicely detailed hinges. Another nice feature, and one which I wish more manufacturers would do, is providing the wing fences as solid pieces that fit into a notch, rather than trying to wrap around the wing leading edge.
For the landing gear, this is nicely done as well, capturing the beefy look to the gear of the Sea Vixen. The nose gear has the main strut with half the nose wheel fork separate. Trapping the wheel this way makes painting and detailing much easier. For the main gear, the struts feature separate retraction arms, and all three gear have nicely detailed wheels. With these last details on board, attention can turn towards painting and decaling.
The paint scheme for the Sea Vixen is pretty straightforward: Extra Dark Sea Gray over White. About the only variation found on the six options in this kit is the color of the radome, with three having black radomes and the other three in Extra Dark Sea Gray. The aircraft covered include #456 from No 893 Squadron off the HMS Centaur in 1963, #219 from No 892 Squadron in 1963, # 713 from No 766 Squadron in 1967, #488 from No 899 Squadron in 1962, #241 from No 890 Squadron in 1961, and #248 from No 890 Squadron in 1964. In addition to the basic squadron markings and national insignia, the decals include a significant number of stenciling.
Conclusion
This is a great addition to the Cyber-Hobby line, and a nice subject for those interested in Royal Navy jets. While this kit is the FAW.1 variant, it does have parts suggesting that the FAW.2 might show up down the road, which will open up even more interesting marking opportunities. My thanks to Dragon Models USA for the review sample.