When the HK kit of the 1/32 scale B-25 came out we mentioned in our review of the kit we thought some work could be done on the propellers ad they looked a little “out” - the thing is no amount of work would really fix this – sanding and such just wouldn’t cut it – the governors and the engine housing was a little basic a well in the detail department. To the rescue comes Harold of AMS with a set of replacement resin B-25 props, engine housing and prop governors to make the detail be something you can confidently show off at the competition tables.
Material: Grey resin
No of parts: 10
Where to get them: $19 /
£12 from Sprue Brothers
AMS are fast becoming
the credible saviours of the modelling world. Harald who owns the business has
seen a gap in the market and gone for it on several projects like the navy/Argentinian
A-4 still conversion recently – and now he has released a replacement set for
the HK B-25 propellers, engine casing and propeller governors. Let’s look at
them in turn shall we?
Firstly the package arrived from the stated in a safe little
strong box in just a few days (from the USA to the UK) the kit of ten parts
come in a little plastic bag. No mess no fuss.
The contents of the kit
The resin inside is bubble free and comes with just a little
bit of extra material to be cut off, more than anything this is on the rear of the
engine casing and you will have to trim this square to fit to the tube which
houses the “stem” which holds the other parts of the kit. Casting blocks are
attached to the 4G8 propeller governors, and these are pretty easy to remove. This
is a good looking package in all – so a nice first impression.
The engine housing on the
HK kit is passible but is missing some detail which the resin kit provides –
the main problem is that the ignition collar ring that goes around the housing
should have the “horseshoe” pointing downwards with the hole on the bottom –
but on the kit if you place it the right way according to the rest of the
engine casing it should be up. You can see below that I have assembled mine the
right way but the part that the governor rests on would be the wrong shape (more
like upside down.)
You can see here how it isn’t right on the kit part as well
as the connectors for the ignition wiring being a little thick – the AMS part
has that extra detail in the right scale thickness. You can either use the kit
wires or your own thinner ones. I ave cleaned up the casing on the left and the right shows the cracked thin part of resin to be removed with a hobby knife - it took me five minutes at a stretch.
The engine casings are first rate as you can see by the
pictures – some clean-up is needed around the ignition harness and you will
have to be careful as it the connectors of the ring are delicate. You have to
shave the back of the part flat (careful!) and also cut off the tube from the
kit engine casing as the resin part is secured on to the front instead.
Although this is a little bit of work the results are correct and look a lot
more detailed. A few details sure but these are what people look at when they
examine the kit.
You can see the housing here with the governor placed in the correct position - a good improvement!
The 4G8 Governors for the
kit were omitted completely – so to the rescue in this set these are supplied –
they are a pretty good match for the real thing - the only thing you will have
to do is trim down a mould seam down the centre of them. An easy process to do
really and a LOT easier than scratch building your own!!
The Hamilton standard propeller on
the HK Models B-25 kit propellers are definitely too wide in chord, they also aren’t shaped
right when you look at how they twist. Below are some pictures to illustrate
for you.
You can see on the resin replacements how they start narrowly
– go wider in the centre and then narrow again at the tip – where the kit props
just get wide at the base then continue on to be quite fat at the tips.
There is approximately a 45 degree twist on the props as
well as you can see here from all angles of these props in the replacement kit.
All in all a little work but a great correction in these
very important areas that people do really look at in a kit- not very expensive
as well – do yourself a favour if you have this kit and pick them up!
