A+V Models AQM-91A Compass Arrow

This kit consists of only 8 parts in tan coloured resin - two hollow fuselage halves, two wings, two horizontal stabilizers and two fins/rudders. The fuselage parts split vertically down the middle. Panel lines are engraved. Like all previous resin kits I have seen, the panel lines on this kit exhibit some inconsistency in depth and straightness.

The quality of the castings is very poor. There is a bit of flash around most of the flying surfaces. Initial inspection showed that there were a few air bubbles that needed to be dealt with, mostly on the wings, though annoyingly some of the bubbles were imbedded within the panel lines. The resin is for the most part quite smooth but there is a slight wave in the wings. No construction diagram is provided though there is a 1/72 scale drawing of the aircraft that can be used as a guide - but with so few pieces it's quite obvious as to how to proceed.This kit consists of only 8 parts in tan coloured resin - two hollow fuselage halves, two wings, two horizontal stabilizers and two fins/rudders. The fuselage parts split vertically down the middle. Panel lines are engraved. Like all previous resin kits I have seen, the panel lines on this kit exhibit some inconsistency in depth and straightness.

The quality of the castings is very poor. There is a bit of flash around most of the flying surfaces. Initial inspection showed that there were a few air bubbles that needed to be dealt with, mostly on the wings, though annoyingly some of the bubbles were imbedded within the panel lines. The resin is for the most part quite smooth but there is a slight wave in the wings. No construction diagram is provided though there is a 1/72 scale drawing of the aircraft that can be used as a guide - but with so few pieces it's quite obvious as to how to proceed.

Before starting the build, I performed some test fitting. Here I noticed the following issues:

All of the joining surfaces are very rough and require quite a bit of sanding to get a good fit.

The right fuselage half was warped but it would straighten out once the two halves are forced together thus I wouldn't need to straighten it beforehand.

It appears that both the left and the right wing were cast from the same mold. Thus I had two wings with the same airfoil profile. Quite strange! When I inspected the horizontal as well as the vertical stabs I see that they too were cast from the same molds and exhibited the same problem with airfoil shape as the wings.

The fuselage fillets are thicker than the end of the wings. This will require some extensive sanding to reduce the resulting step between the wing and the fillets.

The jet intake and exhaust are both represented by small indents and need to be reamed out a bit to provide more depth.

The trailing edges of the wings are paper thin and too much sanding has the potential to create holes that would go through the wings.

I used the web to find pictures of this craft to see how accurate it was. What I found was that the kit has some obvious and serious shortcomings as shown on the picture above left of the USAF Museum's aircraft.

As you can see there are many items that need correction, some easier than others. I chose to fix what I considered were the easiest - adding the step to the tail area and the semi-circular part of the jet intake. Replacing the fins with new ones and re-contouring the fuselage area around the jet intake and add the raised line and depression along the engine housing were more effort than I wanted to do. With the corrections decided upon, construction commenced with the fuselage.

Both halves require a fair bit of sanding along the seam before joining them. Because the one side was warped I could not use my usual method of sanding against a piece of sandpaper mounted on a flat piece of wood - so my sanding was performed freehand. Once I was happy that further sanding would be pointless the two halves were joined with thin super glue. Once the glue set I turned my attention to the seams. The seams were very prominent and needed a lot of filling. My filler of choice is super glue with baking soda. One nice thing about using super glue for filling is that it gives much added strength to the model.

The next item to address was the shape of the fuselage around the jet intake and exhaust. Referring to photos, the kit's lack of accuracy was obvious. The face of the jet intake needs to have a definite forward jut, and the fuselage profile near the exhaust is completely wrong. I first tackled the intake changes, which I thought would be the more difficult fix. The intake was built up using plastic strip. I started by adding a straight section to the bottom face of the intake. Then another straight piece was bent and spot glued around the curved portion of the intake. The pieces of strip were cut to length and the whole area between them and the resin was filled and sanded.

The rear fuselage around the exhaust was next. The kit's casting is an unbroken slope from the jet exhaust to the rear tip of the fuselage. Photographs show that this area has a step. Using a pencil, I marked the spots that required removal, and then cut them away with a saw. The resin was thick enough here that I did not need to fill any gaps afterward and sanding was done to get the shape into its final form.

Next I turned my attention to the flying surfaces and their incorrect airfoil. The only remedy, without making replacements, was to use some sandpaper and reshape the leading edges. Because I had a fair amount of resin to remove I used coarse sandpaper for the heavy work and finished with fine paper to get a smooth surface. Not onerous work but annoying nonetheless. I also tried to fill any air bubbles I could find and I sanded out the wave in the wing surfaces. It was easier to do all of this before the wings were added to the fuselage.
Once the flying surfaces were complete I mounted the wings and sanded down the large step between them and the fuselage fillets. Next were the horizontal stabilizers and fins. I spent quite some time on sanding the mating surface so that I would not have a lot of filling to do on the seam between them and the fuselage.
Before the primer coat the kit received an overall sanding and a soapy wash to remove particles to get it as smooth as possible before painting. Unfortunately the sanding opened up some subsurface air bubbles and these had to be filled. Another light sanding was done, followed by another wash to remove particles, and yet more bubbles were discovered. After a couple more sanding, filling and washing tries it was becoming apparent that I was never going to get them all filled, for it seemed that each time I sanded I exposed more bubbles than I had eliminated with the previous filling. Eventually I came to the inevitable conclusion that this was looking more and more likely to be a never ending process of filling, sanding and washing and I was never going to get to the painting stage, and this build has now been cancelled after a couple of years of off and on work.

Conclusion

So all in all, don't even consider building this kit unless you are willing to put a lot of work into it. This in not a kit for those wanting a quick and easy build, let alone an accurate build. There are some serious issues with the shape that need to be corrected, and the resin needs a lot of preparation to get an acceptable finish. Since it is unlikely that the AQM-91 will be produced as an injected plastic kit, those wanting to add an AQM-91 to their collection, this A+V version will probably be the only game in town. For another view on the inaccuracies and difficulties with this kit, visit Rob de Bie's site to see the extensive changes he has performed. He is a much braver and talented man than me!

	AQM-91A Compass Arrow kit no. AV 89
			Review by Al Magnus - one72guy(at)gmail(dot)com