Before the purchase of this kit, I had wanted to try a Unicraft model for some time, but
my reluctance to buy any Unicraft kits was tempered by my past indifferent experiences
with other resin kits. My V-4 kit was won on eBay at a reasonable price compared to
getting it from Unicraft direct. I thought that this kit would be an easy introduction to the
Unicraft product line in that it would have only a few parts making it a potentially simple
build and wouldn't pose too daunting a challenge.
After receiving the model my desire that this kit had few parts was confirmed, but it also
confirmed what I had feared regarding quality of the castings - they were atrocious.
Inside the tiny box are 13 pieces of brittle, light tan resin with lots of flash surrounding
the parts and an abundance of imperfections. The panel lines are recessed though
inconsistent in depth or straightness. Some are more like trenches, while others are so
fine they'll disappear if sanded too much. Plus they are rife with imperfections that will
force the modeller to re-scribe them anyway.
The resin exhibits numerous pinholes and bumps. The fuselage was the worst, while the
wings were much better, possessing fewer imperfections. There was a fairly large seam
running down the fuselage due to a slight step caused by the fuselage halves not being
perfectly aligned when it was cast. The interior of the engine housing has some cast in
stringers and formers but they are very poorly executed and are in essence just raised
blobs of indeterminate shape.
Included in the box is a small decal sheet consisting of stencil markings only and a very
nice page of colour artwork. There are no instructions and the only clues as to how the
parts go together come from examining the artwork.
My initial impressions did not leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling when I contemplated
building the kit, but I figured that I would at least start on the construction before passing
final judgement.
Before I commenced with building I performed a quick fit test, which quickly showed
that sanding was going to occupy the majority of the construction time and the parts fit
looked to be extremely dodgy. I was skeptical on how well the two pulsejets were going
to fit inside the engine housing. Also I figured it would be best to replace the pipe on the
pulse jets with plastic tubing to save me a lot of grief trying to get the kit versions to look
proper.
To start the ball rolling as they say, I construction started with what I felt were the easy
parts - the wings. They were separated from their pouring stubs using a razor saw and
then cleaned up by sanding along the leading and trailing edges with a coarse grade of
sandpaper mounted flat to my workbench, followed by some hand sanding of the curved
surfaces and leading edges. There was one large hole on the left wing root that I had to
fill with super glue and sand smooth.
Once the wings were done I moved to the fuselage where I attempted to deal with the
seam that ran along the full length of the fuselage. While working on the fuselage I
noticed that it was not quite cylindrical in some places, and the sanding I was doing to
remove the step was further flattening the cross section into more of an oval shape versus
the desired round shape. As much as I tried to correct the flat spots I came to realize that
there was no way I was going to actually get a round fuselage short of sanding the whole
thing down to the point where the fuselage would be undersized compared to its original
size, which would also remove any vestiges of the panel lines. So it would seem that
replacing the fuselage with a custom piece is probably the only way to rectify this
problem.
Not only did the sanding alter the contour of the fuselage but it also exposed even more
pinholes than I was able to see previously. Basically the fuselage exhibited a severe case
of what would best be described as a "resin acne rash".
At this point I realized that life is too short to be p**sing around with this piece of junk
and the parts were put back into the box and reshelved (probably never to be built by this
modeller), and it is looking more and more like a candidate for being tossed into the
garbage bin sometime in the future. For me, this kit has proved to be a waste of money,
but then I have also learned this lesson - I'll never buy or even consider buying anything
from Unicraft again.
Conclusion
What a complete waste of my time! This kit is absolutely worthless, and I suggest that any other modellers
considering purchasing one should think again. The "For Experienced Modelers" printed
on the box top should actually read "For Insane Modelers", for insane is what I feel is
the required qualification for any modeler considering building this kit to any kind of finish other than that of a blob!
A section of the fuselage exhibiting the "resin acne rash" exposed during
sanding that covered the entire surface of the fuselage.
The insides of the engine housing showing the poor casting
and indistinct stringers and formers inside.
The rocket boosters. The large seam you see on the boosters is
similar to what was also found on the fuselage.
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The pulse jets showing their poor castings. The pulse jet parts on the right
exhibit a hole (top) and thin spot (bottom) of the right half.
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Outside of one half of the engine housing. Note the poorly done panel lines
and the extra blobs of resin found inside them.
Outside of the other half of the engine housing. Again note the poorly engraved
panel lines and the extra blobs of resin contained inside them.
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