Czech Model

1/32 P-80C Shooting Star

Kit Number: 3202

Reviewed by  Fred Amos, IPMS# 6672

MSRP: $79.95 The appearance of the 1/32 scale P-80C Shooting Star caught a many of us in the world of plastic modeling by surprise. So when a good friend and fellow modeler suggested we each get one, I was ready in a heartbeat. On opening the large, sturdy box you will find approximately 82 light gray pieces on five separate sprues and a sprue of clear parts plus several pieces of resin and acetate film. The parts are not numbered but there is a parts map in a very unique instruction booklet. The booklet is in the form of Auto-Cad illustrations. There is a very large and colorful decal sheet by Aero Master covering three aircraft and a variety of stenciling. The decal is in good registry but I did manage to fine one very small error but nothing to worry about. Construction begins, as always, in the cockpit. The cockpit tub is weak in detail but the resin seat helps make up for it. I found it necessary to place plastic shims in the rear of the tub to help bring the ejector seat rails to the proper angle. The seat is awkward to hold when cutting the resin pour base off, so I clamped an orbital sander into a bench vise and carefully sanded it away. After painting, it fit into the rails nicely. Acetate and resin help to detail the rest of the cockpit. The cockpit was tack-glued into the left fuselage side and, when I was sure the right side would close up, I liberally applied super glue and accelerator where the edges of the cockpit contact with the fuselage side. It took four 5/8-ounce fish weights in front of the nose wheel well. There are no locating pins anywhere on the model, but by tightly taping the fuselage halves together, I was able to brush liquid glue (my favorite is Ambroid Pro-Weld) into the seams. Everything closed up reasonably well except for the last inch or so of the tail under the jet tail pipe. This was probably caused by the tail pipe piece being too large and should have been sanded down first. It was necessary to use a little putty on the seams but that’s not unusual for me. While the fuselage was drying, I moved on to the wing and the intake trunks. The fit of the wing pieces was benefited by sanding the inside mating edges before gluing them together. Don’t forget to drill the holes for the wing pylons and fuel tanks. When it came time to put the wing to the fuselage, I came upon the first real problem with this kit.

Prior to gluing the wing in place, I tried to test fit the outside pieces of the intake to the side of the fuselage. They would not come together (leaving a gap of about one sixteenth of an inch) because the trunks meet the inside of the outside intakes at a molded ledge. They are supposed to do that but the locating area on the wing assembly for the base of the intake trunks is not well defined and I was off a little. My suggestion is to cut the base off of part number C12 and glue the left and right intakes into their respective outside intakes I then glued the side intakes in position before gluing the wing into place. What I did to fix my problem was cut the forward part of the inside intakes off even with the front edge of the wing and glue them into the outside intakes. The cut is not visible when everything is put together. Unfortunately I never even thought of cutting the base of C12 out until everything was done. After the area around the cockpit opening was painted flat black the rear deck of the canopy was painted and tack glued into place. The main canopy was carefully glued into place and the windshield aligned with it. The canopy was then masked using Tamiya tape and the outside of the canopy was painted flat black. I made a serious mistake here; I painted the entire model with Model Master Gloss Gull Gray as a primer for Alclad II. I should have used Gloss Black like I usually do when I am spraying Alclad II. I used Alclad aluminum and dark aluminum and Floquil Platinum Mist. For the Blue I used Model Master # 2030 True Blue but it turned out to be a few shades to dark. Decaling went very well except for a few times when extremely small stencil decals rolled up on them selves and couldn’t be used. Also on my decal there was a large area where it took longer to release from the paper. Decals were compatible to MicroSol but I didn’t need and MicroSet.

After decaling the small parts that would have gotten broken were put in place with an assortment of super glue, tube glue and Future Floor Wax. The very small teardrop-shaped navigation lenses proved to be a problem for me and they kept flying off across the room and into the carpet. I put a small drop of tube glue in place and when it was dry I colored them with Tamiya Clear Red and Blue. In conclusion I am very happy with the Czech Model P-80C but, considering the price and the complexity, I would not recommend it to the faint of heart. It took me a little over a week to finish this but I am sure you can do better if you take your time. Avionix has a resin cockpit for it and I would bet that Aires and Quick Boost wouldn’t too far behind with other detail parts to enhance the appearance of the kit if you are so inclined. I can only hope that this is the first of many more large scale aircraft to come, the F-84 and F-86 D come to mind. To me this is just about the best new kit release since the Hasegawa 1/32 P-40s and P-47s.