Part 3: The Build Completed

With major construction completed, and fortified by a large mug of Mr. Brooke Bond's finest, attention was turned to the weapons bay. Perusal of the sprues highlights the large selection of stores that the Nimrod could carry. Airfix provide two types of anti-submarine torpedo, flares packages, survival packs, a Harpoon missile, Sidewinders for anti-aircraft protection, and ECM pods. The moldings for these are quite simple and Airfix provide full stenciling where appropriate, but in some cases the fins could stand a little thinning down. This is all well and good; however I wasn't so keen on the weapons bay itself. There is very little detail in there, and what is there is quite clunky - a glance at a photo of the real thing shows how complicated this area really is. Even adding some rudimentary detail would have been very time consuming, so I reluctantly elected to close the doors and leave as is. I have seen some excellent scratchbuilding efforts online, so it can be done. It's a matter of personal taste. By electing to leave out most of the detail, Airfix have probably saved us a fair amount on the final purchase price of the kit, and I'm sure some enterprising soul is creating a resin set if you really wish to spend some money. Turning to the undercarriage, I was very pleased with the quality of the components here. The wheel hubs have some very nice detailing that really shows up with a dark wash, as do the main legs. These fit very firmly and convincingly into slots in the main undercarriage bays. The wheels themselves are a little loose on their mounting lugs, but use of superglue fixed that. Be sure that they all align with each other! Airfix's instructions are a little unclear on the main undercarriage bay doors. The large outer doors should be fitted closed, as these doors only open during the retraction/extension sequence. Doing this improves the accuracy of your model, but means that you'll need to adjust the retraction struts, as otherwise the doors will foul them.

Two notes about the nose undercarriage: as can be seen in my reference photo in part 1 of this review, the mud guards are situated at the back of the wheels, not on top. And the doors for this bay are housed within the bay, only revealing themselves during retraction/extension. Setting the beast on her wheels saw much rejoicing and great satisfaction as her nose stayed firmly earthbound. I may have overestimated the amount of weight that was needed, but better safe than sorry. Not only that, but all 8 main wheels touch the ground at the same time - will wonders ever cease? Adding the fiddly bits to the exterior was the next phase of construction. Starting at the front, I decided to enhance the refueling probe. While the plastic part is OK, I wanted to jazz it up a little and used some aluminium tubing to replace the central portion of the probe. I think it looks nice, and it also adds a little weight if you haven't quite got it right otherwise. Pay careful attention to the instructions for the version you are making, as the aerial fit differed over time. I was lucky enough to have photos of my subject aircraft and was able to tailor it precisely. I replaced the overscale dorsal "towel rail" aerial with one scratchbuilt from Contrail strut and rod materials. The ventral one was just the kit one thinned down, as it isn't as conspicuous. The wingtip ECM pods are a good fit onto the wings, but don't forget to scribe on a new aileron hinge line as the pods cover the outer one.

The Nimrod has a pod about 2/3rds of the way out on each wing. That on the port wing houses a fuel tank and the cap for this fits very well; that for the starboard wing holds a 70 million candle power searchlight, just the thing for a little late night reading. This is depicted with a clear part each for the reflector unit and for the outer cover. I coated the rear surface of the reflector part with Metalizer Aluminium and the housing was given Future bath. At the rear of the aircraft is the Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD) stinger. This is in two parts and is very slightly bigger in diameter than the rear fuselage, so a couple of minutes of sanding was required. The part is a good fit otherwise and no filler was required here. It should be mentioned that each of the 6 decal options has its own page during the final assembly sequence, this reflecting the differing aerial fits and alternate equipment. This is a smart solution to what could have been a rather confusing situation. Also helpful is that this is immediately followed by a separate page for each aircraft that depicts the varying stencils that were painted on each option. Painting started with a layer of pre-shading - this will help break up the otherwise monotonous single color camouflage. This was followed by coats of Xtracrylix Hemp on the top surfaces and Light Aircraft Grey (LAG) underneath. Select panels were given a coat of slightly lightened versions of each. At this point, I'd like to give a big thank you to Bob Sanchez at Twobobs and David Hannant at Hannants in Britain for their assistance in getting hold of the correct colors for the Nimrod - thanks chaps, much appreciated! Xtracrylix paints are stocked by Twobobs in the US, but check with Hannants if they happen to be sold out there. With painting completed, my attention turned to the decals. Unfortunately, this area would give me the most problems of the whole build. In the past, Airfix decals have not been noted for their quality; many of us hoped that the issues would be resolved with Hornby's takeover, as being forced to buy an aftermarket sheet because the kit one is unusable is really not acceptable in the modern modelling world. And while the omens were good on initial inspection, there are a couple of big issues that need to be addressed with the decals included in this kit. Firstly, the method of printing is very noticeable, particularly in the roundels, showing up as a matrix of dots that don't quite blend into each other. This gives a very grainy appearance to the solid colors. I replaced the roundels with some from an Xtradecals sheet of generic modern RAF roundels. This problem will not bother some; however the second problem will affect everyone. While the individual images are covered by a layer of glossy varnish, it appears that, through error, there is a second layer of varnish that coats the entire sheet. This means that each decal will have to be individually cut from the whole and trimmed closely. While this wouldn't be too much of an issue on a smaller model, this one is big and has around 300 stencils to apply, making for a long, fiddly and tedious process. I am assured that this was a one time problem, and my experience with the Canberra's decals suggests this is correct, as those are much better. Once I'd applied the decals, I coated the model with Future, correcting some minor silvering issues this highlighted. Next, I applied two washes to the panel lines, both with Payne's Grey and Burnt Umber watercolor paints. The Hemp-painted surfaces were treated with a wash biased to the Umber, while the LAG surfaces were biased to the grey. A drop of dishwashing liquid was added to the wash to allow it to flow. After allowing it to dry for about 30 minutes, the excess was wiped off the surface with a damp rag. Once the washes were set, I used Xtracrylix Satin varnish to overcoat the model. The final touch was to add some tiny red and dark green rhinestones in the dorsal and wingtip positions to represent warning beacons and she was complete. This was a very pleasing model to build; I am very happy that Airfix have tackled this subject and to have done such a very good job of it. It is a large model, but a simple kit to construct. While it won't be suitable for the absolute beginner or the less dexterous amongst us, its excellent fit and lack of complexity means that this is one that really can be tackled by anyone with a modicum of experience.

For the enthusiast, there are a few minor accuracy issues but there is nothing here that can't be easily fixed and certainly nothing terminal! The basic canvas is there for those with Advanced Modellers' Syndrome (AMS), and for those with large wallets, resin cockpit and weapons bay sets will surely become available if you must. And there's already a conversion set for theAEW.3 version available for those who really like the oddities of flight. The biggest fly in the ointment is the poor decal sheet. There's really no escaping this problem, and you have one of two solutions; live with it and be prepared for some tedium and frustration, or buy the seriously-expensive Model Alliance sheets, which requires the purchase of two sheets; one for the individual markings and the other for the stencils - that's a total almost equaling the cost of the kit! I sincerely hope that anyone from Hornby/Airfix that reads this will take a serious look at this issue; surely it is the matter of a few pennies per kit to fix this? There's no doubt that Airfix are back! This early release under the Hornby banner bodes well for the future, and I hope that the Nimrod's unfamiliarity to American eyes will not dissuade you from looking seriously at this kit. I'd like to thank Martyn Weaver of Hornby/Airfix for the review sample, and Bob Sanchez of Twobobs and David Hannant of Hannants for the paints. Airfix kits are available from all good model stores and web retailers; the Airfix website is at www.airfix.com . Xtracrylix paints and Xtradecals are available from Twobobs ( www.twobobs.net ) in the US and Hannants ( www.hannants.co.uk ) in the UK.

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