Eastern Express (Toko) 1/72 Sopwith Snipe

EASTERN EXPRESS (TOKO) 1:72 SOPWITH SNIPE 7F.1

Reviewer: Steve Hedworth (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 29 November 2008

Preamble:

I have recently completed this kit and largely agree with Tim Beales earlier review. It makes into a smashing little kit and as far as I am aware is the only game in town. I googled Hannents et al and could not locate any for sale and haven’t seen any on e bay so it must have been OOP for some time.

Aircraft History:

The Snipe was to be the Camel replacement and large numbers were scheduled to be built had the war continued into 1919. Powered by a 230 hp Bentley rotary engine about 100 saw service during the last months of the war and Major William Barker earned a VC after a momentous combat with Fokker D7’s while flying an early Snipe. After the war it was selected as the RAF’s standard fighter and about 2000 machines were eventually built. A Snipe derivative called the Dragon would probably have replaced it but the 320 hp ABC Dragonfly nine cylinder radial engine it was to use proved utterly unreliable and further attempts to redesign it were abandoned in 1921. Nevertheless over 120 Dragons were built and had a suitable engine been available performance would have been similar to the Nieuport Nighthawk and Gloster Grebe. By this time the RAF had over 500 rotary engined Snipes on charge, presumably many were held in storage and released as required. The type soldiered on until 1927. No 1 Squadron was based in Iraq during 1921-26 and No’s 3, 17, 19, 23, 25, 29, 32, 41, 43 and 111 were equipped with Snipes within the UK. The last Snipe units were formed in July 1925 but by this time newer types such as the Woodcock, Siskin, Grebe and Gamecock were becoming available. The last Snipes on fighter duties in the UK were No 43 and were replaced, in the spring of 1926, by Gloster Gamecocks. Those abroad and with the various training units continued a little longer but the type was declared officially obsolete in 1928. Incidently, about 40 two seater conversion trainers were built and most squadrons had one or two while the rest went to the training schools.

The Kit:

I found the parts exactly as the previous reviewer described even down to the Toko and Eastern Express name tags.

(Tim's commentary on the kit contents is reproduced here - Ed) The kit is a reboxing of the Toko kit, even to the point of having Toko tags on the sprues alongside the Eastern Express tags. There are 37 parts moulded in a quite hard grey plastic with virtually no flash, which is good, as some of the smaller parts are really tiny.

The instruction sheet is a folded A5-ish size sheet. The top half of the first sheet has a B&W replica of the box art, and a history in Russian, followed by what I presume to be a translation of the Russian text in broken and poorly written English. The two inside sheets show the assembly steps in six sections.

Construction:

I constructed the kit in the same order as Tim Beales and had few problems initially. The instruction sheet is composed of six exploded views. One is the propellor shaft and engine, two is the guns, upper decking and instrument panel and three comprises of the seat, pedals and control stick that are stuck onto the centre section of the lower wing. The engine is secured between the fuselage halves and the wings are joined onto the fuselage. There was a slight gap at the joint but it was so small it disappeared when painted. Next the upper decking is fitted and the cowling. Here I encountered a problem as the cowling is of a slightly smaller diameter than the fuselage nose section. It is not by much but it is noticeable particularly if you intend to paint the cowling a different colour. My solution was to brush superglue onto the cowling joint and let it dry. I then very gently, with a sharp file, shaved around the joint, being careful I didn’t lose any detail. Finally, the cowling was painted the same metallic colour as the upper decking. It looks OK to me but I decided to abandon the different colour option to help everything blend in. There was also a small gap where the forward upper decking meets the top of the cowl. Again, I found I could get away without resort to filler and paint sufficed.

I added a pilot from the spares box and a small windscreen and an Aldis sight from sprue.

The rest of the construction continued as Tim reviewed. The wing struts are moulded with the wing stagger angle built in but the centre section struts looked decidedly fiddly so I took TB’s advice as I had a pair of Airfix wing supports from a Sopwith Pup. I filed them ever so slightly wider and they worked wonderfully. Except, beware. They can prove to be false friends. With the centre section struts in place and reinforced with CA glue I decided the remove the supports to give myself more finger room. I released the port wing from the support and then tried the starboard which was tighter. The wing promptly came with it. Another touch of filing and the second attempt was successful but be careful. After this incident completion was straight forward except the undercarriage vee legs are not wide enough. With the rear legs in the locating holes the front legs are just short of the front locating holes. They can be stretched but they look bent. The best solution is to fill the original holes in the lower fuselage and re-drill them a mm or so forward.

The stabilizers were glued to the rear fuselage and a small amount of filler was needed where it meets the upper fuselage. The tiny gaps underneath succumbed to paint. The tail and rudder should be set upon two tiny struts that are not moulded as part of the unit. As this hardly seems noticeable on many of the photos I consulted I didn’t bother and trimmed the bottom of the rudder to match the fuselage.

Rigging was a pain. Such a small kit requires patience and a plan. I used Aeroclub invisible rigging thread but my chosen method was the real cause of my frustration. I have started drilling only half way through the upper wing and cementing the thread into the hole. After drying the wire is then pulled through a hole drilled right through the lower wing and tightened before gluing. This has worked well with larger aircraft but I had several wires pull out on me this time so I ended up drilling through the upper wing to retain the problem threads.

Decals:

I didn’t use the kit transfers except for the tail stripes. The kit represents a later model and I had some old markings from a Matchbox Siskin from 32 Squadron. They had earlier flown Snipes during the 1920’s so I modified the decals to fit the smaller kit and took a little artistic licence. References indicated that a fuselage band was in order but as it appeared that squadron markings at this time were in a semi-constant state of change I applied a wing stripe for a little extra colour. Of course after they were applied it was discovered that the bands should be blue and white and not the blue and silver that the transparent sections allow and Matchbox’s artwork indicated was so. But never mind. It looks fine to me and was completed by four Almark RAF roundels.

Overall Recommendation:

I think this is a smashing little kit that can be made up into a variety of versions with a little imagination. I’ve had it for a number of years and can’t remember how much I paid for it. Appears to be difficult to get a hold of but it makes a good model. Recommended to those that have made a few biplanes before. If you have a pair of Airfix Pup wing supports then use them or replicate them in cardboard or similar as this is a small aircraft.

References:

Recommended reading to accompany this kit build is Sopwith Snipe by JM Bruce, Windsock Datafile 46. I got my copy from Hannants.

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