Injection Moulded Plastic and Etched Brass
Colour Options: 5
Price: $79.00 (About £59.00 + £21.00 UK Tax)
Availability: Excellent via www.wingnutwings.com
We have multiple builds of Wingnut Wings kits… just check out your Wingnut Wings Finished Now area in SMN.
Inspiration
Now keep this to yourselves but I’d seen and admired the Editors Wingnut 1:32nd Brisfit and was simply stunned by the quality of the kit and the finished model. Rarely in all my years of scale modelling had I seen such quality. Of course since then I’ve been called to the dark side and can be found elsewhere in SMN knocking up submarines and very soon ships! But during my regular surf of the interweb I found myself on the Wingnut Wings site and scouting around was drawn to the abject beauty of the LVG. Given that I’d been practicing my wood finishes on a few U-Boats I was struck by the wonderful plywood finish on the LVGs fuselage………….I had to have one! So using the excellent ordering system on the Wingnut site I sent off for my LVG; 5 days later it arrived at my home, which I have to say is a lot quicker than some mainstream suppliers whose service doesn’t come close to that offered by Wingnut.
First impressions:
It’s a horribly overused term but this kit is truly stunning! The box top has a wonderful beautifully presented painting of and LVG over the Western Front and shows off the fantastic colour scheme to perfection. The lid and tray style box is of the highest quality in a glossy finish and robust enough to survive its trip from New Zealand with minimum outer packaging…..Marvellous. The side panels give a snap shot of some of the possible colour choices and that’s it as near to perfect packaging as I have seen!
Open the box and things just get better and better; what you’ll find are 7 sprues of plastic neatly packaged and sealed in their own plastic bags. There’s a magnificent decal sheet and a little brass etch set and an instruction book that I won’t have the heart to throw away after the model is built. Ok I’m going to have to break now and consult my Thesaurus for new superlatives as this kit is that good, I meant it, this is something really very special. Indeed 
I find myself looking again at the invoice to check the price because the value of this kit is extraordinary.
References:
Wingnut quote the Windsock Data file from 1989 but in truth the instruction book gives you all I think you’ll need. Except there’s one thing that I’m soon going to have to do. On page 23 of the instruction book is a photo of and LVG flying and it’s in the Shuttleworth Collection. So… I scuttled off to You Tube and here you go isn’t this just incredible to see……!!!
There’s an Evening Fly-in at Shuttleworth in May and I’m off with my picnic to see the LVG and a host more stuff so I’ll have all I need to build this terrific kit plus an evening in the sunshine too………….well I can dream can’t I?
Instructions:
The 26-page full colour instruction book is as good as I think it gets. Clear concise and even including throughout examples of the real part on the LVG for Reference……awesome! There’s a rigging diagram and a really great photo history at the back and even a biog of the prime movers in developing this kit. Simply first class you have to see it to really get it.
Quality:
The seven sprues are packed with the highest quality plastic you’ll find today. Surface detail is perfect especially the rib detail and its all absolutely to scale. The engine is a work of art and I’m itching to get cracking with the Alclad on this as it’s all on show! The little brass etch seatbelts are first class but for the build I’m going to have a crack at the Eduard pre-painted ones. Given the quality of the brass I am really surprised that the cooling jackets for the Spandau and Parabellum MGs are not in brass as in plastic even as good as this it’s below par with the rest of this great kit.
Accuracy:
This has been a labour of love for the Wingnut team and I am not going to insult them by questioning the accuracy of this kit. Nor am I going to comment on fit as you can just see that this will be perfect too. What can I say; this kit makes even Tamiya look ordinary!
Decals:
Well just look at them – perfect register scale colour, this is a first in lozenge schemes for me, and great choices. The trick will be painting the wood finish but that as they say is why I bought this kit in the first place.
Summary:
Thus is a limited run kit and you’d never know. It’s better than almost any kit that I have ever seen and I can’t wait to start it. Indeed so good is it that I’m ordering an RE 8 now as this won’t be the last Wingnut kit this reviewer builds. Order one, any one you like in the range and I know absolutely you will not be disappointed