Cockpit
Taking a closer look at the smaller detail parts, the cockpit side walls and main instrument panel feature nice raised detail, although no decals (at least) are provided for this by way of dial faces and that’s a shame. Further disappointment comes as no photo etch (PE) is included either, so you’ll have to source some instrument dial faces from somewhere and I recommend taking a look at Airscale for these. We have reviewed some of their sheets in the Decal area in Here Now (just click the Airscale hyperlink above). Beyond SMN you’ll find some good cockpit colour photos/reference from this search. We’ll see how this whole area goes together during my coming build, but having to source your own seat harness for a kit with relatively few parts and costing the best part of £80.00 is unacceptable.
Wheels and wheel wells
The main units look fine as does the separate main and node wheels. The tyres are slightly flattened and that’s good for the type and scale. This area is pretty basic on the real aircraft too and so seems to be faithfully represented.
Metal nose weight
HKM does provide a white metal nose weight that sits in front of the nose gear bay door and appears to form the front wall of the bay. Hopefully this will be sufficient to keep the model on its tricycle undercarriage? We’ll see. Worth doing some dry test-fitting of parts later on in the build to see if the huge tail boom and tail assembly isn’t too much. Further weight may need to be added.
Clear parts – canopy
The main thing is that it’s split of course, to allow you to model your Meteor with the canopy slid back. The shape looks OK when off the model with the F4 upper front profile of the rear sliding portion correctly having a slightly flattened appearance. The parts are clear and distortion-free. A nice touch is the small clear acetate stuck onto the main canopy part to prevent scratching.
Instructions and decals
The instructions look clear enough and as I’ve said, the Meteor is a simple aircraft and the parts count and instructions reflect this. A decent table showing colour call-outs with colour name, FS number, Hobby Color and Tamiya acrylic paint references is given.
As for the decals, well, sorry the quality just looks awful by today’s standards – glossy, thick and the white already looking translucent. As for the schemes on offer, you have two options:
- RAF No.600 Sqn – overall silver or
- Argentina C-027 – silver, blue and yellow and is quite interesting if you want something different.
However, I recommend looking up the two new decal sheets on the way from the British kit and accessory supplier – Hannants. At the time of writing I have both on order, one representing overseas Meteors and the other RAF machines. Their quality is excellent based on past experience. As I mentioned briefly above, we’ll have at least two builds of this HKM kit in SMN with one starting as soon as I finish the Zoukei-Mura Shin Den, and that’s at the painting stage as I speak, so not long to go!
To sum up
I have always loved the Gloster Meteor as a type as I suspect many of you do too, especially if you’re reading this review. Many Air Arms across the world used the type and so the announcement that this kit was on the way has, rightly, created much anticipation.
For me the quality of what you get is perfectly good (ahead of the build) but the level of detail offered for your £80.00 GBP is thin and leaves a feeling of disappointment. The decals are just not acceptable in any shape or form for the reasons given for a kit at this price point and a new-tool in 2014. Many kit manufacturers these days are collaborating with high quality decal manufacturers and HKM should work harder to make this happen for them as well. The kit tooling and surface detail is very good and to my eye at least this kit certainly looks like a Gloster Meteor F4. Its simplicity should mean that the build will be quick and it won’t take long to add an impressive-looking Meteor to your collection. I believe that Barracuda Models and Alley Cat are both producing accessories and ‘correction/conversion’ sets so do check out those websites for what’s on offer – there are likely to be others of course in the coming months.
For all my comments above, this is a decent-looking Gloster Meteor F4 and I am certainly looking forward to the build as I hope you are too and you can follow every step In Build Now and then, when finished see the whole finished article in Finished Now.
My SMN Star Rating I think fairly reflects what’s on offer in the box.
Geoff C.
SMN Quick summary Star rating out of 5
| FEATURE | STAR RATING (out of five) |
|---|---|
| Quality of moulding | **** |
| Accuracy | *** |
| Level of detail | ** |
| Instructions | **** |
| Decals | ** |
| Subject choice | ***** |
| Overall | *** |
1:144 Gloster Meteor F4 included
PS – HKM does include a small 1:144 scale model of the Meteor and base to display it on in the wheels-up configuration. If this is HKM’s own tool my advice is to drop gimmicks like this and focus on your core product and offer more and better quality there before wasting money on this sort of inclusion. GC
