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Supermarine Scimitar
Model Kits

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This page last updated on Wednesday 30th June 2010

A brief rundown of the various model kits available of the Scimitar - as I know Thunder & Lightnings is visited by so many modellers! Sadly, the Scimitar has not been well served in scale form.

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Welsh Models Scimitar. Kit PJW12. Vacform. Fairly well detailed for the scale, overall shape looks a bit off with nose too pointy and a slightly curved line to the top of the fuselage where it should be straight.

Manufacturer's website.

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Frog Vickers Supermarine N113 Scimitar - injection moulded plastic. A real rarity these days, and very much a collectors' item, fetching extremely high prices when it does pop up from time to time on eBay. I have yet to find one at a reasonable price and so have no details on its accuracy.

Merlin Models Scimitar - short run injection moulded. Allegedly a pirated copy of the Frog kit, and like other Merlin kits, basically pretty awful.

Contrail Supermarine Scimitar - vacform. Old and basic and I have been told it's worth avoiding though I have no other details.

Skybirds 86 Scimitar F.1 - released in 1991, this kit was a limited run mixed media kit, mostly injection moulded plastic but with a good amount of white metal parts and a vacform canopy and some etched brass details. It is reputedly the best representation of the Scimitar available in this scale, and certainly the built-up examples I have seen look to have good outline accuracy (the nose and canopy look much better than the CMR kit below). Sadly, being limited run, it is now next to unobtainable and only appears rarely, for silly prices. If anybody wants to let me have one for a reasonable sum...

Build article/review here.

Czech Master Resin Scimitar F.1. Kit CMR1126. The subject of several gushing reviews on the web, this expensive resin kit, released in 2002 and still available, is a big disappointment. The illustration on the box/bag shows a built up kit with folded wings and cockpit access ladder - however neither the ladder nor a folded wing option are provided for in the kit. The canopy shape is incorrect, and I have serious doubts about the shape of the nose area too. The area ruled waisting of the fuselage is barely represented. Gear bays are shallow and featureless. The supplied Sidewinders are inaccurate and in my copy at least are poorly moulded and thus unuseable anyway. Flaps, slats, main gear doors and airbrakes are all moulded closed and would be very difficult to model open as a result. The decal sheet looks good but they are thin and brittle so require care to use, and white backing decals would be a good idea for the roundels in particular. There are some errors e.g. style of lettering in small serials and blade colour on the 804 NAS badges.

A good honest build article and review can be found here - a less critical one is here.

Magna Models Scimitar. Kit 7238. Resin. My general experience with Magna products are that they are a bit basic and the casting quality can be poor. No decals are provided. While I have not seen this kit, the canopy and fuselage shape is apparently more accurate than the CMR kit though the general level of detail is reportedly cruder.

Xtrakit Scimitar F.1. Kit XK72011. Released in May 2009, at long last a relatively mainstream injection moulded kit of the Scimitar! Alas, while it appears to be an improvement on the Xtrakit/MPM Sea Vixen, poor research, poor quality control and the whiff of profiteering mar this product. Many examples of the kit exhibit a scar running down the intake and nose side of one of the fuselage halves, which appear to indicate the mould had cracked but no effort was made to repair it and instead they just pushed out a load of flawed kits. The price of £17.99 - plus P&P - has to make this one of the most expensive 1/72 jet fighter kits in existence, and the box contents do not justify it.

As for the kit itself, well you get basically nothing in the way of cockpit detail (just a poorly done instrument panel); no undercarriage bay detail (indeed, no bays at all for the main gear); an inaccurate seat (clearly modelled on a partially-equipped museum piece), no wing fold option, no open airbrake option (they're moulded solid - and with no perforations either), no poseable control surfaces, basic undercarriage, four of the later style pylons plus four drop tanks - no weapons or other stores of any kind. The nose shape appears to be somewhere between the early more rounded nose and the definitive more pointy one (closer to the latter). A basic IFR probe is supplied. The top of the fin, ends of the rear stabilisers and outer mainplane shapes all look like they could do with a bit of adjustment to accurately match the real thing. The fairings behind the exhausts are too shallow, though should be easy to build up with filler, and the rear end of the fuselage is the wrong shape and too short, as even the most cursory comparison with photos of the real thing would show you - a truly bizarre error. The arrestor hook and tail bumper are crudely done. The area ruling of the fuselage sides is thankfully there, but should be a bit more pronounced - hopefully easy enough to fix with some additional sanding down. Only two of the gun ports are moulded open (and are far too shallow), the other two are faired over (presumably based on a preserved example). Several small intakes/vents/panel lines are wrong. In general the parts exhibit the same sort of surface flaws and flash evident in other MPM/Xtrakit products, and injection pins on mating surfaces that will need to be thoroughly removed if you want the parts to actually fit together.

Two decal options are provided - however the instructions title both of them incorrectly - first is XD321 coded '112/E' (which would be XD268) when the decals are for '116/E' (which is indeed XD321, during summer 1966). For the second one it says XD332 is coded '192/R' and from 'HMS Ark Royal, at RNAS Hal Far, Malta, 1960-61', when the decals show '194/C'. The former would make it XD319; the latter would not have been at Hal Far in 1960, nor did it wear these markings at that time (possibly it visited in 1961 - but at that time it had no IFR probe). The 194 code on the nose should be black with a white outline, not blue, same for the '4' on the nose wheel door (which is also the wrong style) - these decals actually represent the aircraft as it is now, having been incorrectly painted for display at RIAT a few years back. Interestingly the CMR kit has options for XD268/112/E and XD319/192/R... please tell me the research consisted of more than copying their kit!

On the plus side the overall shape - on the sprues at least - looks to be good; the dimensions scale out nicely; there's a fair stab at the intakes with better looking engine faces than in the Sea Vixen kit; as usual, finely done panel line detail - and of course, finally, we have a Scimitar kit that won't cost an absolute arm and a leg (just an arm). If it were around the ten quid mark I wouldn't have any hesitation in recommending it despite the work needed to bring it up to scratch - however, at this price, we should expect a better product. I'm not sure Hannants/Xtrakit care or if they are listening to feedback, though, based on the chain of inaccurate and poor quality mouldings stretching from their Canberra PR.9 through to their Sea Vixen, Sea Harrier and now this kit. Just a little more effort and they'd have happy customers instead of moaning ones!

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Dynavector Scimitar F.1. Kit DYN004. Vacform and white metal kit. This is pretty good value (or was until the exchange rates went bonkers - available direct from Dynavector in Japan), fairly well detailed but requires a certain amount of modelling skill to get the best out of it. The painting instructions and decals for the powder blue and white RAE example are wrong in colour and layout. Accuracy of the model itself looks good.

Manufacturer's website. Build article/review (in French).

Sanger Supermarine Scimitar. Kit CON405. Vacform. Somewhat crude, though the basic shape isn't too bad it misses details such as the area ruled fuselage, the intakes are too small and the canopy shape is suspect. Undercarriage in white metal and also rather basic. Decals are just roundels and codes, no stencils. Clearly inferior to the Dynavector product although it is at least cheaper! Previously released by Contrail.

'Inbox' review (in German) here. Manufacturer's website.

1/32 and larger

None available that I know of. This scratch built 1/18 Scimitar build thread should be worth watching though!

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