Fairey Fulmar Mk.I

MPM, 1/48

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

MPM's 1/48 scale Fairey Fulmar Mk.I  is available online from Squadron 

Fans of the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Aim in 1/48 scale must be rejoicing of late.  There seems to be a never ending flow of new kits of the machines operated them coming from Eastern Europe as of late. 

The new Fairey Fulmar from MPM productions is yet another one.  And a very nice one it is indeed! 

The kit comprises 107 parts in a mid-grey plastic with a further 13 in clear plastic all contained on five sprues. 

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

MPM kits have come a long, long way from their earlier efforts that were thick, reasonably poorly detailed and hard to work with.  Their new Fulmar kit is far from that indeed and you would be forgiven if you mistook it for a Hasegawa product at first glance such is the detail provided on the parts.  Also gone are the thick injection gates connecting the sprue to the parts.  Included also are aids moulded into the parts to assist you with the alignment of the fuselage bulkheads and the walls to the undercarriage bays something that you never found on their earlier efforts. 

There are a few downers though.  I found sink marks on some parts, the exhaust stubs and the outside of the forward fuselage where the internal detail has been cast.  The latter one is not that much of a problem to be truthful as a quick smear of filler will put paid to it.  The former is though and it will take some careful and deliberate sanding to eradicate.  There are ejection pin markings to be found, none that can’t be rectified without marring the surrounding detail the but the ones in the seat pan will be a bit of a pain. 

Flash?  Yep there is some, especially on the smaller detail parts such as the undercarriage retraction arms but nothing you can’t rectify with some deft scraping and sanding. 

Markings are provided for three aircraft, one with high demarcation sky grey undersides with extra dark sea grey and dark slate grey upper surfaces and the other two with sky undersides and extra dark sea grey and dark slate grey upper surfaces.  The individual aircraft are: 

• N1892, 6K of 809 Squadron, aboard HMS Victorious in 1940
• N2005, 7C of 803 Squadron, HMS Formidable, 1941
• N4032, 7R of 800 Squadron in 1941.

Thankfully, the decals are first rate (printed by Aviprint) and very useable as I don’t think we will see many if any aftermarket decals printed for this obscure (by mainstream standards) aircraft. 

Assembly instructions are via exploded view drawings in an eight page booklet that also contains the painting guide with Gunze Sangyo colour call outs. 

Do you buy this kit or wait for the “Special” version loaded with resin and etched metal parts that MPM tends to put out once everyone has bought the first issue?  Your call of course, but out of the box it will stand up well against the mainstream producers.  Spend some time and apply some scratch building efforts and it will be a real stunner. 

The kit comes packed in a proper box with a lid.  Great, as you can use it to keep all the parts together whilst constructing the kit but I have to say that the box is waaaaaaaaaay too big!  The sprues fill about two thirds of its length and width.  So what you say?  Well, the postal services of the world must be rubbing their hands with glee at the size of the box as they will reap plenty in the way of postage which means it will cost you a lot more if you rely on mail order!  Seriously though the box is too big and hopefully, MPM will re-think its packaging policy downwards in the future. 

This is an excellent effort from MPM as far as I am concerned and it’s great to see how far MPM has progressed in terms of detail and ease of assembly. 

Recommended.

Thanks to MPM for the review sample.

MPM kits are available worldwide through hobby retailers worldwide and at Squadron.com

Review and Images Copyright © 2007 by Rodger Kelly
Page Created 28 June, 2007
Last updated 24 December, 2007

Back to HyperScale Main Page

Back to Reviews Page