Fw 190 D-9, Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IX, F4U-1D Corsair and P-51D Mustang

Forces of Valour, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Andy King

Eduard's 1/48 scale Hanriot HD.1 Weekend Edition is available online from Squadron.com
 

Forces of Valor is a new company to me but apparently it was founded in China around 2002 and makes injection moulded kits and die-casts of WW2 vehicles, aircraft, ships etc. Having done an internet search they claim to make accurate and well detailed models so let’s see if that holds up to some scrutiny.

First up is the Spitfire Mk.9 which features a ‘C’ wing rather than the clipped ‘E’ type and first impressions are pretty…erm….dismal. Panel lines are over done and almost comparable to the trenches found on the old Matchbox kits, the shape of the fuselage (especially the tail) is just plain wrong and the canopy is spoiled by the locating tabs either side and the anchor point for the rear view mirror. Interior detail is pretty non-descript and I guess you could hide it with the pilot but that’s not much better either. Hmmm…..

Anyway, moving swiftly on, let’s look at the P-51 Mustang and although the panel lines are a bit better they are still overdone for the scale. The fuselage shape around the rear is again suspect and to be kind the cockpit detail is ‘representative’. Wheel well detail is moulded into the lower wing but the detailing on the inner main gear doors is pure fiction, at least the canopy is better than the Spitfire one in that there are no locating tabs to mar it although the shape is still suspect.

Next up is the F4U-1D Corsair and all the comments above pretty much apply to this one too, the canopy has locating tabs that spoil it, overdone panel lines, a sparse cockpit, three weird dimples on the fin…at least the prop looks decent enough.

Lastly we have the Focke Wulf Fw190D-9 and this is the best of a bad bunch as the panel line detail is a bit more refined than the others (apart from the horizontal elevators on the tail plane) and the fuselage shape is OK.

Cockpit detail is still rudimentary but to be fair the instrument panel is buried even on the real aircraft so in this scale it would be hard to see especially with it being painted in RLM 66 Schwartzgrau (black-grey).

The canopy is marred by locating tabs yet again and the wheel well detail, apart from being shallow, features the centre panel that was fitted to earlier ‘A’ types but removed on the D-9.

All the kits feature just one marking option and as stated on the side of the box they have been moulded (to quote the blurb for the Spitfire) ‘Plastic material color of this product is molded according to BS638 equivalent color reference; Royal Air Force dark sea grey”. The decal sheets are okay but some of the smaller decals are out of register.

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All kits feature a basic engine and apart from the Fw190 have bombs or drop tanks included.

To be honest I’m not really sure who exactly these kits are aimed at as they are certainly not up to the standard for collectors or model builders. At best I would say they would be suitable as starter kits for kids but that’s about it.

If you want accuracy, especially for a Spitfire or Fw190, you could pick up an Eduard Weekend Edition kit for not much more than you would pay for these Forces of Valor ones. Even the Hobby Boss 1/72 F4U-1D would be better than the one here.

Sorry, but I’m not impressed!

Thanks to The Hobby Company for the samples

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2019 by Andy King
Page Created 29 October, 2019
Last updated 29 October, 2019

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