MS500/502 Criquet
Photo-Etched Set

for Academy kit

Brengun, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Graham Carter

The Criquet was the French-built variant of the well-known Feiseler Fi-156 Storch which was built in huge numbers before and through WWII, 2900 or so in Germany. After the war the Czechs built around 140, the Romanians 70, and Morane-Saulnier in France produced over 920 as the Criquet with both in-line and radial engines, the last in 1965 would you believe! Dozens of them are still flying all around the world, most being the French version.
( thanks to Wikipedia for figures)

Brengun give us a 100x50mm PE sheet containing 68 parts that will enable the modeller to go nuts in detailing the interior, flaps and engine of the radial-equipped Criquet, or just use the interior bits to upgrade a Storch. The parts are specifically for the Academy kit but I suspect most will satisfactorily pop into the Airfix or Heller kits. 

The instructions are two sides of an A5 sheet and indicate which kit parts need to be modified. No painting instructions are given. A problem is that parts 19, 27, 37 and 38 are not labelled on the instructions but are the parts that make up the structure around and supporting the pilot’s seat.

Parts cover an entire interior - tubular structure, floor, seats and instrument panel. Have fun with the observer’s seat (stage B) which consists of six tiny parts which need to be folded and glued together - some of contact points are pin-prick sized so take care. The pilot’s seat is also fully detailed with a pan, cushion, support bracket and belts and leaving the door open will allow everyone to admire your skills. Also covered are instrument panels (with a transparency for the dials), control pedals and all levers and doo-dads that fit the side frames. A nice door interior will allow this to be seen. A highlight (!) is the set of machine-gun spare cartridges each made up of a lamination of three pieces with a tiny handle on top. The finesse of the final structure would lead me to recommend building it all as a whole and hen dropping it into the fuselage as one unit, taking care that it all will fit as you go along, but we all do that anyway, don’t we?

Turning to the radial engine, you get the cylinder support frame, an ignition harness and nine rocker covers to tizz it up. I reckon it will look great when painted.

To wrap up there are four 2-part aileron control mechanisms to go under the wings, replacing the crude plastic mouldings.

Thanks to Brengun for the review samples.

Review Text Copyright © 2021 by Graham Carter
Page Created 2 March, 2021
Last updated 2 March, 2021

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