Gee Bee R2 Racer

Dora Wings, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Luke Pitt

Special Hobby’s Mirage F.1B/BE is available online from Squadron.com

I’ve always had interest in the Golden Age of Air Racing and have collected a number of kits over the years . One of most notorious of these “racers” was undoubtedly the Granville brothers  “Gee Bee” because of its unique design  and some of the nick names bestowed upon it  like “Widow Maker” and “Killer Bee”.

The aircraft  been kitted in various scales over the years by Hawk, Lindberg ,Pyro, Amodel with the best example by a wide margin being by Williams Brothers in 1/32 scale.

 I have always wanted a kit of this in1/48 scale and was keen to review this new example from Dora wings. 

The kit is presented in an attractive box containing 50 grey low pressure plastic parts on four sprues and two im clear on one sprue.

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Thumbnail panels:

A photo-etched fret is included with 17 parts on the fret, together with a well printed decal sheet.

A lovely set of paint masks are included.

Rounding out the kit is a small but adequate instruction sheet.  

All of the plastic parts exhibit fine detail and the side fuselage door can be positioned open if required.

The flaps and rudder are provided as separate parts and may be positioned as you see fit.  

The kit is not without flaws however. The canopy is clear but a little thick and exhibit a few wave lines in the mouldings. It also seems a tad shallow when compared to the drawing and photos I had on hand.

The fabric portions on the fuselage are presented as flat strips and are not entirely accurate. These will need to be contoured with the aid of a curved blade to make this area of the aircraft more authentic.  

The cowling seems to have an exaggerated taper, which can be corrected with a little sanding.

The masks are a wonderful inclusion in the kit and at first I had thought they were incorrect as they did not include the black cheat line between the white and red scallops, but looking at period photos their seems to be no cheat in between the two colours so this turned out to be a misconception on my part (and it would seem many an aviation artist).

The final problem centres around the missing fillets between lower wing surface and the landing gear. This is a fairly easy fix but a little odd that they weren’t included.

You might be thinking I don’t like this kit, but that would not be true.

All kits have issues, there are no perfect kit and this one is no exception. This one needs a little help for sure ,but none of the fixes are difficult  or overly hard to correct, so I’m just thankful there is now one in 1/48 scale.  

Thanks to AMG for the review sample.

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2018 by Luke Pitt
Page Created 15 January, 2018
Last updated 15 January, 2018

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