Short S.4 Satellite

Avis, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Graham Carter

Another kit manufacturer from the Ukraine with a penchant for aviation oddities, AVIS is answering many modeller’s requests with aircraft such as this one, the Short Cockle and variants of the Bristol M1C family. All are produced in runs of 500 only so jump in and grab one quickly if it of interest as they will become collector’s items soon enough.

This kit comes in a flimsy end-opening box with a simple rendition of the Satellite on the top and colour images of other kits in the range on the rear. Inside are two sprues in light grey plastic, a diminutive transparent sheet with two sets of marked on it to be cut out and attached, and a small decal sheet containing the two different marking options the aircraft appeared in. References for this aircraft are scant; the only one I had in my collection is the November 1985 edition of Aeroplane Monthly which contains a description, photos and a set of drawings. It appears to have been singularly unsuccessful as a racer but the Short’s test pilot J. Lankester Parker used it as a runabout for a year or two with the soubriquet of “Parker’s Tin Kettle”.

The 28 parts are nicely moulded with restrained surface and interior detailing and almost no flash - just  couple of seams that will need tidying up.  Cockpits are reasonably complete with seats, sticks, foot pedals and some structure moulded into the fuselage halves. Not much will be seen through the 5mm openings and all I will add are a couple of seatbelts. Note that the aircraft flew with both single cockpit opening as shown on the box top, and two holes. Two sets of cockpit details are in the kit to cover the differences.

I do see an issue with the wing construction as each is in two parts with only the lower inboard section seperate - I only hope that the joints here won’t be too obvious, especially with a silver finished air frame. I actually don’t see the point of this parts break down as the rest of the wings are fine. Below can be seen the level of moulded interior detail and undercarriage.

The aeroplane is tiny with a span of around 11cm and length of 7.5cm.

The enormous (relative to the size of the box and the finished aircraft) double-sided A3 instruction sheet clearly shows the construction sequence and there are generic colour call-outs where needed. I would assume that the interior was silver/natural metal finished. Being a short-run kit here are no locating pins or holes, and there will be some clean up of seams and nubs where the sprue gates meet the parts. These are clearly shown in the image above.

This looks like a splendid kit, well detailed and with sufficient decal choices to make the modeller of that pre-WWII era very happy.

If this is your interest area, get one or two while they are available as this new kit is just lovely, well detailed and presented.

Purchased by the reviewer.

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2020 by Graham Carter
Page Created 17 August, 2020
Last updated 17 August, 2020

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