TOKO 1:72 SEA VENOM FAW.21/53

Reviewer: Derrick Winters  (rec.models.scale)

My understanding is that this is simply a reboxing of the old Frog kit of the 60's/70's genre so with that in mind, it is best not to go into this review thinking anything better of it.  There appears to be no updating of this kit whatsoever, other than the decals, and thus, unlike other Toko recent releases, this is not going to be a new kid on the block to get all worked up about.

That said, this is not a bad kit really, and will do the job okay.  So what do you get? Four sprues containing about 45 injection molded parts in light grey and a thick clear (??) plastic representing the cockpit, plus the original Frog display stand.  You also get a single A4 sheet for instructions which has three exploded assembly steps that is a bit vague to say the least, but adequate.  A sprue diagram and brief history are also set out on the sheet.

Construction begins inside the cockpit, and this is about as basic as four letter words in the English alphabet.  Best bet is to shoot down to your local hobby store and get some hybrid aftermarket stuff, generic, or 'one size fits all' as I am not aware of anything specifically prepared for this kit. All you get is a couple of very blocky ejection seats, a floor and a makeshift (if you could call it that) dashboard to double up as an instrument panel.  You'll need to spruce it up to get any resemblence of a miniature interior, but then there is the very thick and distorted canopy piece that won't allow much cockpit viewing anyway.

After fixing up the cockpit the fuselage halves went together quite well but needed a bit of sanding to smooth them out.  The nose cone is separate and is a good place to put some weight inside before attaching to the aircraft and prevent any tailsitting.  Next came the wings, and a bit of filling and sanding was called upon here.  Be sure to have them sit correctly because if they don't then you will find the tail-booms hard to square up properly.

I did the sub-assembly of the twin booms and tailplane separately and connected them to the wings while all components were not yet fully dry, to allow a little flexibility and to ensure correct overall positioning.  The joins, in particular boom to wing, needed a fair bit of filler to plug the gaps. This practice I have carried out on all these types of models and I've got it down to a fine knack. But you need a fair bit of patience and know what you are doing because you can make a mess if you don't do it right.  If this is not your style you are best doing some dry fit tests to work out your angles before allowing the wings to dry so you don't end up with a tail-boom that is crudely out of alignment.

The undercarriage fits quite well but the gear doors are very thick and would be best replaced with some 'plastic card'.  Dry fit testing reveals that they are almost as thick as the wheel wells themselves! The final thing to add from the kit was the canopy - ugh! This is really just awful and distorted and is best replaced from spares, aftermarket source or whatever.  I used it because I had nothing better, but in hindsight I should have done something about it.

Toko have updated this kit with an all new decal sheet and this is, to say the least, excellent.  Four perceivable options are provided including a No.891 NAS HMS Ark Royal 1955 and a No.890 aircraft from the same boat, 1955, a No.809 NAS HMS Albion 1956 (all three aircraft being FAW.21 type) and an FAW.53 RAN aircraft based on HMAS Melbourne 1962, from 724 Sqn.  The decal sheet is in excellent register and you can tell simply by looking at the sheet that they are something special.

I chose to reproduce an RAN example and used the Wilson publication "Sea Fury, Sea Venom and Firefly" as reference to produce as accurate reproduction as possible.  This was finished in the familiar upper sea grey and lower sky scheme - the instructions state light grey but this is incorrect, and the big black bulbous nose.  The decals conformed to the surface very well and were a joy to apply.

Accuracy wise the kit measures up quite well in this scale falling short in real life by only inches.  Surface and other exterior detail is not very flattering, and such things like aerials, ducts etc will need to be added using stretched sprue. You will need to put in some extra effort to get a really expert looking reproduction but out of the box it is still a Sea Venom! 

Overall this is still a decent kit and an enjoyable build.  It does not measure up to today's standards, or Toko's recent WW1 efforts, so don't be fooled by the box, you are simply buying the same Frog kit in a new box. That said, it goes together quite well and is certainly a recommended project for all modelling skill levels. 

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