BITING THE BULLET

A Macedonian Scout

- Dave Hooper

The Vickers Bullet is one of the more lesserknown single-seat scouts from World War I. This is almost certainly because the RFC mainly confined the aircraft to the Middle East, where it served in Palestine and Macedonia. Several Bullets also went to the Imperial Russian Air service, some of which ended up in the hands of the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution.

The KP kit comes in a side opening box sporting a rather nice image of the aircraft on its front cover. Inside is one sprue of plastic parts, instructions, and a small decal sheet. The plastic sprue is very reminiscent of the type of limited run kits that was common twenty or thirty years ago. All the parts are quite thick and the level of detail very soft compared to most modern injection-moulded plastic kits. As far as I can tell, the same sprue is used for all KP's boxings of this model including the Mk I kits, but the only optional part is the engine. Lower wings were in a significantly different position on the two different variants of this aircraft, but only one set of lower wings is included. Because the shape of the fuselage tapers at the point where the lower wings sit, I would therefore expect either the Mk I or Mk II lower wings to require some adjustment in length in order to align with the upper wing.

The instruction sheet is simple but clear and informative. The three colour options are detailed on the rear of the box and feature simple colour names, such as khaki and linen, rather than references to a particular manufacturers paint.