VFR MODELS Beagle B.121 Pup

This is the first 3D printed kit I have come across and it is really rather fine.

-  Robert Rose

The subjectnicely fills a gap in British aircraft, since I don’t know of any other Beagle Pup kits at all. The kit arrives in a sturdy box, with vacform parts, decals, and a number of 3D printed sections stored in separate plastic bags, a nice touch.

The 3D printing process builds up layer by layer, so there are a host of very fine printed lines leading away from each of the main parts. These fine lines are easily cut away using a sharp knife. After that, the edges of the parts can be cleaned up using scalpels and wet and dry paper. To avoid resin dust, it helps to keep the parts wet while doing this. I found clean up easy. After main assembly, a little very light overall sanding with 1200 grade wet and dry was enough to smooth out the minor ridging, which could just be felt with a fingertip.

The cabin area is all preformed as one 3D piece, so all that was required after trimming was to paint the detail. Seat belts can be added, in my case done in thin painted tinfoil, although they were effectively invisible once the transparencies were in place