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In-Box Review
172
The Boat
The Boat, Sikorsky JRS-1 amphibian
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by: Andy Brazier [ BETHEYN ]

History
The Sikorsky S-43 was a twin engine amphibious aircraft manufactured in United States during the 1930s by the American firm Sikorsky Aircraft.

The S-43 first flew in 1935, and was a smaller version of the Sikorsky S-42 "Clipper". It accommodated between 18 and 25 passengers, with a separate two-crew forward cockpit. The S-43 was known as the "Baby Clipper" in airline service.
On April 14, 1936, An S-43 with a 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) payload and piloted by Boris Sergievsky set an altitude record for amphibious aircraft when it reached an altitude of 27,950 feet above Stamford, Connecticut. Also aboard was designer Igor Sikorsky.
In total, approximately 53 S-43s were built, including examples of the twin-tailed S-43B.

Five aircraft were acquired by the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1937 under the designation OA-8 and were used for transport of freight and passengers. 17 aircraft were procured by the U.S. Navy between 1937 and 1939 as the JRS-1, two of which served the U.S. Marine Corps. One JRS survived in service at the end of 1941.
Info From Wikipedia

Introduction
The Boat from Eduard started its life as a kit by Sword way back in 2003, and was re-released by Special Hobby in 2005. It has languished around until Eduard have made a Limited Edition boxing of this 1/72nd kit.

In the box
The kit comes in a colourful top opening box with two JRS-1's painted on the box top in flight over a shoreline terrain.

The contents of the kit is packed with three grey plastic sprues, one clear sprue, packed separately, two bags of resin parts, one set of masks, one set of decals, a instruction booklet and a special publication on the JRS-1, which includes a lot of photos and information on this flying boat.

Starting with the plastic parts, they are well moulded with little flash and pin marks do seem to be in places that wont require a great deal of work to remove. These are a mix of raised and recessed ejection pin marks, and some will need sanding down to glue parts together.
No positioning tabs are on the kit so care will be needed to align and glue the parts.

The resin parts are split into two bags as one is from Sword and the other from Eduard, both sets of resin parts supplied are well cast, but you can tell which one was supplied by Eduard as the detail is a little more crisp.
The cockpit seats by Sword will be a pain to remove from the casting block as they are attached by the back of the seat. The rest of the parts should be easy with a sharp scalpel and razor saw.

The Phot Etch fret has a few pre-coloured parts on it for the harness's and instrument panel, with the rest of the fret destined for the external areas. These parts cover the actuators for the flying surfaces underneath the wings and various parts for the fuselage, such as panels, ariels and hand holds.

External detail is recessed panel lines and raised details for the various actuators on the flying surfaces. A nice ribbed effect is on the wings and tail planes, although some may feel its slightly overdone.
The fuselage has raised lines for the hull (can you call it a hull on a flying boat????), which again might be slightly overdone.
A nice touch is the option of having an open upper clamshell door on top rear of the fuselage, which shows an internal stairway.
The cowlings are made up of several parts with the original Sword resin engine faces adding a nice touch of detail. Eduard have supplied prop covers or uncovered propeller hubs, depending on which marking option you are building.
Resin exhausts are supplied, along with a load of photo etch for the external areas of the Boat.
The wheels are moulded in left and right halves, are slightly weighted, and are just about passable for plastic parts. It would have been nice for Eduard to produce these in resin.
The undercarriage is only shown deployed in the instructions, and is made up of seven parts each.
The outriggers fit underneath the engine nacelles and Eduard have supplied a rigging guide for these parts, which is a nice touch.

Internal detail is pretty sparse with seats for the cabin, and a few bulkheads which are pretty devoid of detail. As you wont be able too see a lot through the tiny round windows then this isn't too much of a problem. The passenger seats do come with decals for the lap belts.
The cockpit gets the Eduard treatment with photo etch harness 's for the pilot and co-pilots resin seats, a two part P.E instrument panel and photo etch instrument panel for the ceiling.

The clear parts are blemish free and are pretty opaque.

Kabuki tape style masks are supplied for the greenhouse style canopy and the fuselage windows. Masks for the wheel hubs are also supplied.

Instructions and decals
The instruction booklet is typical Eduard with the build taking place over seven pages. The build is pretty straightforward with any resin or photo etch parts used during the build clearly labelled with either an RP for resin or PE for photo etch.
Parts in the instructions that need to be filled or taken off are colour filled with green or red.
The different marking options for some parts are noted along the way.
Internal and external colours are given for the Gunze Aqueous and Mr Color paints.

The smallish decal sheet is printed by Eduard, so no issues should arise. Colour registration looks pretty good and the decals have a glossy sheen to them.
Most of the decal sheet covers the Stars and Bars, unit markings, and a few decals common for all machines. The only other major decal on the sheet is the tail stripes for marking option C.
Seven marking options are available, which are -
A - JRS-1, Bu.No.1063, VJ-1, 1938-1939
B - JRS-1, Bu.No.1193, VJ-1, Guantanamo Air Base, Cuba, December, 1938
C - JRS-1, Bu.No.1063, VJ-1, Pearl Harbor, February 1942
D - JRS-1, Bu.No.1063, VJ-1, summer 1943
E - JRS-1, Bu.No.1063, VJ-1, 1943 – early 1945
F - JRS-1, Bu.No.1063, NACA Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, May 1945 – November 1946
G - JRS-1, Bu.No.1192, VJ-2, circa 1939 - 1940

The marking options guide is in full colour with all four sides of the aircraft shown. As per usual for Eduard Gunze Aqueous and Mr Color paints are keyed to the colours to be used.

A nice addition to this kit is the special publication, which at first glance looks like another instruction booklet. This is a 27 page colour booklet which gives you a short history, operational use and a short story on one mission for the JRS-1.
The booklet is packed with photos and profiles of various  JRS-1's and the back has a handy walkaround of an aircraft located at the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly U.S.A.

Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on AEROSCALE
SUMMARY
Highs: Well moulded, lots of decal schemes. Nice add on with the publication.
Lows: Not really suited for beginners due to the lack of locating pins.
Verdict: A nice kit of the JRS-1, which has been given the Eduard Limited Editon treatment, and something different from all the fighters and bombers normally released. The publication is also a nice touch.
Percentage Rating
80%
  Scale: 1:72
  Mfg. ID: 2118
  Suggested Retail: 56,25 €
  Related Link: The Boat
  PUBLISHED: Dec 29, 2016
  NATIONALITY: United States
NETWORK-WIDE AVERAGE RATINGS
  THIS REVIEWER: 84.81%
  MAKER/PUBLISHER: 88.59%

Our Thanks to Eduard!
This item was provided by them for the purpose of having it reviewed on this KitMaker Network site. If you would like your kit, book, or product reviewed, please contact us.

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About Andy Brazier (betheyn)
FROM: ENGLAND - SOUTH EAST, UNITED KINGDOM

I started modelling in the 70's with my Dad building Airfix aircraft kits. The memory of my Dad and I building and painting a Avro Lancaster on the kitchen table will always be with me. I then found a friend who enjoyed building models, and between us I think we built the entire range of 1/72 Airfi...

Copyright ©2021 text by Andy Brazier [ BETHEYN ]. Images also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. Opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of AeroScale. All rights reserved.



Comments

Did a Pan Am scheme ever come in the kit? I have the original Sword offering in my hands with the resin details, and the only versions in my kit are a Marine JRS-1 from 1938 and two "Ford Island" (Pearl Harbor) S-43's. Did Eduard release it in Pan Am markings? VR, Russ
DEC 29, 2016 - 05:50 AM
I could have sworn that there was a civil option in one or another of the previous boxings, but it turns out that the ones I remember being built were all using self-produced markings. For those of us who absolutely must do an airliner, Vintage Flyer Decals does a sheet to keep us happy.
DEC 29, 2016 - 06:43 AM
Jessie, I too vaguely recall there was a Pan Am offering at some point, but I think it might have been an aftermarket conversion-- I don't think the Pan Am version had an option for the cargo opening in the roof. A collector I know asked me to do a civil airline (Pan Am) commission, and offered to buy the conversion set a few years ago. Of course the real gem would be the 4 engine Pan Am version-- wish someone would release that. VR, Russ
DEC 29, 2016 - 09:52 AM
Like this one perchance?
DEC 29, 2016 - 10:54 AM
Yep-- that's the one-- S-42, but Anigrand has such an awful reputation-- and such a high price point--too bad a mainstream manufacturer doesn't release more of these flying boats. VR, Russ
DEC 29, 2016 - 11:34 AM
Well, it's either that one, or Combat Models. Not an inspiring set of choices...
DEC 29, 2016 - 11:04 PM
Jessie, No, it's not an inspiring choice, but I'd rather work on "crappy plastic" than "crappy resin", especially when the resin costs four times as much. Not that I haven't done both as you can see in the two articles I've written for Internet modeler on the Rare Planes HP-42 and the CMR S-23 (although that kit is far from a "crappy resin" kit-- and quite nice) LINK LINK I'm currently working on two more plastic and resin nightmares err...seaplanes/flying boats-- the "crappy (really needs a lot of work) Rare Planes P2Y-1 Ranger and the CMR Osa and Martin Johnson's Spirit of Africa S-39-- which has a lot of warts. I built a CMR NYRBA S-38 several years ago as a commission build, but lost the photos somewhere along the line. It was a real headache. I just wish we could get more mainstream manufacturers to produce some of these interesting flying machines in 1/72. Hasegawa did a bunch of Japanese WWII stuff a while back, Sword, Octopus and Roden (their nice Curtis H16 series) have produced a few, and of course the ancient Airfix offerings, but other than that, few manufacturers have really released any "good stuff". There are some 1/32 and 1/48 float plane offerings from Revell and Airfix (the Walrus is coming!) but frankly the "big boats" are sorely lacking (Minicraft released a pretty good PBM, but sadly in the later version, not the more common early version). Nobody seems to want to release the civilian flying boats that were the precursors of over ocean air routes. I have a freind who is reconditioning a 1/72 company model of the Boeing 314 for the masters of a new 314 to be manufactured, but who knows when it will see the light of day. Oh well, something to look forward to maybe? VR, Russ
DEC 30, 2016 - 03:30 AM
Unfortunately, since they're not MesserSpitStangs, the major manufacturers are unlikely to look at them; the economics of producing them are prohibitive, leaving the field to the limited run producers. I'd like to see CMR do an S-42 to the same standard as their Empire boat, but since Anigrand have already released one, it's not very likely
DEC 30, 2016 - 05:55 AM
Nope-- I agree. Have you been to Bryan Ribans Seawings site?-- it's great for research and general looking. Also, sometime in the future (not sure when), The Seattle based NWSM's are due to put a seaplane display on at the MoF in Seattle. I was asked to build a few "seaplanes" for that display, but it's been preempted by the Boeing Centennial display-- not sure when the seaplane display will go back on. Unfortunately the display case is small, so the really big boats are not possible, but there will likely be some interesting float planes and smaller flying boats. VR, Russ
DEC 30, 2016 - 06:27 AM
   
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