The Hanriot HD.1 was a French World War I single seat fighter. Rejected for service with French squadrons in favour of the SPAD S.7, the type was supplied to the Belgians and the Italians with whom it proved highly successful. 831 of a total production of about 1200 were in fact produced by Italian companies under licence.
(Source: Wikipedia)
The kit
Eduard has already issued the 1:48 scale Hanriot HD.1 in 1999 so it is over 10 years now that the model is available in one form or another. This time it comes in a quite appealing Weekend Edition boxing, though when you open the box for the first time, you rather think: "What? That's all?" Indeed, a WWI fighter is small and a 1:48 model of it doesn't take a lot of space.
This Weekend Edition kit (#8412) comes in a top opening cardboard box. The kit's content is the following:
- 2 sprues of light olive styrene parts.
- 1 clear plastic windscreen.
- 1 decals sheet.
- 1 instruction sheet.
Though the plastic of the kit is not new, it is nevertheless of very good quality. The detail is crisp and the parts almost free from flash. To sum up, the kit doesn't show its age at all.
While some parts are marked as "not to use", there are not many options in the kit. Apart from the possibility to do an aircraft equiped with one or two machine guns, there is nothing more. In this Weekend boxing, only one Vickers machine gun will be needed so one will end up in the spare box.
The model is really simple and shouldn't be too difficult to build, even for someone who does not build WWI subjects regularly. The main parts are composed of two wings, two fuselage halves, one two part cowling, the rudder and the horizontal tail planes. The representation of the fabric on the wings is somewhat "dated" but under a coat of paint it should look alright.
A lot of smaller parts are destined to the cockpit, such as a floor, bulkhead, rudder pedal, instrument panel, seat, lever, handling stick etc... Some holes should be drilled into the pilot seat's back and aftermarket seatbelts added for it to look more accurate. The engine is a single piece and while not very complex, a perfectly acceptable representation of the real thing.
The interplane struts are nice but one will have to be careful when placing them between the wings. Indeed, there is a mistake in the instruction in that parts A26 and A27 are shown on the right side and A28 and A29 on the left side. In reality it should be A26 and A28 on the right side and A27 and A29 on the left side.
The undercarriage sub assembly looks good but with the addition of scratchbuilt bungee cords will be even better. Two "windows" will have to be opened in the rear fuselage next to the tailskid since they have been forgotten by the Czech manufacturer.
A small windscreen made of clear plastic is provided in the kit.
The instructions are printed in black & white only on an A4 sized paper sheet folded so to constitute an A5 sized four pages booklet. Page 1 features a plastic parts layout diagram and a color table (Gunze), pages 2 and 3 are dedicated to the assembly steps and page 4 is a painting and marking guide. Some indications for the rigging are provided but some photo references would be probably better. However, some faint locator marks are present on the plastic parts that show where the cable turnbuckles have to go.
Only one marking option is present in the kit:
- Hanriot HD.1 4386, 81 Squadriglia Caccia, IV Gruppo Aeroplani, Italy, 1917/1918.
While not as spectacular as other WWI machines, the sheme chosen is really nice with Silver doped under surfaces and a two tone Khaki/Green upper camouflage. The markings are colorful though, with Italian roundels in six positions, a tri-color rudder, a big "81" in three positions and ace playing cards artwork on both fuselage sides. The decals are excellent and look as if they have been produced by Eduard. If this is the case, it's their best effort to date.
Conclusion
Eduard's 1:48 scale Hanriot HD.1 is still a good kit after more than ten years in service and it's nice to see it available once again in this attractive Weekend boxing. It can be recommended to anyone wanting to tackle it's first WWI model given it's simplicity, but will also please the more demanding modellers with only some minor scratchbuilding work involved.
Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on AeroScale.
SUMMARY
Highs: Good plastic parts - Easy assembly - Attractive marking option.Lows: Error in the instruction regarding the interplane struts.Verdict: Still a nice kit which will represent an easy enough project for someone wanting to tackle his first WWI model.
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.
Jean-Luc,
Excellent review my friend. How does the Eduard example compare to the resin JMGT kit? I've built the JMGT kit and have the Eduards in the stash.
Regards,
Gregory Jouette
From my Hanriot kit reviews on my website.
". . .While the JGMT kit is finely molded multimedia/resin kit fuselage represents early production variant, but has the later one central gun set up. It costs is twice that of either Eduard kits, #8034 Profi-pack or #8039 HD.2. . . ."
". . .The ‘JGMT’ kit decals are very brittle and you may want to try to spray a gloss coat over them and let dry before cutting them from the sheet for use. They are a little translucent as well but the colours are easily matched with existing model paints for touch ups. Using the kit decals for the unit insignia and serial I built this kit to represent the Hanriot HD.1, Nr.11432 belonged to the 72a Squadriglia (not 80a as the old Datafile mentions.) For my build the Italian cockades were leftovers from the ‘Eduard’ kit and placed on the upper wing and the tricolour stripes for the rudder. The lower wing under-surfaces were painted with the classic green and red fields of Italian practice. As for the lion colours, the kit decals are in red and white here but black and white is also possible. . ."
". . .While some people seemed to have trouble with the ‘Propag-team’ decals supplied in most ‘Eduard’ kits, I don’t have many problems. I have a water filtration system in my house and consequently fewer minerals in my water. I find leaving the decals to soak in this warm water strips the glue better and fewer minerals in the water leaves less for the decals to get hung up on when positioning. Micro sol & set applied liberally and final clean up about eight hours later and viola! It’s a done deal. If your having serious problems I suggest distilled warm water. It may help. Also some handling of the model without gloves tends to leave oils on the surface that may help or hinder your process. . . "
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