The Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a was, with the Sopwith Camel, one of the two best British fighters of the First World War.  It first appeared in the Spring of 1917 as the S.E.5, powered by the 150 h.p. V-8 Hispano-Suiza 8Aa.  This turned out to be underpowered, and by that summer the S.E.5a - powered by the 200 h.p. Hispano-Suiza 8Ab “Hisso” and featuring wings of shorter span - appeared.  The Hispano-Suiza was unreliable mechanically, and the S.E.5a appeared throughout the rest of the war powered by either the geared Hispano-Suiza engine or various “clones” from Wolseley, with a final development from Wolseley known as the “Viper,” featuring “direct drive,” which solved most of the engine problems.  Whether the engines were produced by Hispano or Wolseley, geared engines were known as “Hisso” and direct drive engines as “Viper.”

            The S.E.5a equipped many of the leading RAF squadrons, as well as two squadrons of the American U.S.A.S.  Like the P-47 in the Second World War, the S.E.5a’s pilots had the highest survival rate of any fighter.

            Wingnut Wings is a company that is backed financially by well-known film director and World War I aviation enthusiast Peter Jackson.  The company seeks to release kits that are of high quality and technical accuracy, while being easy to assemble so as to attract modelers who have been previously put off the idea of building biplanes.  The technical sources include original factory drawings and access to the 1:1 airframes that have been built by Jackson’s company, The Vintage Aviator, which are known as the most accurate replicas ever made.

            This kit, the third of the first four in the initial release, comes on four sprues of medium-grey plastic (one full sprue shown as a sample. Ed), and is crisply molded with separate control surfaces.  The fabric detail includes wing and tail rib tape with the stitching detail under the tape.  Two different fuselages are included, one with “taut” fabric and one with the “wrinkled” fabric seen on various S.E.5as and never before done on any plastic kit. The cockpit has lots of small detail. Decals are by Cartograf for five different aircraft and are accurate as regards the colors of the national markings (a small but important matter many decal makers have had trouble with).

            Others have rightly lauded the instructions.  The 22-page booklet has many period photos as well as detail photos of the 1:1 scale S.E.5a owned by Peter Jackson.  Photos of the machine guns are also provided for detailing.  One thing I particularly like is the fact there is information there I did not know previously about the S.E.5a, such as the fact that the Sutton harness was only used on late-production S.E.5a’s.

            There has been an attitude on the part of many modelers that these kits from Wingnut Wings are some form of “second coming” that makes all other 1/32 World War I kits obsolete.  As with most reports of the “second coming,” this is not true.

            I happen to have both the Wingnut Wings S.E.5a and the kit from Roden here, and have taken the opportunity to do a comparison of the two. 

            As regards surface detail, the two kits are different, reflecting a different philosophy on the part of the kit designers.  In fact, on a full-scale fabric-covered airplane, the rib tapes are not really obvious unless the angle of the sun is such that it etches the tape. They’re really about as visible as rivets on a flush-riveted airplane. The rib tapes on the Wingnut Wings kit are “overdone” but then most surface detail on most plastic kits is overdone.  The Roden wings are done with more subtlety and are thus more “technically accurate.”  Whether one likes one choice over the other is strictly a personal aesthetic choice. 

            The fuselage on the Wingnut kit does provide the “wrinkles” that have never been done before.  This isn’t completely accurate, but is probably as accurate as can be done in injection plastic and will likely look very nice under a coat of paint.  One thing that those suffering from detail OCD will notice is that the wrinkles aren’t on the inside, but this would be impossible (I think) in molding the parts.  The other fuselage is “taut” fabric which is very plain.  Here, the Roden kit shows a more subtle approach, with slight “dips” in the fabric between the frames of the fuselage structure.  These are so subtle one will only see it when the model is painted and under certain lighting.

            The Wingnut kit has the control surfaces separate, which certainly eases construction if you - like me - want to do your World War I model with the surfaces posed dynamically.  The Roden kit has these molded integral to the rest of the wing or tail, and thus they have to be cut off and shaped before being glued in position; this is not difficult to do.

            The Wingnut kit has more detail in the cockpit, but the Roden kit looks good when assembled.  The Roden kit needs seatbelts, whether the early lap belt or later Sutton harness is used, while the Wingnut kit has the early lap belt, and would need the Eduard Sutton harness also.

            Overall, these kits are similar but different, in the same way that Eduard 1/48 kits and Roden 1/48 kits of the same subject are similar but different.  The Wingnut kit may be easier to assemble, since there has been effort put into the design to make it “click fit” and thus prevent mis-assembly.  Given that World War I kits by their nature are going to attract modelers with some experience to begin with, this factor is nice but not essential.

            Overall, the Wingnut kit does not make the Roden kit “obsolete” any more than the Eduard kits did.  Wingnut is to be commended for creating kits that are attracting modelers to the genre, and their list of coming releases includes airplanes I never ever thought I would see in this scale. Like the Roden kits, these Wingnut kits prove the truth of my thesis that 1/32 is the ideal scale for World War I models.

Tom Cleaver

May 2009

Thanks to Wingnut Wings for the review kit.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.