(This was originally posted on several other forums, so if you have already read it, my apologies. But I wanted to make sure that other modelers of civil aircraft see it.)
Lift Here! is a Serbian company which has produced some interesting and unique kits and decals, but this is the first one I have purchased. Scale is 1/72. I've just received it, and here's a preliminary in-the-box review. I've been a fan of the 310 ever since seeing Sky King's "Songbird" on television in the late 1950s and 1960s, and have collected quite a bit of information on the airplane. So I was somewhat disappointed when I took a close look.
The kit is molded in a dense, white resin which makes the extremely fine engraved detail hard to see. No bubbles are evident. The majority of the fuselage is a one-piece part, with a cavity for cabin interior details. Cabin top/windows/windshields is a one-piece item, vacuum-formed in clear plastic; two copies are included, a nice idea. The cabin top and windows are also given as a one-piece resin part with glass areas indented for those who do not want to detail the cabin. Interior details include seats, instrument panel, instrument panel glare shield, and control wheels, but no guide to their placement is included. The wing including engines and tip tanks is one piece. All parts aresealed in a plastic bag, which is then further sealed in a zip-lock bag, so there is no possibility of loss. Decals are included for two USAF U-3As, one in the original blue-and-white "Blue Canoe" scheme, the other in the later white-over-gray scheme.Box is a two-piece top-and-bottom affair with full-color art.
It is obvious that Lift Here! takes care to produce a quality product, but seem to have relied on incorrect references. Dimensionally, the kit has some serious issues. Based on factory scale drawings of known accuracy, the wingspan is right on, but the engines are 2 mm too far outboard. The fuselage is 3 mm too long, and about 2 mm too deep through the cabin area. Vertical fin is 2 mm too high. Horizontal stabilizers have 2 mm excess chord at both root and tip, and are 2 mm each too long in span. Prop diameters are 5 mm in excess. These dimensional differences might not matter if we were talking about a 1/72 B-36, but the 310 is not a big airplane (wingspan 35.77 ft, overall length 26.025 ft). The 310 has a distinctive appearance, and these differences, even though small, will be obvious and will make the completed model look strangely bloated, especially if one is familiar with the aircraft. But it will no doubt look enough like a 310 to satisfy the majority of builders. That the kit has proven popular is indicated by the fact that the US dealer (Cooper's Models) had his first supply of these sold out by pre-order before heever received them.
Cessna's 310 is one of my all-time favorite aircraft, and I was disappointed when my examination revealed these errors. My advice would be to wait for Aircraft in Miniature's 310B. I provided detailed dimensional data and other details to AIM for that kit, which has been designed using Catia software, so it should be far more accurate than Lift Here's.
In a reply to my original post on another forum, Lift Here! took me to task for my comments and suggesting that they were unfair, while also strangely alluding to pirated decals and phony claims of items lost in the mail, practices which I neither engage in nor approve. For the record, I have no vested interest in Aircraft in Miniature; I am not an employee or stockholder. It is a one-man business in the UK (I am in the US) whose owner has an interest in civil aircraft and belongs to the same Yahoo interest groups I belong to. When I learned he was interested in producing a kit of the 310, I forwarded to him all the information I have accumulated over the years. Had I known that Lift Here! was also interested in bringing out a kit of the 310, I'd have offered to assist them as well. My only interest is in seeing that an accurate model of this airplane is produced.
Michael McMurtrey
IPMS-USA #1746
Carrollton, TX