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Gábor Szabó
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Review: The new SBS D.H. 88 Comet 1:72 – in box review

September 8, 2015 · in Reviews · · 12 · 2K

Hi Everyone!

This little gem arrived yesterday onto my desk. The long waited SBS Comet resin super kit! Actually the kit debuted at the 2015 Moson Show but sell so well that You have to wait for it! Csaba was so kind that send me a sample - for my work as consultant - and asked me for an article about the kit in a magazine later. Naturally I happily accepted the oppurtunity. Back to the subject: this is the best Comet kit ever produced as shape-wise as buildability.

SBS invested into the most modern production technics during making the prototypes. They bought the original plans and converted them into 3D. The original masters were made by 3D printing and the surfaces cleaned and polished by hand to the highest standards You can see on the pictures. Even the casting blocks are made by artistic demands 🙂 - see those structures on the nacelles 😀 . By the way: nacelles are the perfect example for the finesse of the whole kit and You can see how far the industry has come with the new manufacturing tecnologies. Each nacelle is a one part but contains the gear bay and the front of the engine beautifully. The parts are well formed and fits perfectly (thanks to CAD technology) - I could try it with the prototype at the Moson Show. The parts literally snaps together which is uncommon with most of the resin kits. You get a small photo etched fret also with the belts, instrument panels and some very delicate exterior parts for Your money. The canopy is a clear resin issue (I prefer vacu but Csaba claimed that this one atracts costumers more and greatly improves the kit easy-building-nature). The landing gears are from white metal that manufactured for SBS by a UK company specialised for high quality white metal parts. There are two boxings of the kit (currently) one for the "blacks" (Black Magic, Salazar) and this "green and red" (Grosvenor House, "Green un"). The instructions are clear and logical (made also by CG). The decals are of high quality with nice color graphics for the two versions. The other one can seen here: http://www.sbsmodel.com

All in all finally we have a high quality easily buildable kit of the Comet. Not on the cheap side, as the kit tending at 40E but as I said this is the best Comet on the market and when You compare this with the other kits (as price or work needed for a decent replica) You will see this little gem in perspective.

Some may will ask why not in 1:48? Csaba said that they had to keep the expenses of the prototiping and manufacturing at a reasonable level and since this is their first all 3D technology full kit the risk was quite high. The good news is that the plans are in CAD sooo if they see enough demand (or pre-order or something like) they can make the Comet in 1:48 or even bigger 🙂 O.K. guys so start bombing them with mails 😀 !

Reader reactions:
1  Awesome

18 additional images. Click to enlarge.


12 responses

  1. A beautiful aircraft and it looks like care has been taken to produce a beautiful kit. Thanks for posting.

  2. Really looking forward to seeing this built up!

  3. In future to my stash..

  4. After finishing the airfield diorama this will be my next project - and I will build the green one this time 😉

  5. Looks like I should put the Airfix kit in the bin and build this one,

  6. Never before seen one...looking forward to the build. Thanks.

  7. Ups! Now I see at their website that they made a third iteration: "french&RAF" - I guess the red is the french government purchased one flown by Mermoz to discover new air post routes and the other one is the silver painted RAF experimental.

  8. sooo good to see a hungarian kit in this stunning professional quality!

  9. Hey - who needs anything but 1/72!?!

    Look forward to seeing it build Gåbor!

  10. O.K. I know, 1:72 is the true-scale 😀

  11. Thanks for the review Gabor, I've been wondering about the quality of this kit. Looks like I NEED one.

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