The He P1078A was the first of 3 designs under the project number 1078 which was also had the most conventional layout of the 3.

This kit comes in the normal Special Hobby light weight cardboard box, the box cover art is also of the normal high quality. Inside the box the kit comprises of one large sprue of 29 parts in a light grey plastic, also in the box is the decal sheet, clear vacuum formed canopy, etched brass detail sheet and instructions.

The layout of the kit is normal for SH short run injection moulded kits, the wings come in 2 pieces (top & bottom) and are without locating pins. The parts themselves are flash free. With these kits the cockpit area normally needs work to make the cockpit floor and accessaries fit, also some times it is necessary to reinforce the wing fuselage joints. The wheel wells show some detail that was missing from some of the early SH kits. The instructions are clear and the decal sheet provides markings for one aircraft.

All in all this is a clean no frills kit which would be a useful addition to anyone's collection.  This kit may no longer be available in 2000 - try NKR Models , Hannnants etc.,.

At first glance, this resin kit looks to be an easy build due to the whole fuselage and wings being molded in one piece. Guess what? It is! There are only three other main parts to be stuck on the fuselage/wings, the air intake, fuselage rear with jet exhaust and a cockpit side walls tub. All three are easily done in an hour, although some puttying work will be needed on the last mentioned part.

I primered the kit in a light grey, and then this kits glaring problem became apparent: hundreds of tiny holes! I know a lot of people use Mr. Surfacer, but I can't get it around here, so it was time to sit down and actually putty each tiny hole. After I sanded and primered again, I had to putty the holes that I missed on the first go 'round.

For the actual paint scheme, I chose an overall RLM 76 light blue with a RLM 83 Dark Green upper squiggle pattern. Of course, all interior landing gear bays and landing gear were painted RLM 02 Grey.

The cockpit parts are rather spartan, consisting of a seat, stick, instrument panel and two rudder "wedges". The seat went into the spares box and I used a Reheat photoetch seat and seat belts. There is one vacuform clear canopy included which has to be cut out and carved/sanded into shape.

The landing gear is pretty spindly, and since the fuselage/wings are one hunk of solid resin, I don't think that they will support the weight of the kit for an extended time, especially in the summer! I carefully drilled out the landing gear struts and inserted a piece of stiff wire to help support the weight of the kit. In the long run, I'm going to use a couple of trestles to hold up the kit except when photographing or showing it.

The decals I used came from a wide variety of sources, including Revell, Microscale and Aeromaster, and the markings scheme came from my imagination, as all of my Luft '46 kits are....

Please visit my Luft '46 page, for a more thorough description of this aircraft and to see more CzechMaster He P.1078B model photos: http://users.visi.net/~djohnson/luft46.html

Rating:

Accuracy: Well, it looks like a He P.1078B, except only two gun ports are on the starboard nose, where some of my references show three or four. 8/10

Assembly: Since the kit is already largely assembled, all you have left is to stick on the details, and it's nice not to have to worry about wing root sanding. 9/10

Material: The kit is entirely in a nice cream colored resin, the bad part is the main piece (fuselage/wings) is full of tiny little holes. 5/10

Instructions/decals: The instructions are like all CzechMaster kits, one exploded view showing more or less where everything goes. No decals are included. 7/10

Overall: If not for all of the pin holes present, this kit would get a higher rating, but it still is an excellent kit, and the only kit of this unique aircraft.