The Fly Deco Udet Flamingo
Model: |
Udet U12 "Flamingo" |
Kit: |
Published by fly deco. Purchased from S&S |
Scale: |
1:33 |
Price: |
Around $5:00 |
Difficulty |
Moderate |
Number of Parts: |
About 100 |
Time Required: |
App. 15 Hours |
Instructions: |
General directions only (in German) |
Diagrams: |
Exelent Diagrams, 2 Period Photos and one Model Photo |
Fit: |
Excellent |
Coloring and Artwork: |
Very Good color |
Printing: |
Good paper and high print quality |
Resources: |
Very Limited. I have a large aviation reference library and could find nothing on this airplane. The internet does have some information on Udet and his company. |
Comments: This was a relatively easy project with a great result! The model is very well engineered. It assembles easily and its complete internal structure yields a very sturdy model. The prototype had a lot of charisma with a 1930's airshow paint scheme, trim biplane wings with distinctive interplane struts, and a fully exposed 7 cylinder radial engine. The engine turns out especially well in the model when detailed as described in the instructions. This time I built everything "box stock", so what you see is what you get. Construction was very straightforward so I won't add any more details here.
Fly Deco offers several other equally intriguing subjects including a bf-108 trainer, an SG-38 glider, and the Grade Eindecker from 1909 which resembles the Santos-Dumont Demoiselle. They all come in a large 12x16 inch format on two pages. I'm surprised I've not seen any fly deco products on the various web sites, as they all look as great as the U-12 displayed here. Fly deco is not even mentioned in the Card Model FAQ. I hope this example will encourage you to try one of these great kits.