BARRACUDA STUDIOS1:32 SCALE WICKER SEATSReviewed by Des DelatorreThe seats arrived from the United States in a very sturby well labelled box with no evidence of damage. The contents were well packed and protected by a layer of crumpled paper. An inspection of the cast resin seats revealed no damage what so ever.
The seats are packed within a small plastic bag which is in turn stapled to a stiff cardboard label. The front of this label displays the company logo, the part number of the seat and the scale. Unfolding the staple will release the instructions for removing the seat from the casting block, very easy to understand instructions along with three photos will ensure that you have no issues with this process. The back of the label has some useful hints and tips for working with resin.
The seats are cast in a light cream colour and as mentioned earlier are on a large casting block. Removal of the seat is easily accomplished with the use of a razor saw, it only took me a few minutes to remove each seat from its block. Bear in mind that the resin seat is only very thin so could be damaged if care is not taken.
The first seat I will review is the seat with part No. BR32233 which is a wicker seat that was fitted to many WW1 British aircraft including the Sopwith Camel, Sopwith Pup, Sopwith Triplane, SE.5a, DH.2, Re.8 and many more. There is no seat belt cast with this seat which I think is a very wise move as it gives the modeler his/her own choice of a seat belt.
The colour of the casting does not allow for good photos so I have painted the seat using Gunze No.71 Middlestone, this really brings out the detail of the seat. This is a low back full weave seat and each individual weave is quite evident not only around the seat but on the seat base as well. The addition of seat belts would really enhance this seat.
The next seat is from BR32234 set which contains two wicker seats, this time they are of the open back design. One of these seats is a low back style while the other is a higher back which gives the modeler a choice to suit the model being built. Again, these seats are suitable for many British WW1 aircraft types and would look quite at home in a Sopwith Camel, Pup or Triplane, it would sit perfectly in a DH.2 or an RE.8.
These two seats were also very easy to remove from their casting blocks but again care must be taken to avoid any damage to the actual seat itself. There was flash evident in some of the cross weave around the back of both seats but this was easy to remove as it was only very thin. I managed to remove all the flass without any damage to any of the cross weaving. Again, for clarity, I sprayed these two seats using Gunze No.71 Middlestone. The weave detail on these two seats is also exceptional with the individual weaving being quite evident.
The next photos show all three seat together which gives a good comparison of the size of each seat, it is so nice to have a choice these days and Barracuda Studios has made life very easy for us.
These seats are now available from
www.barracudacals.com who are based in the USA.
The master patterns where made by Michael O'Hare and credit has to go to Michael for his brilliant work.
Price:BR32233 single seat $5.95 plus post
BR32234 two seats set $9.95 plus post
I have found these seats to be af extremely high quality, they are quite strong and paint adheres to them beautifully. Apart from the little bit of flash removal and the casting block removal the seats pose very little effort to have them ready for painting.
Highly RecommendedReview items purchased from Barracuda Studios by the reviewer
