It had a relatively low powered engine offering modest performance, yet it excelled in scouting, gunnery observation, flight training, ASW reconnaissance, and air-sea rescue missions. It was used on the US Navy’s battleships, its heavy and light cruisers, and with the Navy’s coastal air stations. It also served 
notably with the US Coast Guard, the US Marine Corp., the Royal Navy ‘s Fleet Air Arm, the Soviet Navy, and several lesser navies.

It’s replacement, the Curtiss Seahawk, began arriving in the fleet in late 1944, but most Kingfishers remained in service throughout the conflict. 

Unintentionally, I seem to be slowly working my way through the 1/700 OS2U Kingfisher aftermarket replacements offerings. This item appeared unexpectedly in the spring of this year on eBay, made by Yao’s Studio. I felt compelled to purchase a set, given my dissatisfaction with the options I’ve worked on so far – the styrene injection version from Trumpeter for its cage mast battleship kits, and a resin version from Orange Hobby. 

I don’t know much about this new Chinese company, only that they have an expanding line of 3D printed accessories in both 1/700 and 1/350 scale for a variety of navies. As far as I can tell, they sell directly to consumers via their own “store” on eBay, and via Ali Express, which is a major Chinese e-commerce site similar to Amazon. 

This set comes as a set of six fully printed, one-piece Kingfishers. They are collectively printed on one printing raft, which has been formed to act as a cage to shield the contents. The entire cage comes within a sturdy, polystyrene container, with foam wrapped around the print raft. It is a very smartly packaged set, compact, and well-protected. 

I did not open the “cage” to enable an extreme close-up examination of the set, but the open bars allowed for a reasonably good look at the aircraft. I think it an impressive printing. Each Kingfisher is nearly complete, with fully formed canopy frames, exposed radial engine, and the main and wing floats connected to the aircraft by individual support struts. Only the two bladed propeller for each is printed separately, set on its own attachment points on the base of the raft. 

Overall, the printing looks particularly smooth, with a minimum of obvious print lines. The lines and dimensions of the Kingfishers appear to be quite good. Perhaps the only “knock” is that the depth of the wing chord at the wing root looks a little narrow to my eye from overhead, but I think one would be hard-pressed to really tell. The wind dihedral looks correct as well, with no sag or waviness as is sometimes seen in a 3D printed wing. The attachment points are tiny, which hopefully will mean a minimum of effort to remove them. 

There are no decals. That’s unfortunate, but the range of possible markings is so wide that I can understand why there are none. The modeler will be left to fend for themselves on this point. 

The Yao Studio units require almost no assembly prior to painting, which is cannot be said of the Trumpeter or Orange Hobby versions. The amount of work required to assemble those units is prohibitive and difficult. Nor can one be guaranteed of an acceptable outcome. Here, the outcome is obvious.

It is not clear if the Yao’s Studio resin requires some kind of wash prior to painting, but it couldn’t hurt to soak the resin in a mild mix of dish soap and warm water for a bit, just in case. 

Obviously, much care must be taken in removing the attachment points. I would suggest studying the attachment layout very carefully as it pertains to the areas around all the floats. You do not want to accidentally remove a float support. I can also see removal of the two bladed propeller being problematic. In this instance, access to some brass PE propellers would be a benefit. 

Given the need for delicate handling, as well as the need to source one’s own decals, this offering is not for beginners. That said, it appears to be a quality product and highly recommended as a replacement for any of the current 1/700 OS2U Kingfishers that typically comes with their respective ship kits. 

I am aware that Black Cat has just announced its own 3D printed version of this aircraft in 1/700. That’s a review for another day. 

This set came courtesy of my wallet via Ebay.com. The cost then was $15.99 plus $4 shipping via Speed Pak. That option remains in effect as of this writing.