Each Bond movie traditionally starts with an exciter, an introductory scene that gets the pulse racing even if it doesn’t have a great deal to do with the actual plot, a fun but unnecessary introduction to James Bond 007. Octopussy started with such a scene that culminated in a fast-paced aerial sequence involving a Bede BD-5 microjet and the back end of a (fake) horse.
The BD-5 is the subject of this kit, bought on a total whim from bigsky42 on Trademe. It’s actually two kits allowing two aircraft to be built with options on jet or prop propulsion and short of long wings. Apparently, there is one release of this kit, possibly under an Arii label, that includes four aircraft allowing each permutation to be built.
Both models are quite simple with very few parts. I saw somewhere online that these are the smallest 1/72 models of a manned aircraft. The cockpits are so tiny that the addition of a pilot figure or seatbelts, not sure you could fit both, would be about all that was necessary.
The USAF markings are for a version of the prop version that was stored on a USAF base. According to a post on the Airfix Tribute Forum:
One of the people who ordered one was an ROTC cadet who then went on to join the USAF as an officer. He was still building it when he was posted abroad (to Germany and Korea as I recall), so after searching around he found a USAF state museum that was willing to store it for him. However, bearing in mind that the USAF had actually evaluated the aircraft about a decade earlier, and to stay in keeping with the theme of the collection, they asked that he put it in fictitious USAF markings while it was stored there. It reverted back to civilian markings once his overseas tours were over, and he was able to resume building it at home.
~LS 1/72 Bede microjet BD-5 (LS a194)
It might look equally as good in a USAF camouflage scheme as test bed (very) light attack or recce craft…
Of course, having built one, the question may be how long will it take before a 1/72 horse float looks scratchable?
