North American T-28B Trojan

[Mike]

North American T-28B Trojan

1:48 Roden

The T-28 replaced the T-6 Texan in American service as a pilot trainer in the 1950s, until it was gradually phased out in the 60s and 70s. In total almost 2,000 were built, of which almost 500 were of the later B model, which had a more powerful Wright-Cyclone R-1820 engine which increased the top speed despite the increase in all-up weight. From the exterior the B model looks broadly similar to the A model, with only differences in the cowling area, which has a more squared off profile and slight changes to the layout of the ancillary intakes.

This is a new tool from Roden, and the kit arrives in one of their shallow top opening boxes with a painting of a red and white Marines Trojan on the top. Inside are five sprues of mid-grey styrene, one of clear parts, a long thin decal sheet and instruction booklet.

First impressions are good, although the panel lines are a little heavy, but nothing that won’t reduce under a few coats of paint. A little flash is evident in places, but more so on the sprues, which are a little rough in places, but of no major importance as they will doubtless end up in the recycling. Parts breakdown seems to be logical, and as is often the case with Roden kits, there seems to be a light patina on the clear parts, which should probably disappear once dipped in Klear.

Unusually for a single engine aircraft, the construction starts with the engine, with one row of cylinders depicted in their entirety, with a bulkhead cutting through them, presumably to prevent daylight shining through from the cowling flaps installed later. Detail on the cylinders is good though, although the cooling vanes on the cylinders are a little chunky when compared to some. Keeping up the unusual construction sequence, the wheels and gear legs are next, and a good reproduction of the chunky gear is made, which has integral oleo-scissors and nicely moulded tyres, which are made from two parts, which shouldn’t be a problem, as there is no tread to damage when making good the seam. The nose wheel is a single part due to its size, and is well detailed with a recessed and riveted hub.

The wing halves are next, with mobilised flaps and ailerons, as well as separate wing tips and flap actuators, which are a welcome addition. Finally, we get to the cockpit, which is a single tub containing the two crew areas, to which extra instrument panels, throttle quadrants and control columns are added, before a pair of curious looking seats are added, which both have prominent ejector pin marks on the seat area. Perhaps a cushion made from Milliput could be used to cover these? The main instrument panels are simple affairs, with the bezels moulded in, over which you lay a pair of instrument decals. This should satisfy the majority of modellers, but the detailer will want to add more here, particularly as the canopy offers plenty of light on the subject.

At this stage the fuselage can be joined, including a recommended 25g noseweight (not supplied) to help the finished model stand on its tricycle landing gear. The underside of the fuselage where the landing gear bays sit is a separate part that glues to the fuselage, and was moulded separately to improve the detail. There are a few ejector pin marks on the inner surface of the gear bays here that will need some attention though. Once this part is installed, the fuselage should is structurally complete, and the movable rudder sandwiched between the tail halves should remain posable if you are careful with the glue. The windscreen is added at this stage, so will need masking before priming, and a pair of canopy rails are added to the sides of the cockpit – detail that is often ignored by kit manufacturers everywhere. Before joining the fuselage halves, the exhaust stubs are added from the inside, and here a significant amount of flash will need removing before you can begin the task. Once joined, the engine and cowling are added, and a trio of cowl flaps can be posed open or closed, at your whim.

At this point the wings are joined to the fuselage, and at this point I wondered why the lower wing half couldn’t have been moulded as a single piece, as it currently introduces additional seamlines to clean up with very little benefit in terms of detail. The remaining tasks include adding the air brake, which has a nicely detailed well, the main and nose gear, plus their respective doors. The retraction mechanism on the nose gear well doors is good, and has plenty of structural detail on the X-shaped jack, which should give a strong attachment once glued in place. The inner main bay doors are similarly rugged, with a large H-frame folding them open, while the outer doors affix to the sturdy gear legs, and have linkages for extra detail.

The canopy and prop are the last items to be installed, and the unusual 2-part sliding canopy is represented as two parts – a small rearward sliding portion for the pilot, which opens to cover the rear-seater’s instrument coaming, and the larger rear portion that slides further back. The front part is made from one clear part, but the rear has a styrene part for the majority of the fairing and a clear part for the canopy area. This can cause a little consternation regarding the attachment of the two parts, but the fairing portion is suitably large to make this a more simple task with a little PVA or GS-Hypo cement. The prop is a single part with all three blades moulded in, and a small central boss added to the front. A scrap drawing gives instruction on the painting of the prop warning tips, which are stripes of 1.5mm each white/red/white on an overall black prop blade.

The decals are printed in-house, and under magnification have a very slight fuzziness to the edges, which is more evident on the borders between the blue and white of the US markings, and there are also a few instances of damage to the decals, which although they are only minor, should have been picked up in quality control, although the worst one, may well have happened in transit, judging from the removal of the carrier film. The carrier film, when looked at from an angle seems to have been applied as two layers, with the top layer slightly offset from the original, which looked to have been set too low. Whether this is a technique to ensure proper coverage and prevent breakup of the decals, whilst giving a thinner edge to the decal, I don’t know… it could well be the case though. Although it sounds like I’m not impressed with the decals, I am looking at them at 2.5x magnification, and at 1:1 they look to be fine.

From the decals in the box, you can depict one of three aircraft, as follows:

• BuNo. 140006, Naval Aerospace Recovery Facility, NAS El Centro, California 1970 (overall silver)
  
• BuNo. 137692, KB4 US Marine Corps, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, March 1977 (White with red cowling, wing tips and tail)
  
• BuNo. 148288 Pacific Fleet All Weather Training Unit, Mid ‘70s (overall trainer yellow)
  

Colour density of the decals appears good, as is register. If you can live with the minor issues mentioned above, they should serve you well.

Conclusion

Trainer aircraft are popular for some reason, and even though I have built a number of them, I can’t tell you why either. This is a nice kit of a post-WWII trainer that served faithfully with the US armed forces for a long time, after which is went on to serve with a number of other countries, and was license built by the French as the Fennec. I can foresee plenty of other decal options arriving to cater for those other users. Whilst it isn't up to the standards of the leading companies in terms of moulding quality, it is a nice kit, and should prove easy to build for all but the novice. Colourful schemes from the box help with the appeal, and it deserves to sell well.

Recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[mungo1974]

It look very nice,especially when compared to the prehistoric Monogram kit.

I hope we get to see more variants like a early T-28A,AT-28D,Fennec etc

[Irish 251]

Thanks for the review. Aeromaster did a couple of nice decal sheets for the T-28, which are currently being sold by Moduni in Germany for €2 each! Search for "T-28" on www.moduni.de and you'll find them

[Panoz]

Gunpods!!!

I see an Air Commando one coming soon...

Edited March 28, 2012 by Panoz

[Jaffe284]

Wonder if the nose weight issue could be solved by casting the engine in lead or similar "heavy" metal?