I’m wondering if people have had good or bad or mixed experiences building Testor’s very reasonably priced OV-10 in 1/48?
I’m considering this one soon.
Flynavy1958
It’s a pretty basic kit, with not a lot of detail. I have only dry fitted the parts, some time ago, so I’m not sure about seam fit or filling. The cockpit is sparten. I have aftermarket parts for it. I’m not sure whether they are still available.
I was very disappointed with this kit. There is no detail at all,only the basic shape of the aircraft. Always hoping some other company will come out with a new 1/48 or even 1/32 scale of this plane, it has a huge greenhouse cockpit that just screams for detailing! Maybe Trumpeter is paying attention?
If you want it to be accurate then aftermaket is necessary, I think it is Paragon in Britain that makes correction sets. The center section of the wing is too short in span among other things, and as said above the interior needs a lot of help. It’s not a cheap kit once it is fixed. Academy makes a 1/72 version that may be an option.
At the risk of being repetitive, it’s lacking in detail. I’m planning on picking up some AM for it at some point.
I bought the Missing Link cockpit and engines nacelles. They, unlike the kit, are nicely done. I’ve set the Testor kit aside in favor of the 1/72 Academy kit. I read two reviews on the Academy kit and they both say the windscreen is too big for the fuselage. This is a shame because the airplane has real nice details and this will spoil it.
I too wish it would come out in 1/32.
Ken
As everyone has pointed out, this is a pretty basic kit.
However, in its defense, I must mention its heritage. HAWK Models originally released this kit around 1967 and it represented the prototype OV-10 with a shorter wing and straight sponsons. It was later modified (in the 1980s?) and brought up to date with the longer production wing and drooped sponsons. I built the original Bronco release back in 1973 and it represented a pretty good kit for the time.
HAWK was one of the first companies, along with Monogram, to produce kits in 1/48 constant scale back in “the stone age”. Some of HAWK’s other “state of the art” (for the 1960s) 1/48 scale kits were the Lysander, P-51 Mustang, P-47 Thunderbolt (bubble canopy or razorback), T-33/T2V, F8F Bearcat, F-5A Freedom Fighter, and Cessna Skymaster/O-2A. Testors has rereleased a number of ex-HAWK kits.
Martin
i built this kit in 67-68 when i was turning hippish and really into blacklight art. naturally, i used fluorescent paint for the cockpit and nav/form lights. it was far out, man, far out.
I built this kit when I first got back into modelling last year. Personally, I like the kit. I’m not a big cockpit guy, so the sparse cockpit isn’t an issue for me. Actually, I needed all that empty space to place about six fishing sinkers to prevent the plane from tail-sitting. Putting a simple weight in the nose isn’t going to do the trick. You’ll need lots of weight.
Painting was also a problem. Unless you’re good at freehanding with an airbrush (which I’m not), you’ll probably have to paint the various components (wings, fuselage, etc.) separately before assembling which will take away the option of sanding and filling in some places where it’s needed. And the canopy is difficult to assemble. On the plus side, the decal sheet has markings for a 27th TASS aircraft from George AFB, CA, the best base around that no longer exists!
The finished product looked rather nice. I plan on rebuilding mine now that my painting and decaling techniques have gotten better.
LOL
“Nah man, Dave ain’t here.”
Hehe bell bottom’s and hippie bead’s in Berkeley eh[(-D]