Hey everyone. Thought I’d drop in a picture with a short review of Panda’s kit
Navy Twin Huey
Out of the Box
The model looks pretty impressive with no visible flash and a set of decals to build one model navy huey. Directions sheet is clear and provides paint suggestions.
Assembly
The model has some major fit problems, especially when joining the fuselage halves…The interior compartment assembled well, however the underside glass and windscreen left gaps. The rotor assembly alllows for a nice spin of the main rotor blades however the tail rotor is a bit tricky.
Details
The kit lacks detail despite its sticker tag of $30…It’s pretty basic where some effort was attempted. The cockpit dash has a decal for the main instrument panel and no figures are included nor weapons nor rescue hooks, pulleys, etc
Painting
I painted with tamiya acrylics…Olive Drab for the outside…although you might also throw on a wash of lighter green…and a medium gray for the interior…
Decals
The worst of the kit was the decals which incinerated when placed…Heavy Arty mentioned a defect that could be resolved by using a clear overspray before applying…
Apparently all Panda cals are a problem…so I needed to scronge together aftermarket stuff to finish it off…
Conclusion
Overall the kit is a big disappointment…for the price and effort needed to build it,
you’d be better off with another model…Don’t ask me which one…because it seems there is a big void in quality helicopter models…
Thank you Tank, for an excellent review. It brings me to the conclusion that Panda’s UH-1’s aren’t worth the aggravation required to make them presentable. Over spray the decal sheet… you’d think for $30 that would not even be a topic… just further solidifies my conclusion.
In the discussion in the other thread about how model companies charge more now days because on the average, the buyers are older, wiser, and richer… he’s right, we ARE wiser… much too wise to be suckered into buying a kit because the box art is pretty. Reviews such as yours, from real consumers, are far more powerful than ANY multi-million dollar sales promotion!
Thanks again Tank… you made a poor model look REALLY nice! [:)]
Yup, thanks for the review, tankbuster.
It pretty much sums up all of the Panda shortcomings that have been mentioned here in one nice and concise post! I haven’t started mine yet, but am prepared for a long and hard build with it. Panda is lucky that I was craving their 1/35th twin huey to build as one of my OIF squadron birds…because if I was just looking for a casual, fun build, I would have run away from this thing.
Hopefully someone else (MRC?) will jump on this hole in helicopter modeling and put out a product that will blow Panda out of the water. In the meantime, thank god we have Cheif Snake and Cobra Company [:)]
Too bad Trumpeter didn’t get the molds of Panda’s Hueys like they did the Chinooks
It would have been a desaster to have seen Panda release the 1/35 Chinook and it be a poor quality kit!! Thank you Trumpeter!!![bow]
I read around here that Panda may not be releasing any more kits…but that’s just a rumor…which means we’ll have one less choice when picking a helicopter kit
This rumor has been around a while, that Panda is going out of business. I have not seen any “official” type announcement or news to varify this. Also, there is no shortage or lack of the Panda kits out there, they are still readily available. Don’t count them as gone yet.
Personally, I think the enormous prices of Trumpeter’s helos are just as atrocious as Panda’s lack of detail. Overpriced kits probably do a better job of chasing away casual builders than poor-quality kits. Even though Trumpeter’s Hind and Hip releases have gotten rave reviews, I will never buy a kit that costs more than $50. [2c]
