T-38C Talon - 1:48 Trumpeter

[Julien]

T-38C Talon
1:48 Trumpeter

Stemming from the light fighter programme that gave us the F-5 Freedom Fighter, the T-38 is an updated and upgraded version of the F-5A, which has seen a great deal of service with the air forces of the world due to its low running costs, supersonic abilities and interoperability with Allies flying the same airframe. The primary role for the Talon and Talon II is that of supersonic trainer, but it is also capable of assuming the light fighter role, as well as the chase plane role that it performs for NASA to this day.

The T-38C is a further upgraded airframe that came into service early this millennium sporting a new avionics suite including revised "glass" instruments, navigation systems with GPS, and of course an uprated engines. The upgrade process started with T-38As which were zero-houred and upgraded by Boeing in Arizona, with a total order of just over 500.


The Kit
Although not a new kit, this is a new boxing with revised artwork. It contains four sprues of mid grey styrene, one of clear parts, a small fret of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, two sheets of decals, and instruction manual with colour painting diagram slipped inside. The parts are well-detailed with fine engraved panel lines but very little in the way of rivets, giving the skin an uncluttered look, while the cockpit has been well served with knobs, dials and screens. The included PE seems a little lacking in detail however, with a set of seatbelts that look simplified and etched from brass too thick to arrange them realistically.

Construction begins traditionally enough with the cockpit, which is assembled around a central two-man tub, into which the instrument panels are dropped along with their coamings and decals for detail. The panels seem to be correctly arranged with a large central multi-function screen in the centre, surrounded by more traditional instruments. The side consoles also have decals provided, and the sidewalls are detailed with a pair of panels that you insert before putting the whole assembly in the fuselage. The ejection seats are quite simple, with only the rear of the headbox separate, to which the rear seat has another box added to the rear, which sits between the rear canopy hinges once installed. Separate joysticks and rudder pedals attach to the cockpit floor, and behind the rear seat, on a small deck you have the option of adding the cockpit hinge in either the open or closed positions, by choosing a short or long pair of parts. The same mechanism is used for the front canopy, with retracted or deployed parts added to the upper lip of the sidewalls, so choose early.

To close up the fuselage all you need then do is glue the cockpit tub into the fuselage side, add the two inner main bay sections, and the single piece nose gear bay, which is quite well detailed given its shape and size. The two prominent intakes on the tops of the fuselage are added on each side of the spine, after which the intakes are built up from two sides of the trunk, and a single lip part to give a nice slim intake lip and splitter plate. There are four shallow ejector pin marks in each half of the intake, which is split vertically, but whether those would be seen if you chose to ignore them is for you to decide. The intakes go back only as far as the 3cm or so of the intake parts, but you could fake greater depth by painting a soft edged black circle in the middle of the blanking surface. Not much will be visible past the lips of these small trunks however, so put as much or as little effort in there as you see fit! The instructions would have you add the landing gear into the nose along with the bay doors for the nose and main bays, but I defy any mere mortal to do that and still have them attached by the end of the build.

The wings are small and thin, just like the real thing, and only the centre portion of the lower wing is separate from the upper. There is basic bay detail moulded into the top wing, which will be visible through the outer bay door, which also contains the mounting points for the main gear legs and their retraction mechanism. A single bay door sits outboard of the leg on each wing, and again you're incited to put all this on before you've even added the wings to the fuselage. Madness sheer madness! The skinny elevators are each single parts, and attach to the fuselage via peg and hole, while the two-part fin with moulded-in rudder attach to two tabs on the top of the fuselage, with a small bullet-fairing aft of the rudder. The exhausts for the two General Electric engines are presented as a single part, which might initially draw cries of woe from the more detail oriented, and if you take a squint at some pics of the real thing, you'll find that they've been simplified a little. The tubular structure that supports the rear exhaust ring is there, but the tiny gap between the ring and the inner exhaust trunking is absent, which may put of a few. Otherwise the interior is quite well detailed with fluted trunking and a reasonable facsimile of the rear of the engine on the blanking piece.

The canopy for the Talon is a three-section arrangement, with the windscreen fitting tight down over the coaming, but don't be tempted to fill the joint with the fuselage with putty, because Trumpeter have aligned the break with a panel line, albeit a quite fine one. A hoop is installed between the two cockpits before the front canopy can be added, with a pair of PE rear-view mirrors for detail, and the rear has a horse-shoe shaped styrene part added to the large frame at the rear, which mates with the opening mechanism. As you also get a four-part crew ladder included in the box, it seems that leaving the canopies open is the way to go. There are fine mould lines down the centres of the canopy parts that will need sanding and polishing smooth, but as it took me a long time to notice them, you could possibly get away with not sanding them off if you don't feel confident of getting them back to a good shine. One thing of note is that the front canopy on the real thing has a "blown" look that isn't fully replicated in the kit. The canopy bulges from side to side, but not front to back, which is incorrect. This won't notice if you pose the canopies open though, and neither will the very slightly shallow side profile of the canopies. An aftermarket vacform canopy would be useful to correct these minor errors as well as gaining scale thickness.

Markings
There are two markings options provided in the kit, with the usual lack of detail regarding units, time period and so forth that we have come to expect from Trumpeter. I've surmised the details to be as follows:

• 435th Fighter Training Squadron "Black Eagles" Randolph Air Force Base Light grey nose & tail, also undersides. Dark grey rear fuselage and upper wing section. Blue Black Eagles tail band.
• 460th Fighter Training Squadron "Chargin Cheetahs" Randolph Air Force Base Dark grey nose and tail. Light grey centre section, upper wing and undersides. Blue tail band with white stars.
  
  

The decals are well printed in two shades of lowviz grey (one for each aircraft), and spot of colour used on the tail bands.

Conclusion
There have been a few issues with regard to overall length of the kit noted on the internet, stemming from the inclusion or exclusion of the pitot probe in the measurements, which has led to a small elongation of the fuselage of this kit, although it is small enough to get away with unless you have your laser measure out. Detail is overall good, with a few areas such as the exhausts that may warrant attention if you are after additional detail and accuracy.

Recommended.

Review sample courtesy of
UK Distributors for

[gingerbob]

No C-model intakes? The ones in the pics look like the usual T-38A ones (as does the box art, for what that's worth)

bob

p.s. Perhaps I'm confused- I was associating the "vertical front" intakes with C-model, but perhaps it is a separate update.

Edited November 22, 2015 by gingerbob