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After the 1/48th kits (thread), ICM is to release 1/72nd North American OV-10 Bronco kits - ref. 72185 - North American OV-10А Bronco - US Attack Aircraft (100% new molds) - released - ref. 72186 - North American OV-10D+ Bronco - US attack and observation aircraft - December 2023 Sources: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ICM72185 https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ICM72186 V.P.

OV-10 Bronco Replacement Metal Undercarriage 1:32 Aerocraft Models - For Kitty Hawk Kit The 1/32 Kitty Hawk Bronco is a good kit. However the undercarriage is a weak point (literally) in the kit. New brass ones have been made by Ali of Aerocraft models. Metal Undercarriage legs In this set you get new replacement cast brass undercarriage legs for the kit. The new parts are direct replacements for the kit parts. The quality of the castings are some of the best I have seen and much better that other metal sets. There are some slight casting marks to clean up but these are small. The front leg does fully articulate so can be used in any direction. Conclusion It is great to see Ali back in the game and this is certainly a needed set for the Kitty Hawk Bronco. Very Highly recommended. Review samples courtesy of

Hello all heres my entry for this build. Im going with Academy’s OV-10 Bronco. Im going to stick with the USMC Vietnam markings. Here are the obligatory boxtop and sprue shots. Boxtop ⬆️ Sprue shot ⬇️ As you can see its still all in plastic so the 25% wont be an issue. If i can change up and get a hold of VAL-4 Black pony or a VS-41 Shamrock decals. Then i will go US Navy. Enough for now see you in one week. Dennis

Hi everyone! Yesterday I've taken Academy's Bronco box from the stash to build the Vietnam OV-10A and quite quickly came to the conclusion that the kit needs some improvements. Would love to listen to advice/experience of building this bird! First topic - undercarriage. Academy provides very basic undercarriage bays and very.... questionable and fiddly main gear. I was able to collect a number of photos of both bays and chassis, but couple of question remain unclear. #1. As far as I get it, the area in front of the cockpit was actually empty and was used to accommodate nose wheel, front taxiing lamp and some wiring. Such as like this. Is it the best way to just keep it empty, adding just the wiring and a bump for the front lamp? Or I'm missing something? #2. I'm seriously concerned about capability of Academy's plastic sticks representing main gear to keep the whole thing standing upright Moreover these sticks have nothing in common with actual main gear I do not see any metal/resin alternatives - so would be grateful if anybody could advice how to scratchbuild more or less reliable replacements Second topic - dimensional accuracy. From what I was able to learn from WIPs and comparison with photoes - Academy's model is pretty OK - the main area that is completely off is intakes above the propellers. Seems to be an easy fix though. Are the things really that good or I miss something major? Third topic - I've got the CMK's interior set and would love to use the vacformed canopy as I'm afraid of gluing together the fiddly thing from Academy. Does anybody have any experience of using CMK's canopy? Does it fit well or not really? Would be grateful for any advise before I start cutting it out. Dennis P.S. Almost forgot - where could I put enough weight to keep it standing on the wheels??? Nose bay seems to be unavailable for that

After its T-6, Kitty Hawk is to release a 1/32nd North American OV-10D Bronco kit - ref.KH32003 See CAD drawings herebelow Sources: http://www.themodellingnews.com/2014/01/yee-har-kittyhawk-to-let-loose-large.html https://fr-fr.facebook.com/Kagero.SM https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=ms.639006636156204.639006599489541.639006522822882.639006542822880.639006722822862.bps.a.639006416156226.1073741960.224979750892230&type=1 V.P.

OV-10A Bronco Testors 1:48 The Bronco was initially planned as a light attack, long loiter time aircraft with a span of 20ft that could operate from roads close to the combat zone, however it materialised with a much longer span of 40ft and heavier due to the specifications including avionics and ejection seats limiting its use to airfields. The twin boom aircraft first flew in 1965 and was destined to become a light armed reconnaissance & forward air control aircraft with the US Navy, Airforce and Marines. The need was bread out of the Cessna O-1 & O-2 becoming obsolete due to the limited performance. The requirement needed a two seat two engined aircraft that could carry over 2000lb of payload, 6 paratroopers or stretchers, high G tolerance and have a 350mph capability whilst being able to have a good loiter performance and STOL capability. The Marines were the first to take the OV-10 into service as a forward air controller operating in both night and day missions. Whilst the Bronco is most known for its operations in Vietnam, it also served in later conflicts as late on as the Gulf war where it received its last losses in US service before retiring in 1995. The USAF started to receive it's Bronco's in 1968 and was primarily used as forward air controllers. This was a varied role in itself, using smoke laying methods as well as later using laser target designators. Development also led to it carrying its own ground attack armament including rockets, machine guns and bombs to support ground movements. As well as a fairly small part played with the US Navy, seven export contracts were made, a few of which are still in service today with Venezuela. These included Germany, Columbia and Indonesia. Whilst it was an effective aircraft, it suffered from being underpowered, an issue that led to several aircraft being lost where it couldn't out climb the terrain. The Bronco has also seen non-military use in the war on drugs in South America as well as operating as a fire fighter. More recently, Boeing were looking into a new variant known as the OV-10X in 2009 as a modernised forward air control variant with the latest glass cockpit technology. There had been export interest in the possibility, however I'm unable to find any more news about how that proposal progressed. The kit If you're wanting to build a Bronco in 1/48, then you have a 'Hobsons Choice'. This is the old Italeri / Testors kit re-released. On opening the box, you're presented with the parts all wrapped up in a light grade polythene bag along with the instructions. On the front of the instructions is a poor image of the completed kit which does nothing to market the kit, it looks like a poor copy of a poor copy. On opening the instructions, you're hit with how basic the kit is, the instructions are very straight forwards. On a good note, there are written instructions that offer assembly tips such as painting options for some of the detail and in what order to paint them, something that you don't normally see in kits. Onto the sprues. My first impression is of the early Airfix kits. The kit is moulded in light grey plastic. Detail is very basic and the surfaces of the fuselage and wings are covered in heavy rivets with a mixture of raised and recessed panel / moveable surfaces. The main issues with the aircraft are widely known. The tail booms are too close to the fuselage and not accurately shaped. To correct this will require some extensive surgery to add extension pieces to the inner wings and of course the tailplane which joins the two tail booms. I guess for most builders this isn't an option that they'd be confident of undertaking. The remaining choices are either to live with this or to see if you can get hold of an out-of-production Paragon correction kit (review HERE) although I think you'd be lucky. The correction kit also addresses the cockpit or lack of with a resin replacement. With such a large greenhouse over the office, the kit cockpit is very sparse comprising a tub with side panels, seat and a decal only option for the panel, so you may want to add some scratch building to give it a makeover. Assembly starts with fitting the cockpit tub and nose wheel to the fuselage. This is either going to be a very fast affair if you build out of the box or very much longer if you don't. With the fuselage done, the sponsons housing machine guns and hard points are fitted to the underneath. The tail booms are another quick affair with the main undercarriage sandwiched inside the two halves on each side. With the wing assembled, it's fitted to the top of the fuselage and the tail booms and tail plane fitted into place. The remaining detail such as undercarriage doors and various antennas are fitted. Another observation is that there are no part numbers on the sprues. They are either on the parts or not at all. In the case of the undercarriage doors, they are on the inside surface which means you will need to sand them off. 4 iron bombs are supplied that fit onto the sponsons. Despite the chunkiness of the plastic in general, the fins on the bombs are quite thin. Despite the very basic appearance of the grey sprues, I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the clear parts. These are quite refined and very little distortion. Now this could be a problem if you've not added some extra detail to the cockpit interior as it will be very much on show ! The canopy is moulded in three parts giving you the ability to have it open, however if you keep it closed, care will need to be taken joining the three parts without getting glue on the clear parts. The decals Scale master decals appear to be very nice. There's little in the way of colour due to the schemes supplied, but they are printed very sharply. The squadron emblems are very fine indeed and the stencil lettering can be read despite the very small size. The two schemes are: Aircraft 155483 - US Marine Corps - experimental paint scheme used on an OV-10D USAAF - 27th Tactical Air Support Squadron, George AFB, California Conclusion This is a very basic kit that's showing its age where the main sprues are concerned. It's comparable to the early Airfix kits in terms of its simplicity and surface detailing, although the clear parts and the decals are rather nice. It's a great beginner's kit, but if accuracy is important, most notably the tail boom positions, then you have some decisions to make as discussed in the review. If you really have to build a Bronco, then it's your only choice in town. For this reason, we should congratulate Testors, they have a niche and if the demand is there, then credit to them for supplying the need.

You have got to see this. Ultimate what if? http://www.network54.com/Forum/47751/message/1457194184/Post+Apocalyptic+OV-10A+Bronco.++Kittyhawk+1-32. Enjoy Pete

March 1974, the Vietnam Conflict was still raging and while the USAF, USN & USMC had air superiority over the Vietnamese, the ground war is a different story. Between them they had an impressive line up of strike and bomber aircraft, but since the USAF retired their A-1 Skyraiders two years previously, only the USMC had fixed wing aircraft capable of COIN missions. The USAF needed to fill this gap in their inventory and fill it fast. Rather than go through the lengthy process of commissioning an aircraft from scratch they decided to look a suitable airframes from their inventory that could be adapted or converted for use in this role. The obvious choice was the OV-10 Bronco, all three services were using them to good effect and the airframe had plenty of potential. The main downfalls of the Bronco were it's lack of speed and weapon load, these were the main factors that would have to be addressed if a successful aircraft was to be produced. In 1970 the USMC had trialled the YOV-10D in Vietnam and although the design was eventually changed for the production OV-10D it was of great interest to the USAF as a way forward for their project. Addressing the speed issue, it was decided to dispense with the twin turboprops and install a small turbofan engine on the centreline in place of the cargo hold, this would enable additional wing points to be installed and used for forward firing munitions now there were no props to worry about. The intake for the engine was dorsal mounted to reduce the risk of FOD ingestion and damage from ground fire, this configuration also enabled hot turnarounds without the risk of ground crew being ingested. The YOV-10D had a FLIR turret mounted in a lengthened nose, no side sponsons and a ventral turret mounting a three barrelled 20mm rotary cannon. The USAF decided not to use the turret instead they kept the sponsons but replaced the four 7.62mm guns with two 20mm cannons. It was decided that the aircraft would be single seat only due to the fact that this was successful with the A-1, the additional space achieved through this would be utilised for fuel storage as would the space once occupied by the turboprop engines. All existing OV-10 avionics were moved to the lengthened nose and given protective armour, this would allow the entire avionics pack to be detached and replaced within minutes. The system could then be worked on independent of the airframe, this would greatly reduce the maintenance downtime of each aircraft. The FLIR system would be retained but as a revolutionary "split-system" installation on the front of the two booms., this allowed for greater coverage during maneuvering including inverted flight. The hard point count was increased to 11, while it was not able to carry the same weapon loads as the Skyraider, it was never the less a very capable aircraft. Trials started September 1974, in January 1975 three evaluation aircraft were sent to Vietnam, within weeks it was obvious that this aircraft was what they were looking for. In March 1975 full production was approved and by June operational units began to receive their aircraft. Because the designation A-10 was already in use with Thunderbolt II (in development) the obvious change from OV-10 to A-10 could not be made. Because it had undergone such radical changes it was decide to rename the aircraft completely, and so the A-11A Courser (they wanted to keep the horse reference) was born. Well that's the "little" bit of background info I've come up with. The kit will be Academy's 1/72 OV-10D, I originally bought it just for the props as I need them for my Grumman Goose, I've also robbed it of some rocket pod bits for my AH-1G. This group will save it just sitting in my stash forever and should be fun to build.

North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco, Pics thanks to Mike.

Source: http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?showtopic=268873&view=findpost&p=2547213 Dixit Chris "Zactoman" Wilson, next Aviation Art 1/48th kit after its future Sukhoi Su-33 (Sea) "Flanker-D" will be a North American OV-10 Bronco. To be followed V.P.

Last September during my trip to Arizona, I stumbled upon Marsh Aviation who re-built Trackers as Turbo Trackers for various air forces and navies around the world, not to mention the US Forest Service. Being of the opinion that the worst they could say was no, I knocked on the office door and asked if I could take a look around. They said yes and left me to wander around the yard at my own pace, although they did give me two pieces of advice: 1. Don't step over the yellow line, that takes you onto the active airfield and you'll probably get chewed up or run over 2. Don't pick up any of the wings laying on the ground, that's where the rattle snakes live! I hope you enjoy the pics, more can be found here: http://www.hanger51.org/airfield-visits/marsh-aviation-falcon-field-mesa/?logout=1 S-2 Tracker by tony_inkster, on Flickr S-2 Tracker by tony_inkster, on Flickr S-2 Tracker by tony_inkster, on Flickr S-2 Tracker by tony_inkster, on Flickr S-2 Tracker by tony_inkster, on Flickr S-2 Tracker by tony_inkster, on Flickr