HobbyBoss Lockheed U-2A Dragon Lady (87270) 1/72 HOBBYBOSS via Creative Models

[Julien]

Lockheed U-2A Dragon Lady (87270)
1/72 HOBBYBOSS via Creative Models

 

 

The U-2 is a high altitude reconnaissance aircraft currently in service with the US Air Force. It was proposed and developed by Lockheed in the 1950s. Proposed in 1953, approved in 1954; and test flown in 1955 the aircraft was designed by the legendary Clarence "Kelly" Johnson. The design was based on the F-104 with a shortened fuselage and longer wings the aircraft with its lack of conventional landing gear was in all purposes a jet powered glider. Although rejected by the USAF the aircraft came to the attentions of the CIA who were up until this point relying on the USAF for intelligence flights. In the end due to lack of performance of other projects the U-2 was given the go ahead by a joint CIA/UASF project. The U-2 has undergone many design changes of the years from the original U-2A with the aircraft still continuing to serve with the USAF despite attempts to retire it. The only other nation to officially use the U-2 was Taiwan, though it later emerged the RAF had access to aircraft during the 1960s via the CIA.

The Kit
This is a brand new tool kit from HobbyBoss. The kit has 66 parts over 4 main sprues and 2 clear sprues, the parts are very well moulded with fine engraved panel lines. The kit looks to represent the clean lines of the early U-2 with no issues at all.  Construction starts not with the cockpit but with the main landing gear bay. This has a couple of parts for the gear added before it can be placed in the fuselage. Next up the basic cockpit is constructed. A five part seat, unfortunately this does not look like the early Lockheed seat at all but a later seat. You could always replace it with a wicker seat which the CIA did on a few flights to save weight! Next into the cockpit is the instrument panel (instruments as decals) and the control column. The exhaust is the next part to be built up. Once this is done the cockpit, exhaust, front & rear wheel bays and the airbrake bays can all be added into the fuselage halves, and they can be closed up.  The wings which are conventional left/right/upper/lowers can be built up and added to the fuselage along with the single part tail plane and rudder (left & right halves).  Next up the main and tail landing gear are built up and added along with inserts in the main wing. To finish up the air brake doors are added along with the main intakes; then the gear doors can be added along with the wing pogo units. The last items are a few aerial, lights, the canopies and the end wing bumper units. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Decals
Decals are provided for 3 aircraft, all in a Natural Metal Finish, decals are in house and look to have no issues. 

 

1. 66701 - UASF (overall NMF)
2. 66701 - USAF (overall NMF with large patches of International Orange)
3. 320 - National Advisory Committee For Aeronautics (later to become NASA)

 

Conclusion
This is a great looking kit from HobbyBoss and their attention to detail is to be commended. Overall  recommended.

 

 

 

Review sample courtesy of

[JeffreyK]

Looks like a better effort than the AFV Club kit, definitely.

Two potential issues I spotted:

 - the nose doesn't seem to be symmetrical, but instead as a weird "upturn" (not easily seen in your sprue photos) and some pics elsewhere suggest it may be a tad long too.

 - the vertical tail "may" sit too, well, vertical. The tail on U-2's doesn't sit square with the fuselage. Instead it's mounted slightly sloping, following the upper surface of the  aft horizontal stabiliser/elevator area. So both the trailing edge as well as the top edge are "off-square". Looking at the kit instructions and painting profiles, the kit stabiliser seems to be mounted totally square on, But it remains to be seen once actual plastic is in hand...

 

Jeffrey

[John the Yank]

10 hours ago, JeffreyK said:

Looks like a better effort than the AFV Club kit, definitely.

 

 

Jeffrey

Sorry, have to disagree with this phrase, 1/72 v 1/48 unless AFV released a 1/72 U-2 that I don't know of.  A better comparison would be against the Airfix U-2.  The 1-48 AFV U-2 is a definite kit to buy if you want an early U-2.  Look at the instructions of AFV version on Scalemates to see what you get if you don't have one. 

 

JTY

[JeffreyK]

4 hours ago, John the Yank said:

Sorry, have to disagree with this phrase, 1/72 v 1/48 unless AFV released a 1/72 U-2 that I don't know of.  A better comparison would be against the Airfix U-2.  The 1-48 AFV U-2 is a definite kit to buy if you want an early U-2.  Look at the instructions of AFV version on Scalemates to see what you get if you don't have one. 

 

JTY

I was referencing AFV kit because I wanted to compare two new/recent production kits that should benefit from all that is currently known about the early U-2's.

Hobby Boss's 1:72 kit appears to be a sound kit (except what I noted above) while the 1:48 AFV kit is a shockingly awful kit, with way too many shape and detail errors to pass as a "good" or even "decent" effort. The "C" model is slightly improved but still doesn't cut the mustard. The old Hawk/Testors kit has far superior shapes, despite being designed at a time when no real U-2 could be accessed for measurements, let alone official documentations and measurements.

J

[Julien]

7 hours ago, JeffreyK said:

I was referencing AFV kit because I wanted to compare two new/recent production kits that should benefit from all that is currently known about the early U-2's.

Hobby Boss's 1:72 kit appears to be a sound kit (except what I noted above) while the 1:48 AFV kit is a shockingly awful kit, with way too many shape and detail errors to pass as a "good" or even "decent" effort. The "C" model is slightly improved but still doesn't cut the mustard. The old Hawk/Testors kit has far superior shapes, despite being designed at a time when no real U-2 could be accessed for measurements, let alone official documentations and measurements.

J

Quite right.

[sroubos]

Good to have a new U-2 available. I still have the old Academy kit in my stash which seems to be quite rare and no doubt has its issues. A shame it carries such a high price tag, 33 quid at the big H. I'm not fully understanding Hobbyboss' pricing strategy, they make really nice and cheap easy-built kits that can pass for proper models with a little bit of extra work, and then they have their other 1/72 kits which carry fairly high price tags despite not being all that more complex, like the P-61 and the Bearcat.

[JeffreyK]

I have the plastic in hand and indeed there's something off with the nose and the tail sits dead vertical/perpendicular to the fuselage centreline, while actually it should "lean" back somewhat. The root of the problem is the horizontal stabilizers which should have a slight slope on top, carried on in the parachute housing. Both are dead horizontal/straight. The nose issue is solvable I think, the tail issue will require quite a bit of fettling....

J

[Robert]

Still undecided whether to buy this one as l have the Airfix and Academy one in the stash. @JeffreyK thanks for the observations.

 

Regards

Robert

[Shalako]

On 1/14/2022 at 12:37 PM, Robert said:

Still undecided whether to buy this one as l have the Airfix and Academy one in the stash. @JeffreyK thanks for the observations.

 

Regards

Robert

If you want to use it as a point of reference in order to make some changes to the Airfix kit then I suggest go ahead and buy it. At least for me - I also have the Airfix kit - this would be a reason to buy it and then resell it.

 

The Airfix kit still looks great and it does gives additional parts to make other versions of the aircraft. Or, you could take these parts and place them on the Hobbyboss kit.

 

Just my two cents.

 

Cheers

Bill

[Shalako]

On 1/14/2022 at 12:22 PM, sroubos said:

Good to have a new U-2 available. I still have the old Academy kit in my stash which seems to be quite rare and no doubt has its issues. A shame it carries such a high price tag, 33 quid at the big H. I'm not fully understanding Hobbyboss' pricing strategy, they make really nice and cheap easy-built kits that can pass for proper models with a little bit of extra work, and then they have their other 1/72 kits which carry fairly high price tags despite not being all that more complex, like the P-61 and the Bearcat.

33 quid for 66 parts that's quite expensive! But, it has nothing to do with the kit. It's all about marketing, shipping and handling costs and the fact that inflation is way up high despite what they say on the news. Just have a look at the supermarket prices and how often the last couples of months have increased.

 

And the prices will continue to go up.

 

My advice is buy now what you can afford because later on you might see this kit or as a matter of fact any kit's price skyrocketing!

 

Just my two cents.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[foxhandybread]

Unless I'm mistaken the kit's currently going at Model Hobbies for £20: https://www.modelhobbies.co.uk/hobbyboss-172-u-2a-dragon-lady--87270-313439-p.asp

[WARDOG]

Well,

 

I HOPE they decide yo make the later versions like the U-2S/TR-1.  I'm keen on having one since it looks like Special Hobby will not reissue theirs.

 

Cheers,

 

WARDOG

[Hook]

One thing that made me laugh is the misprint on the nose shield on option #2 - "Air Force Fright Test Centre"! 

 

Well, I'm sure things got tense on some of those test missions...

 

Cheers,

 

Andre