Great Wall Hobby1/48 Lockheed T-33A-5 48th Fighter Interceptor Squadton USAF

[Wentworth]

As there is currently a Century Series group build underway I thought I would complement their work with the aircraft that many Century Series pilots would have trained in - the T-33A.

 

This is the Great Wall Hobby late T-33 kit that I'll be building as the last T-33 flown by USAF Air Defence Command in the Cold War. So, here's the obligatory boxart:

 

 

To it I'll be adding the Big Ed set which provides seatbelts, mask, flaps and a single set for interior and exterior details.

 

 

I'll be handing the flaps to my teenage son who is about to finish exams and who will have ample time (and the good eyesight) in order to be able to go all of that folding. I'd purchased some Caracal 1/48th decals to do the aircraft I was aiming for and then purchased the kit and found the same option was provided for within the kit decals. Here's the excellend 3-view that GWH provide with the kit:

 

 

This is my first GWH kit but I'm impressed by the quality of the plastic used and the molding. The parts are really well formed and detailed and the use of a number of different small sprues ensures everything is well molded.

[coneheadff]

I have the early style box which I would like to build as a German trainer. So I will definitely follow your build.

 

Alex

[Wentworth]

I'm clearly a slow modeller with too many competing time pressures so I thought I should post a brief update so that you can see where I'm up to. First of all the intakes are in and the good news is that they fit pretty well.

 

 

The cockpit is also starting to come together - although we have a way to go. The ejection seats are pretty nice - but need some more weathering and detail painting before we call them done and glue them in (plus the seatbelts) and then there's also the miniature Eduard levers to go into the cockpit panels.

 

 

Slow progress but we're getting there.

[Wentworth]

Have been putting a lot of thought into the colour of the undercarriage bay and flaps.

 

The kit instructions clearly mark them as an aluminium colour - but pictures of the real aircraft (in a museum on static display) show the wheels and front undercarriage leg as white. Fortunately some research showed a number of pictures of the aircraft in service with red flaps and white undercarriage - presumably as a result of repainting and refurbishment in service. I reached for my copy of Dana Bell's excellent book on USAF Colours in the 1990s and read technical order 1-1-4 which covers internal and external painting. This technical order (I think) came into effect in the late 1970s and hence as aircraft went through refurb their gear would presumably have changed colour.

 

[Wentworth]

I feel like I've been making very slow progress on this and then - 'pop' it all comes together. So, we have the cockpit mainly done, the fuselage together and the wings on as well. It all just fits together quite nicely and there aren't too many gaps.

 

 

There's quite a bit written about the fit of the nose - but at this point it doesn't look too bad. I didn't glue the front fuselage together until the nose was on and so I think there is a bit of a gap in front of the cockpit but hopefully that's easy to fill rather than trying to fill down the side of the nose or insert a plastic shim as others have done.

 

The Eduard flaps are coming together quite nicely - although they are extremely fiddly. These are the almost completed flap bays.

 

 

I found inserting the plastic rod to be the hardest part and so tried two different methods. The upper flap bay has had all of the ribs glued in place and then the rod inserted. This was very hard work! The second bay has no glue at all but that seemed to work much better.

[Wentworth]

WIth holidays in between the T-33 has been slowly coming together and getting some paint on. I went for a slightly unusual route to do this given the colours on the model. In order I painted:

• Alclad White primer
• Alclad Matt White
• Alclad ADC Grey
• Alclad Wet-look gloss
• Matt black for the drop-tanks and anti-glare panel
• Matt white for the undercarriage bay

 

Its now starting to come together and looks reasonable - but all rather bare and stark at this point in time. Detail painting and the decals will help this one a lot.

 

 

[Wentworth]

Well, we're just about there with just the pitot heads to add to each side of the nose. It actually looks OK - although there are a variety of hidden things which only the modeller knows about!

 

 

 

THe final stages on this have been hard work in a number of areas:

 

- The components for the undercarriage and air-brake mechanisms are fragile and the instructions aren't very clear. I wanted the air-brakes down as they seem to normally be as hydraulic pressure decreases, but the actuation jacks shattered as I tried to move them after fitting them in the wrong place. The instructions actually bear little similarity to where the parts should actually be placed - although once you understand the parts its really clear, The front gear leg is also very fragile and the main retraction strut also broke and wasn't repairable.

- The Eduard flaps are a menace! The flap wells are lovely, the flaps themselves are like an episode of Mission Impossible! Again, how you're supposed to put it all together isn't very clear

- The Eduard masks (or rather the user) let me down. I always rely on Eduard mask sets - they're amazing, but this time when I peeled off the masks there were a number of areas where the paint had leaked through to my disappointment. Cue the use of much meths along with scraping away excess paint and then a dip in Klear. Fortunately, the results aren't too bad.

- The red walkway decals for the wings are odd!

 

Overall, however, it looks like a T-33, is nicely detailed and makes an eye-catching model. The decals settled down well and really quickly without any solvents, the cockpit is good, and I really like the one-piece boarding ladder.

[exdraken]

Wow, looks great!!

Those flaps bays seem to be worth the effort I must say....

 

Any pics of the finished undersides/ flaps?

 

co grqts to your T-bird. Actually  quite a large plane, no?

[Wentworth]

So in the end I used the Eduard flap wells and the kit plastic flaps. Looking at this, it could do with a bit of dark weathering:

The Eduard instructions show just four flap actuators being used on each side but supply enough to use eight, and that would have looked better.

 

Size wise, its a nice size model - almost exactly the same length as width, being just under 24cm in each direction. Here it is with a Tamiya F-16C:

 

My previous kit was the Tamiya 1/32 F4U-1D, and in comparison this feels tiny!