Grumman OV-1B Mohawk | ||||||
FROG F270, Grumman OV-1B Mohawk, Rovex industries ltd, 1969
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Hasegawa JS-024:250 No.22, Grumman OV-1B Mohawk, 1969
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HONG KONG COMMENT by Colin BramwellThere has recently been quite an upsurge in the local "hobby kit" market, and furthermore Japanese imports now arrive here a few weeks after their local release. I shall concentrate on Japanese aircraft kits only as there are so many tanks that I could not hope to keep abreast of them. TAMIYA . The first kits in their new 1/100 scale range have now reached here, these being the Lightning 6, Corsair 11 and Mig. 19. This scale not being a particular favourite of mine, I purchased only the latter kit, and found that it consists of some 30 pieces in a silver grey plastic apart from the rockets which are black and the canopy, clear. Panel lines are incised and the pieces are well moulded and clear of flash. All in all, with, I gather, a few very minor inaccuracies, it is a good kit, the only pity being that it is not to a more widely recognised scale. The decal sheet is reasonably well done, and includes markings for Cuban, East German and Russian aircraft. The kits are good value at Y100, but I suspect that they will have little market outside Japan and perhaps not even there, in view of their small scale. Now available from Jones Bros. 50 Turnham Green Road, London, W.14. 6/- plus post. HASEGAWA, on the other hand go from strength to strength in the 1/72 scale field and counting their Frog re-box ings have now put out 21 kits to this internationally accepted scale. No.21 is in fact the Grumman OV-1A/C Mohawk and is well up to their usual standard. In fact the fuselage, with only faintly raised panel lines, recesses for intakes, hinges etc. , particularly in the area of the dive brakes, is as good a bit of work as they have produced. The kit has some 50 + parts, the three piece canopy being clear and all the rest in a sort of gloss, flash free, olive drab/brown plastic. Again only the airscrews move, even the wheels being cemented to the u/c legs. The pilots are very reminiscent of the Airfix jet crews and in this respect I only wish Hasegawa would change the horrid little men it perforce has to include in its re-boxed Frog kits for something more akin to those used in its own kits. I suppose someone will find fault with this kit, sooner or later, but for my money it is worth every bit of the Y200 for which it retails and appears to be the subject of much painstaking research. There is an OV-1B kit to follow which is essentially the same but with an elongated underslung pod. The Mohawk decal sheet is of the usual Hasegawa quality though it provides markings for only one U.S.Army aircraft. It is semi-matt finished. The IPMS magazine, OCTOBER 1968 VOL.5 No.10 |
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