REVELL 1/72 OV-10B BRONCO
Reviewer: Myself (braithy@bigpond.com)
The Rockwell (North American) OV-10 Bronco is essentially a two seat, twin-boom, twin-engined counter insurgency specialist. Operating from forward airstrips the type served as a multi-role light attack and battlefield support aircraft in the Vietnam war. The OV-10B variant is the West German version used primarily for target-towing and carries a more powerful 2,950-lb thrust General Electric version.
This kit was given to me some time ago as a Christmas present and I will go more into this later. It wasn't the version I was particularly after (I would have much preferred a USMC A-model or specialist night attack upgraded D-model), but beggars can't be choosers and it will teach me to be specific on my wish list. This is really not a bad kit of early 80's mold and is packaged in a rather large box (given it's size) with the familiar West German target-towing variant on the front with orange panelling, indicating it's role. External detail is quite nice, there wasn't any flash and the parts were in a dark green mold with engraved panel lines. Some parts are not used in the kit which leads me to believe that this mold is possibly duplicated for the OV-10A version sold separately. The instructions provide exploded assembly drawings (four in total) on a large fold out sheet of paper with (naturally) revell paint colour range references.
Interior detail is virtually non-existant - you get a base, two seats, two pilot figures and a bulkhead between them; no instrument panel or side panels and certainly no internal detail to supplement the glazing at the rear of the fuselage. Even then the instructions only show one pilot figure being included, so we're given a treat! This is a shame because the forward canopy is quite large and a lot of detail would otherwise be seen easily, so it's recommended some scratchbuilding work is undertaken - likewise for the rear glazing although it's difficult to see the interior through the distorted clear part supplied.
The fuselage and cockpit is assembled as it's own piece including the rear glazing, but leave the forward canopy off until you've attached the wing/boom assembly. The twin booms are both split vertically into halves while the one-piece wing is split horizontally into halves. All these sub-assemblies can be worked on simultaneously and then attached together once dry and painted, which is what I did, and it made for a rather quick build. I'd suggest then assembling the whole wing/boom/tailplane section and ensure it is all straight before attaching to the fuselage. I tend to find that aircraft with twin booms are harder than they look to get perfectly straight, so be sure it all is before leaving to dry overnight.
The forward canopy was then glued into place, it comes in three bits and makes for a tricky exercise - the side windows come in one piece each for left & right side while the third piece is made up of windsreen and roof canopy. The side windows (assuming it's to allow them to be positioned open) are hard to mate with both fuselage and windscreen/roof canopy but patience and persistance should pay off.
Wheel well detail is non-existance, just a little hole to attach your undercarriage (which is simply strut mold and wheel!). Annoyingly, all the undercarriage bay doors are molded open into the plastic, preventing one from making an "in-flight" model of the OV-10B - so these have to be carefully cut off and put into place if you want to hang the end result from the ceiling! To compound matters the nosewheel shape is wrong, the kit has a straight-down strut with a backward facing wheel profile, the real version has an angled strut slanting forward 45 degrees then a more than 90 degree angle shorter strut with a backward facing wheel profile (hope that makes sense, but in otherwords check your references). The propeller shaft is simply glued together with a cover-ring slapped on the cowling - which allows a moveable propellor.
The kit produces only one West German target towing OV-10B with a small decal sheet and apart from options already stated, it provides one accessory being a centreline large capacity fuel tank. I can't comment on the decals as I didn't use them. The version is coloured with an upper Olive drab and light grey undersides. Orange paint is applied to the wingtips, engine cowlings, rudders and the bottom section of the nose.
Now I ignored all this and made my own US example! I received this kit as a Christmas present although it wasn't really the version I was after (as stated above). Ironically, my brother was given the same kit for the same Christmas because he had asked for a "1/72 model" and didn't even state the aircraft as a choice - this was from someone else in the family. His interest in modelling was short lived and I ended up scoring the kit off him - so I had two West German OV-10B kits to build. I wasn't all that interested in doing the target-tug so I decided to bash one of them together and paint it up into a desired US version in spite of some obvious inaccuracies. The B model differed only a little from the A albeit a few aerials etc are missing and perhaps the major difference was the absence of the stub wings (which house machine guns/cannon). Disregarding all this, and purely as a slap bang "who gives a toss" kit I went ahead, painted it in an overall olive/dark green colour scheme and raided my spares box for some USMC decals complete with black stars/band insignia. It looks like the aircraft I wanted in the first place (without the stub wings and additional aerials) and I am not bothered by the differences - I intend getting an OV-10D (a more accurate one at that too!) at a later stage to do up properly. The other Revell OV-10B kit still sits there untouched, and someday I intend making up the proposed West German version.
In summary the kit is an easy build and made the more quicker by the fact you can so easily sub-assemble, paint and finish the booms, wing and fuselage portions at the same time. I was particularly annoyed by the lack of interior and wheel well detail, the undercarriage discrepancy and the permanent open wheel doors molded onto the plastic. Other accuracy problems: The canopy is too big and round with a distinct upward slant, whereas the real version is more slender, with a less pronounced "roundness" and almost runs parallel to the fuselage profile. The nose is also a bit too stubby on the kit when compared to reference photos. As far as accuracy to scale is concerned, the wing is oversized by a few millimetres and the aircraft length is undersized by about the same. Having said all that it does still look like a Bronco and I am relatively happy with it (but the larger and pronounced canopy is the most noticeable difference).
Recommendation? No, if you are looking for the accurate OV-10 replication, it will disappoint you. On the otherhand it is a very easy build and given the subject (an orange striped target-tug) it does give a nice change to the display cabinet. It would also be a very good kit for one to hone their modelling skills on especially the boom/wing assembly - which while easy to attach, is a bit of a challenge to get straight - so on that basis would be a good buy for a beginner.
Back to home
Kit Review Index: 1/72
1/48