1/48 Sword T-38 Talon

by Kelly Quirk

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  US Independence Day 2004 

 

This is a multi-media kit of the Talon.  The basic kit is injection plastic, with resin wheel wells and cockpit.  The canopy parts were very cloudy, but a dip in Future solved that problem.  Overall detail is pretty good.  The only thing I added was lines to the landing gear and the antennas under the nose and on the spine.  The way Sword made the mounting pins for the landing gear was very poor - I have serious doubts that they would have held up.  So I cut off the small nub of plastic and replaced it with a longer length of brass rod, then drilled out the wheel to accept the rod.  This proved to be much more sturdy.  

Click on images below to see larger images

The decals are the excellent "Ebony Talons" from our friends at Two-Bobs.  Highly recommended!  I have special ties at Whiteman AFB and was thrilled when they released this set of decals.  The pilot figures came from my spares box, I just thought the cockpit looked better with them in there.  This is far from my best build - I've built much more complex kits with better results.  This was one of those "easy" kits with not too many parts, but for some reason I had trouble almost every step of the way! 

Kelly

Photos and text © by  Kelly Quirk