After Czech Model
had released his F-80 in the big scale, I was quite sure that in the course of
time a T-33 A "Shooting Star", the legendary "T-Bird",
would follow and it really happened last year. I was not very surprised to
recognize that this kit had its shortcomings too as the F-80. Without the
aftermarket products from AMS Resins it is not possible to build a
reasonable and nearly correct T-Bird.
Using AMS Basis
Cockpit Update (32050) I had the chance to show my T-Bird with the cockpit in
open position. I had also planned to use AMS landing flaps (32037), but it
was impossible to get this set from MidTennHobbies,
it was always sold out when trying to place an order.
The finish for my
model was very easy to find because I had a couple of opportunities to shoot
pictures in 1966 of AFCS T-Birds while based at Wiesbaden AB in Germany. All
AFCS T-33's had very colorful and eyecatching markings at that time and very
interesting for me was, they had a highly polished bare metal skin, giving me
again the chance to use simple aluminium kitchen foil to come very close with my
model to the original.
All decals are hand
made including the unit emblem, which is indeed slightly oversized.
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images below to see larger images
Czech Model's Kit of a 1:32
T-Bird is really a good basis for a nice model, but I think that a model
of this big scale should have movable flaps. And I further missed the
travel pod under the mid fuselage used by so many T-Birds. A must I think.
I'm sure that this
was not the last T-Bird I build using the Czech Model kit, but I hope until than
the aftermarket has produced what we are looking for to build a 100%
correct "Shooting Star".
Peter Doll
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images below to see larger images
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