I started assembling this kit over a year ago, but hit one frustration
after another between parts and instructions. But we need to go back over a
decade to fully understand.
I had the opportunity to attend the IPMS National Convention in 2009, which
was held in Kansas City, Missouri. At that event, TwoBobs, which makes a line
of fine decals, apparently went in agreement with Special Hobby to issue a
limited run kit of the US Navy trainer T-2C Buckeye, with special TwoBobs
decals, commemorating 75 years of naval aviation. I had to buy the kit, but as
I said, when I began this project, I almost went hostile from frustration. It
took me until now to complete this one.
First frustration: Special Hobby kits are not very user friendly, as the
parts on sprues do not have a part number beside them; one has to look at a
sheet of the instruction booklet to see how the parts on sprues are arranged,
with respective part numbers.
Second frustration: Forget those part niceities, like parts having locator
pins to ease mating with another part. You’ll have to use your eyes and
manual dexterity to build this model.
Third frustration: This kit has mixed media parts to challenge even the
most experienced modeler: traditional injection molded plastic; clear plastic;
P/E; resin (polyurethane); and vacuform (canopy) parts are all present, each
with their own requirement for gluing and proper orientation, location. The
instruction booklet has sketches where the parts are to go, but is sparse with
details – which will have to be suffered through during assembly.
Fourth frustration: The weakest area of this kit was the landing gear. In a
word, it’s F-R-A-G-I-L-E! For example, the cross landing strut section of
the main landing gear needs to be trimmed to fit into the width of wheel well
. . . that one had to fabricate earlier in construction. One has to file and
fit multiple times to ensure adequate contact for gluing: too much filing will
leave an air gap that prevents the gear from being secured in place against
the two walls of the landing bay; too little filing will put stress on the
wheel well walls, to where the wall plastic part could separate from the rest
of the wheel well bay. For another example, there’s a cross member
support/brace to hold the inner main landing door on each side of the fuselage
open: it’s made entirely of resin, and has the thinnest diameter I’ve come
across yet. Getting that part off its resin runner without breakage proved
impossible for me. I practically had to use an electron microscope and
artificial hands to reattach broken sections of resin material to the mating
brace.
Fifth frustration: Forming, fitting, securing the large vacuformed canopy
to the model. This canopy came in one large piece. To build a model with a
raised canopy, sawing and extra trimming of the resultant two pieces were
necessary. It took considerable attempts of trimming and filing to get the
final needed state. Before vacuform material removal, I strongly recommend
making a canopy work support, in the form of playdough or similar material.
Place this inside the canopy to full depth, and ensure contact along the
entire inside perimeter. When trimming, use iris scissors to get the closest,
cleanest cut possible, without damaging the part.