Kitech 1/32 "Blue Thunder"

KITECH 1:32 "BLUE THUNDER"
'INBOX Review'
Alternative Scale

Reviewer: John Lacey (rec.models.scale)

Kit Details: 32^nd Scale Kitech Blue Thunder

Aircraft History: Some may remember the ‘Blue Thunder’ TV movie from the 1980s. In the usual way of Hollywood, most if not all of the tech allegedly carried by the helo was either complete fantasy or just plain old standard mil hardware. Either way, seeing this kit for a song on evilBay got the brain ticking and the fact that the seller had quite nicely added a bunch of detail pics of the sprues, etc made for a ‘must buy’ for me

Kit Parts: Now whilst I’m unaware of any previous releases of this particular model, I’d be highly surprised that it would be a ‘new mould’ as such, the brand being rather renowned for ‘knock offs’ of other manufacturer’s kits. That said, the sprues themselves are quite nice. There is a bit of flash here and there and the panel lines, where present, are raised but overall the quality isn’t that bad at all and streets ahead of what I was expecting.

(Kevan Vogler - John's review of the Kitech 1/32 Blue Thunder kit and going by his description of it, I can safely say it has its origins in a kit made by Monogram in the mid 80s which I remember building. I think Monogram made the kit in response to the Blue Thunder T.V. series which was a spin off of the film. It was a very good kit in its original Monogram issue.)

The cockpit is heavily detailed with tub & rear bulkhead into which two-part seats, controls, detail parts and an instrument panel fit. The seats are quite a clever idea, with the cushions (and moulded on belts) being supplied as a separate part to the seat proper. The instrument panel has quite a good deal of raised detail along with some of the tub, representing the keyboard used by the backseater. The rear bulkhead is also quite detailed and two extra parts that complete the basic cockpit are a computer monitor face and what could be an old floppy disk drive system. An overhead console for the canopy finishes the cockpit off, complete once again with raised detail.

Externally, the engine and main rotor are well detailed with a free-wheeling main rotor and two external intakes of some description that is more cosmetic than reality. Other external parts include a multi-part minigun system, a couple of external stub pylons with some more Hollywood style attachments, an AH-64 style PNVS system that attaches to the gun allowing both to rotate freely, some miscellaneous antennas (and I believe a couple of directional mikes), two forward facing light pods, ammunition runs for the cannon, a pair of solid landing-gear skids and finally a pair of tailplanes with endplate fins.

The Fenestron type tail-rotor is moulded directly onto the fuselage halves, but doesn’t look half bad either. Clear parts consist of the large angular canopy in one piece, two side transparencies and the two light pod faces. These are bagged separately from the main sprues which themselves are bagged within the box.

Optional components: The only real ‘option’ per se is a two-piece pilot’s helmet that interestingly is flagged as ‘not for use’ in the instructions.

Colour Schemes: One scheme obviously, with a generic blue over black colour.

Decals: Decals consist of a small, glossy sheet with some ‘stencilling’ of sorts to go around the cockpit area, and a large ‘02’ for the engine intakes with a smaller four digit serial for the tail fin. I can’t comment on the quality of the decals beyond the fact that they are solid in colour although they do seem to be on the thicker side.

Instructions: A fairly simple two sided sheet with bilingual aircraft history, construction advice, parts map, painting & decaling guide and five construction steps on one side with eleven construction steps on the reverse. Paint callouts occur for the rotor system, but that’s about it. The cockpit, engine area and other details are left to the modeller’s imagination.

Impressions: As I mentioned earlier, I’m rather pleased with the overall feel of the kit. Having being subjected to Zhengdefu’s efforts in the past, I wasn’t expecting a real lot but it turned out quite a bit better than expected. Obviously it’s not Tamigawa quality, but then again, it’s not Tamigawa priced either. I shudder to think what a similar kit would cost from any of the larger manufacturer’s in this scale.

Conclusion: For myself, the kit is solid value for money. Perfectly suited for a younger modeler wanting to build a fictional aircraft, or like me, a what-iffer keen to have his way with an interesting subject, I can heartily recommend the kit to modelers of all levels of experience.

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