Pavla 1/72 Cessna T-50 Bobcat

PAVLA 1:72 CESSNA T-50 BOBCAT
'INBOX Review'

Reviewer: Myself (carlos_giani2002@yahoo.de)
- A Built up review of this kit exists on this site - see the respective fully built kit review index to locate review

Kit: Pavla 1/72^nd scale Cessna T-50 Bobcat (Kit N° 72022 ). Produced in Czech Republic.

Aircraft: The first light twin-engined airplane from Cessna was the T-50 Bobcat, built and tested in 1939. It was a cantilever monoplane of mixed construction, the wings, the tail and the stabilizers made of wood, the fuselage built in welded steel tube covered with fabric. The retractable main gear and the flaps were electric-driven. Both Canada and USA noted the big potential of this plane as a conversion trainer from single to twin-engined crafts, and the former nation placed a order for 550 units which were called „Crane 1A“.

The US Army Corps ordered 33 units for test proposals, being designated AT-8. They proved to be over-motorized, the first series (450 planes designated AT-17) having a Jacobs R-775-9 245HP engine, instead of the original R-680-9 delivering 295HP. The second batch (223 units), designated AT-17A, changed the propeller from wooden to a metallic Hamilton-Standard, while the AT-17B (466 units) and AT-17C (60 units) just had some differences in the internal equipment.

Having discovered that the T-50 also had a big potential as a light transport and communications, the USAAF ordered 1287 planes, being designated UC-78. Further versions were the UC-78B and the UC-78C, from which a total of 2133 were produced. Finally, 67 T-50s were used by the US Navy for transport aims, which called them JRC-1. Many of all the T-50s still served some years after the end of WWII.

Parts: This is the only kit from Pavla that I own and, considering their high prices and the fact that there are other very good producers in the Czech Republic (MPM, Special Hobby, Eduard), I was rather disappointed as I „pulled the lid off“.

Inside an end-opening box you get one plastic bag with one ocean-grey sprue containing 35 parts, an unbagged decal sheet and a small bag which comprises vacforms for cockpit and side windows (no replacement), a PE-plate and a print for the instruments. Panel lines are recessed but not fully performed (needs rescribing), gates are heavy, there are also some mold seems to be cleaned up and really big ejector pin extrusions, protuding aprox. 3mm and located there were they disturb the most (i.e. inside of wing halves). Each part would require more ore less filing, and I presume that dry fit test would reveal more job to do.

You get a rather crude cockpit interior which is only saved by the beautiful PE parts (seats, instrument panel with pedals, a few levers, steering wheels), the whole thing being trapped between the two fuselage halves. There's no location help for the right positioning of this component, and the instructions don't will help here, so try-and-error is announced. The wing consists of one lower half with two upper ones, two-part nacelles, a PE-trunk to separate the engine compartment, two-part cowling and resin engines, the last being at least of good quality. The main landing gear is rather simple, and there's absolutely no location hole or mark of any kind on the inner side of the upper wing half where they are supposed to attach. There's a sketch of the main gear on side 3 of the instructions, which show a rather complex structure for the legs, but there are no parts for it in the kit nor are suggestions to do this from stretched sprue (the way MPM or AZUR would have gone, at least).

The two propeller blades must be butt-joined to a hub-axle part, and then you can introduce this into the motor, provided that you drilled it out (the instructions considering this to be obvious). Horizontal stabilizers are one piece each. Finally, there are two crude exhausts for each motor, and one PE antenna to put on. Presto! Of course, everything is butt-joined.

Instructions: Two A4 paper sheets folded to an 8-pages booklet. Page one brings a brief history in Czech, English and French. Page two shows the layout of the contents, pages three to six covers the construction in some 12 steps, rather simple and imprecise, with painting details coded in letters listed for the Humbrol range. Pages seven and eight show the painting / decaling for three versions, colors given in FS numbers

Versions: They are:

1.- Cessna Crane Mk-I of the pilots school RCAF, code 7862 overall yellow FS33538;

2.- Cessna UC-78 of the 8th Air Force, based in GB, code 258507, upper olive drab FS34087, lower neutral grey FS36173;

3.- Cessna JRC-1 „Bamboo Bomber“ of the NAS Pensacola, code 63426, overall silver grey FS36622.

Decals: Apparently printed by Pavla, they are adequately thin and have very transparent carrier film: Color looks O.K.

Detail: Not overwhelming, mainly given by the PE plate.

Options: There are no options that I can detect.

Impressions: Finding a quality level as stated above, in a kit which is undoubtedly expensive (at least here in Austria) is very disappointing. I'm not motivated to buy any other kit from Pavla.

Recommendations: Buy it only if you need a Cessna T-50 (I did, remembering her appearing on many old B&W TV-series, transporting the bad guys away from the banana republic where they stole the sacred emerald or saving the local dictator from brutal execution. On other occasions a Beech-18 also did the job). Only to be tackled by the (very patient) experienced modeller.

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