Testors 1/48 Rockwell OV-10A Bronco

TESTORS 1:48 ROCKWELL OV-10A BRONCO

Reviewer: Sheldon Rampersad (clyde_rampe@tstt.net.tt)
Kit Review submitted: 8 October 2006

Kit Details:

Testors 1/48^th OV-10A Bronco

Aircraft History:

The USMC pioneered the use of light aircraft for artillery spotting and CAS control during WWII and the Korean War. In 1959, the USMC conducted a study concerning a new aircraft, which could serve as both an observation, and light attack aircraft. A key proposal in this study was the ability of the aircraft to carry a variety of ordnance to support marine helicopters during air assaults. This requirement was unique at the time, since aircraft used for spotting and control had never been called on to provide direct support before. At the same time the Army was looking for a replacement for it’s OV-1 Mohawk to support the new air mobility concept.

After the development period the aircraft went into production in 1968 as the OV-10A. The OV-10 had various incarnations with the ultimate being the OV-10D+ of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

The Kit:

The kit is moulded in grey with four clear parts for the canopy. The parts lack much detail and are fairly straightforward.

Instructions:

The instructions come on a twelve-page booklet with large clear drawings. There are eight construction steps including decal application.

Construction:

Painting the parts started things of with this kit. The first construction step is to affix the nose gear and cockpit floor. The wheels have no detail on them and are smooth. You can fix this by carving threads on them or as I did painting it in a matt black to give a used weathered appearance. The fuselage side were cemented together and the cockpit console decal applied. The one basic ejector seat was then glued in place. This is the real let down of the kit. Testors only supplies on crew position with no back seat or rear console. In addition there is no rear bulkhead so you can see through the wonderful large canopy straight into the empty rear cargo compartment!

The fuselage booms, wing, propellers and weapons sponsons were constructed. The propeller construction was quite a novel approach. The propeller blades were fitted into grooves on the hub with the spinner cap being placed over these. This gave a more realistic look than the normal one-piece propellers. It also allowed you to position the props for feathered, fine or coarse pitch. On the Bronco the props spin towards the fuselage i.e., clockwise for starboard and counter clockwise for port when facing the aircraft. At this point I choose to apply the decals since it would be more difficult with the booms and props on.

The sponsons were glued onto the fuselage. Obtaining the correct angle was not a problem due to the kit parts design. The Bronco would sometimes carry a small drop tank on the centreline pylon. I scratch built two mounting braces for the fuselage and attached a drop tank for the spares box. The inner pylons on the sponsons were bombed up with bombs from the kit and the outer pylons had 2.75” rocket pods attached. Heavy gunpowder staining was applied to the machine gun ports on the sponsons.

The exhaust stacks were solid plastic and had to be hollowed out using a very fine drill bit, which I turned by hand. There are four air scoops on the booms sides, which also had to be hollowed out. The wing went into its position with out trouble, as did the tail booms. The trouble came when these were dry in place and I slipped the horizontal stabilizer in between the tail booms. Then I discovered that the starboard vertical tail was slightly taller than the port, with the result that the horizontal stab was no longer horizontal! Rip the horizontal stab out and start carving at the slot on the starboard tail. This way I got the stab to sit horizontally. But there was a prominent gap to fill in the starboard tail now. Weight must be added to keep the aircraft sitting level. Since there is NO detail in any of the wheel wells I weighted my aircraft by placing small steel ball bearings in the nose well. These were kept in place using white play dough.

In an attempt to spruce up my sparse cockpit I shaped appropriately one of my spare control sticks for the pilot to hang on to. I consider the pilot and control stick necessary in this kit due to the lack of interior details. The clear parts were masked and the frames painted grey. The canopy was assembled by gluing the side panels first followed by the windshield. The windshield is slightly too large at the base where it meets the side panels. The top panel closes thing off. Stretched spruce is placed on the booms for antennae and thin thread run from the underside of the horizontal stab to the fuselage for the navigation antenna.

Options:

There are no options available in this kit.

Decals / Colour Schemes:

You can build either a USAF OV-10A flown by the commander 27^th TASS (which I choose), a low viz aircraft of the 27^th or a USMC version of the Bronco. Most USAF Broncos were painted in overall grey and not the wrap around camouflage scheme as depicted by the kit. I modelled my Bronco in grey with high viz commander’s colours.

Accuracy:

The kit seems to more accurately replicate a prototype Bronco than a production model. The fit is ok with not much filling required. Details could be increased ten-fold.

Recommendation:

It has its good and bad points. Overall it’ll get an OK.

References:

OV-10 Bronco in action, by Squadron Signal publications.

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