Matchbox 1/72 Rockwell T-2C/E Buckeye

MATCHBOX 1:72 ROCKWELL T-2C/E BUCKEYE

Reviewer: Carlos Giani (carlos_giani2002@yahoo.de)
Kit Review submitted: 13 July 2009

Kit Details:

Matchbox 1/72^nd scale North American T-2C Buckeye (Kit N° Pk-42 ). Produced in England.

Aircraft History:

By means of a requirement called out by the U.S. Navy in 1956 for a multi-role jet-engined trainer, North American got a contract for building the prototype NA-241, which included components and equipment used on former company’s designs. Initially called T2J-1 (later changed to T-2A), this trainer married a modified FJ-1 wing and control systems from the T-28C with a single Westinghouse J34-WE-36 engine, and offered tandem places for the instructor and the trainee, both using zero-zero ejection seats. The first one of the initial 6 units ordered had its maiden flight on 31^st January 1958, and deliveries to the navy started on July 1959 (just having got its nickname “Buckeye”). 217 T-2A equipped the Navy training squadrons VT-4, -7 and –19.

Later, two exemplars were modified to the prototypes YT-2B, on which the single J34 engine was substituted by two Pratt & Whitney J60-P-6. The maiden flight was on 30^th August 1962, and soon production of 97 units T-2B started. The final version of the design was the T-2C, which incorporated General Electric J85-GE-4 engines, and which was build 273 times. From them, 12 units were delivered as T-2D and 30 as T-2E to Venezuela and Greece respectively.

The Kit:

Those of you who always detract from Matchbox kits: I would ask you “do you really prefer to fill your closet with just 2 or 3 XXL boxes containing a single-engined fighter” [*]? :-). Inside a very reasonable sized end-opening box you get two sprues (one white, the other one light grey) containing 30 styrene parts and a small tree with two transparencies, plus decals and instructions. The quality of the plastic is what you would expect for a Matchbox kit: good but not superb surfaces, over-engraved panel lines and control surfaces, absolutely no flash and strong consistency. The two-pieces canopy is thick and has heavy framing, otherwise clear and unscratched.

Instructions:

One A4-sheet folded twice (to allow it to be placed into the box!), one side containing five easy-to-follow construction steps and the then-usual “detail painting guide”, another novelty which Matchbox introduced in the 70´s. On the reverse side you get history/data in six languages, the color codes chart (including FS numbers!) and the 3-view diagrams for decaling.

Construction:

I started painting all inside surfaces with some Humbrol light grey (the can is so old that I cannot read the number, probably HT3), and subsequently glued the wing halves together. Then I moved to the office, which just offers some consoles and a half-floor molded integrally with each fuselage part; not bad at all. It was very easy to add instrument panels made from plasticard, and I also added a couple of Aeroclub ejection seats, hoping that Martin Baker Mk-5 would be correct. Nevertheless, I don´t bothered to add pedals nor control sticks, sure that they wouldn’t be visible. Big mistake, as you will hear later. The vertical fin is molded completely with the left fuselage half, and the gap left after gluing the body was easy to fill and sand. Due to the underbelly-location of the engines, the intake and outlet are separate parts, which of course left gaps. Again, no major problems here.

Next the wings and the tailplanes were added, gaps filled and sanded and panel lines rescribed were necessary. Wanting to give the model a more serious look, and finally overbearing my cowardice I decided to try to use the spare vacform canopy from Falcon´s set N° 4 (U.S. Navy post-WW2), tranquillised by the fact that I still had the kit’s canopy if something went wrong… To make it short: what a fantastic product! Very well outlined in the sheet, good consistency, easy to cut out and trim, perfect fit, low and yet clearly noticeable framing, absolutely distortion-free and very, very transparent. Now you understand why I should have included more detail into the cockpit!

The next step was to mask the canopy, the engine openings and the wheel wells. Wanting to do the Greek version, I started giving the rudder and the wing tip fuel tanks a couple of satin white layers. With the help of a caliper to cut Tamiya tape stripes in the proper width, I masked the white areas preparing for the next paint. With the decals showing here a very light orange tone, I was a bit perplexed and looked for photos in the Web… After more confusion I ended up using bright red, hoping the best. The color of the lower surfaces also guaranteed for further confusion, since on some photos it looks rather like “sky S” instead of grey. I choose Humbrol H95 (hey, it’s my model!). For the upper surfaces I went for a classical HU7, HU8 and HU9. This was a mistake since, although still spray able, this (very old) paints worked out “grainy”, so that even two coats of Future and one of H135 were not able to create a smooth, equable surface (I should have used my newer H116, H117 and H118 instead).

Having no adequate spares, I used the kits Greek roundels (ugh!!), while the rest of the decals came from other sources. Before sealing everything with Humbrol H135, I added the wells doors and the landing gear, which went on without hesitation. Voilá! I’m very happy with the result, and I’m sure this model will look great (one day in the future) standing beside my Hellenic F-86E (in the cabinet I dream of).

Versions:

T-2C VT-23 U.S. Navy, NAS Kingsville, Texas, 1983 in a combination of white and orange (FS12197); black anti-glare panel, wing walks and cockpit framing.
T-2E, 362 MIRA (squadron) 120a Pterix, Air Training Command, Kalamata, Helenic Air Force, 1980, in “Vietnam-like” camouflage (FS34079, 34102 and 30219 over 36622)

Decals:

Another catastrophe. Use spares if you can!

Conclusions:

Apart from being the only game in town in this scale, this is a nice, relaxing and enjoyable kit (IMHO), which could look very good with some extra effort. Give it a try! (Revell has just re-released it, so that it sure will now include much better decals).

References:

Wikipedia

[*] Well, at least the guys at Hannants are happy with XXL boxes, so that they can put lots of paints, resin detail sets, glue, Maskol and the like inside of them, while the kit rests safety in a corner of the box! :-).

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