In Box Review of Monogram 1/48th Scale
U.S. North American AT-6 "Texan"
Kit no. 5306
By Ray Mehlberger
My kit is out of production. But re-issues of the kit range from $8.00 up to a whopping $55.00 on eBay at many sites there. Copyright of my kit is 1979 and I paid $2.33 for mine back then.
By Ray Mehlberger
My kit is out of production. But re-issues of the kit range from $8.00 up to a whopping $55.00 on eBay at many sites there. Copyright of my kit is 1979 and I paid $2.33 for mine back then.
HISTORY:
The North American Aviation T-6 Texan is an American single-engine advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), United States Navy, Royal Air Force, and other air forces of the British Commonwealth during World War II and into the 1970s.
Designed by North American Aviation, the T-6 is known by a variety of designations depending on the model and operating air force. The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) and USAAF designated it as the AT-6, the United States Navy the SNJ, and British Commonwealth air forces the Harvard, the name by which it is best known outside the US.
Starting in 1948, the new United States Air Force (USAF) designated it the T-6, with the USN following in 1962. It remains a popular warbird aircraft used for airshow demonstrations and static displays. It has also been used many times to simulate various Japanese aircraft, including the Mitsubishi A6M Zero in movies depicting World War II in the Pacific. A total of 15,495 T-6s of all variants were built.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Role: Trainer aircraft
National origin: United States
Manufacturer: North American Aviation
First flight: 1 April 1935
Retired: 1995 (South African Air Force)
Primary users: U.S.Army Air Forces & Navy, Royal Air Force,Royal Canadian Air Force
Number built: 15,495
Developed from: North American NA-16
Variants: North American A-27, Bacon Super T-6
Developed into: North American P-64, CAC Wirraway
The North American Aviation T-6 Texan is an American single-engine advanced trainer aircraft used to train pilots of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), United States Navy, Royal Air Force, and other air forces of the British Commonwealth during World War II and into the 1970s.
Designed by North American Aviation, the T-6 is known by a variety of designations depending on the model and operating air force. The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) and USAAF designated it as the AT-6, the United States Navy the SNJ, and British Commonwealth air forces the Harvard, the name by which it is best known outside the US.
Starting in 1948, the new United States Air Force (USAF) designated it the T-6, with the USN following in 1962. It remains a popular warbird aircraft used for airshow demonstrations and static displays. It has also been used many times to simulate various Japanese aircraft, including the Mitsubishi A6M Zero in movies depicting World War II in the Pacific. A total of 15,495 T-6s of all variants were built.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Role: Trainer aircraft
National origin: United States
Manufacturer: North American Aviation
First flight: 1 April 1935
Retired: 1995 (South African Air Force)
Primary users: U.S.Army Air Forces & Navy, Royal Air Force,Royal Canadian Air Force
Number built: 15,495
Developed from: North American NA-16
Variants: North American A-27, Bacon Super T-6
Developed into: North American P-64, CAC Wirraway
THE KIT:
Monogram is an old prolific model company based in Morton Grove, IL. They manufacture all manner of model subjects in the popular scales. In recent years they have become associated with Revell.
The kit comes in a shrink-wrapped tray and lid type box.
The box art is a color photo of the model made up and posed against an all-white background, similar to how Tamiya does the majority of their box arts too.
It is overall bare-metal with a red cowling and rudder. The cowling has a yellow 415 on it. The fuselage code is black TA-491 before the star. There is a yellow serial no. 284491 on the rudder and repeated in black under one wing.
The box art says there are instructions included in English, Dutch, French, German, Swedish and Spanish.
One side panel has 3 color walk-around type photos of the model made up in the cover art scheme.
Monogram is an old prolific model company based in Morton Grove, IL. They manufacture all manner of model subjects in the popular scales. In recent years they have become associated with Revell.
The kit comes in a shrink-wrapped tray and lid type box.
The box art is a color photo of the model made up and posed against an all-white background, similar to how Tamiya does the majority of their box arts too.
It is overall bare-metal with a red cowling and rudder. The cowling has a yellow 415 on it. The fuselage code is black TA-491 before the star. There is a yellow serial no. 284491 on the rudder and repeated in black under one wing.
The box art says there are instructions included in English, Dutch, French, German, Swedish and Spanish.
One side panel has 3 color walk-around type photos of the model made up in the cover art scheme.
The other side panel has a small color profile photo of the model made up in the cover art scheme, over Monogram's address in Morton Grove, IL and the copyright date 1979. This is followed by the history of the Texan in 5 of the languages.
WHAT'S IN THE BOX:
The kit contains 3 silver-gray parts trees, a clear tree, the decal sheet and instructions. Trees are not cello bagged.
The instructions consist of a single sheet, folded in the center to create 4 pages in 8 1/2" x 11" page format.
Page 1 begins with the history of the Texan in English and READ BEFORE YOU BEGIN instructions, a suggested paint listing and international assembly symbol explanations in the 6 languages.
The bottom of the page has the first 2 assembly steps on it.
Page 2 to the top of page 4 give a balance of a total of 17 assembly steps.
The rest of page 4 has painting and marking instructions on it, showing a 4-view of the cover art scheme, which is a Texan BNJ-5 version that is overall bare metal with black U.S. Navy behind the fuselage star and a small black serial no. 90667 followed by SNJ-5 on the rudder sides.
Trees are not cello bagged, alphabetized or illustrated in the instructions. They do have part number tabs next to the parts on them.
The first silver-gray tree holds: the cowling, engine, pilot figure, interior wall frames, a fuselage half, dashboard, main wheels etc. (20 parts)
The kit contains 3 silver-gray parts trees, a clear tree, the decal sheet and instructions. Trees are not cello bagged.
The instructions consist of a single sheet, folded in the center to create 4 pages in 8 1/2" x 11" page format.
Page 1 begins with the history of the Texan in English and READ BEFORE YOU BEGIN instructions, a suggested paint listing and international assembly symbol explanations in the 6 languages.
The bottom of the page has the first 2 assembly steps on it.
Page 2 to the top of page 4 give a balance of a total of 17 assembly steps.
The rest of page 4 has painting and marking instructions on it, showing a 4-view of the cover art scheme, which is a Texan BNJ-5 version that is overall bare metal with black U.S. Navy behind the fuselage star and a small black serial no. 90667 followed by SNJ-5 on the rudder sides.
Trees are not cello bagged, alphabetized or illustrated in the instructions. They do have part number tabs next to the parts on them.
The first silver-gray tree holds: the cowling, engine, pilot figure, interior wall frames, a fuselage half, dashboard, main wheels etc. (20 parts)
The second silver-gray tree holds: the elevators, other fuselage half, crewman figure, propeller, seats, antenna, machine gun etc. (22 parts)
The third silver-gray tree holds wing halves (3 parts)
The clear tree holds the cockpit windows and wing light lenses (8 parts)
The decal sheet completes the kit's contents and has stencil marks included on it.
Kit has nicely raised detail. Flaps are all molded solid.
Highly recommended.