Kitty Hawk 1/32 T-28C

Glen Coleman has announced that Kitty Hawk's T-28C follow-on to its well-received T-28B/D kit will be available in June.

Not my scale so I don't have personal experience with its predecessor, but this is an illustrated build review of it that includes high praise: http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=60982&page=1

Glen provided photos of a model built from the kit:

As you can see, typical of Kitty Hawk, internal details, positionable control surfaces and canopy, and external stores are provided. (Never mind that the front canopy is on backwards; these display models are usually built from test shots without benefit of the instructions.)

One problem with T-28 kits is that some represent the early T-28A canopy, which bulged upward more than the later T-28A and subsequent canopies.

The fuselage in the foreground is the early version. The one in the background and this one on a T-28C are the later one.

For a good reference, get this early Steve Ginter monograph that featured the T-28:

It can be ordered here: http://www.ginterbooks.com/NAVAL/NF5.htm. It doesn't include a three-view of the T-28C, so here is one suitable for checking dimensions:

Also a guide to the differences between the B and the C:

Note the difference in propeller diameter.

Several marking options are provided:

Note that the one marked as VF-84 is a warbird for which I'm pretty sure that there wasn't an example in Navy service. Similarly, my guess is that the tail code TN represents a warbird owner's initials. (Both of these have an N number on the fuselage, another clue.) I'm not sure that there was a C in the air drone controller scheme (the BuNo provided for that one was assigned to a T-28B). If you're a stickler for accuracy, you should keep that in mind as well as the fact that some of the walkaround photo collections on the interweb have warbird subjects.

One thing that caught my eye was the tailhook installation. I suggest that it look more like this:

Note the separation between the bottom of the fuselage and the rudder. The front of the hook point should be shaped more like a horse's hoof: