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T-38C Talon II

History

The Northrop (now Northrop Grumman) T-38 Talon is a two-seat, twin-engine supersonic jet trainer. It was the world's first supersonic trainer and is also the most produced—1,187. The T-38 has been in service for over 50 years and remains in service as of 2016 in air forces throughout the world. In addition to training USAF pilots, the T-38 is used by NASA, the US Naval Test Pilot School, Germany (40 aircraft), South Korea (30), Taiwan (40), and Turkey (69). NASA uses T-38 aircraft as trainers for astronauts and as observers and chase planes. Pilots from NATO countries are also trained on the T-38, through the EURO-NATO joint jet pilot training program.

Construction

Following Trumpeters well illustrated construction guide, construction of my T-38C was straight forward and pretty much trouble free. I did have some trouble installing the canopies,—they did not fit well and required some help from Elmer's white glue to fill some gaps. I believe this kit was designed to have the cockpit open. Note that the clear canopy parts have a very fine parting line down the center of each piece. They are so faint you can barely see them.

Cockpit detail is excellent with the instrument panel decals. However, I ruined the front panel decal and wound up painting the instrument panels. The kit provides PE seat belts for the ejection seats which adds to the cockpit detail.

Painting

All paints for this kit were Model Masters enamel paints. Since T-38 Talons have been in service for 50 years, they have been painted with many different paint schemes and colors. The painting guide for this kit calls out two paints schemes. I chose the Neutral Gray and Gunship Gray paint scheme. The landing gears, wheel bays and doors were painted with Flat White.

Decals

The decals for this kit were flawless. They are well printed, easily placed on the model and snuggled down nicely with a light application of Solvaset.

Conclusion

To sum up, this was a nice kit to build. Trumpeter has done a nice job with this kit. The external detail is good, the parts fit is good, and the decals were excellent. The 8 page instruction booklet is full of clear illustrations and the full color marking and painting sheet, all contributed in building a really good looking model. I recommend this kit to any modeler.