Academy 1/72 T-50 Advanced Trainer
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
Overview
Developed in association with Lockheed Martin, the KAI T-50 Golden Eagle is South Korea's first indigenous supersonic jet aircraft. The T-50 entered South Korean service in 2005, and since then has caught the eye of several other nations. Different versions have been ordered by Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Iraq, and there has been interest in the United States as replacing the ageing T-38 fleet with the T-50.
The Kit
This is one of Academy's growing Multi-Color Parts (MCP) kits, aimed at the younger crowd with its simple construction and limited tool requirements. While the construction is simple, the actual detailing is quite nice and on par with other modern Academy kits. This one comes molded in white, black, and clear plastic, with a sheet of marking stickers for a single ROKAF option.
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Starting with the interior, this is molded in black plastic and consists of a cockpit tub with raised detailing, separate instrument panels that also have raised detailing, and two seats made up of separate cushions and seat frames. One thing that seems to be missing are any sort of control columns, which those wanting a more accurate cockpit will have to add, along with seat belts.
With the interior done, the remaining construction will go very fast. The fuselage is split into upper and lower halves, with the upper half incorporating the wings. These parts are molded in white, while the separate upper nose piece is molded in black. The stabilizers are separate, as are the air intakes and vertical fin. With those pieces on, this model is pretty much finished, other than the addition of the canopy and exhaust.
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For finishing, the next step is to add the stickers. These include the general ROKAF markings as well as the high visibility orange sections. For those who disdain from using stickers, you're pretty much out of luck here, as that's all that comes in this kit. However, for the more adept modeler, scrounging the spares box could yield markings for ROKAF or even Indonesian examples. Once Iraq and the Philippines obtains their aircraft, more marking options will become available.
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Conclusion
This remains the only option for a 1/72 T-50 out there, so if you are looking to have one in your collection you'll have to live with the shortcomings of this kit. Looking at the engineering, though, it is possible we will see a more detailed full kit that would include landing gear and perhaps even more marking options. Either way, this is a decent model of a good looking plane. My thanks to MRC for the review sample.