Roden 1/48 T-28B Trojan Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

The T-28 was North American Aviation's second design to replace their highly successful T-6 Texan/SNJ Harvard. First flown in 1949, it was adopted by the US Air Force as a primary trainer and designated T-28A. The US Navy had issued a requirement for a new trainer previous to the T-28 and North American had answered with the SN2J, but it was found to be lacking in several performance areas as was a competing design and that procurement was cancelled. With the T-28, the Navy found this improved version of the SN2J suitable and also adopted it into the primary training role as the T-28B. Another variant would also be produced for the Navy as their first dedicated carrier landing trainer equipped with a tailhook and a shorter propeller and designated T-28C.

Roden has released their first installment in their T-28 Trojan series with this T-28B. The kit is definitely not your father's T-28 kit as this is definitely a step up from the venerable Monogram kit.

Molded in light gray styrene, the kit is presented on five parts trees plus a single tree of clear parts. The layout appears straightforward and should be a simple build, but we still list the skill level as experienced as there is a bit of flash present on a number of parts that will require some skill and care to remove without harming the model.

The kit has some nice features and options that are noteworthy:

• Nicely detailed R-1820 engine visible from the cowling front as well as from the open cowl flaps
• Detailed cockpit w/sticks, rudder pedals, throttle quadrants
• Instrument panels look good and have decal instrument faces
• Positionable front and rear canopies
• Positionable ailerons
• Positionable elevators
• Positionable rudder
• Positionable flaps
• Positionable speed brake
• Positionable cowl flaps
• Instructions clearly show 25 grams of nose ballast required (thank you!)

One 'feature' that isn't so nice are the scribed panel lines. You can see in the images that they're a bit heavy but shouldn't be that bad once some trainer yellow or white/international orange is applied. You can also see in the images that there are gun pods that aren't used in this version but foretells the T-28D COIN aircraft coming in the future.

Markings are provided for three examples:

• T-28B, 140006, 006, Naval Aerospace Recovery Center, El Centro, CA, 1970
• T-28B, 137692, KB/4, USMC, Kaneohe Bay, HI, 1977
• T-28B, 148288, PA/210, Pacific Fleet All-Weather Training Unit, 1970s

This is a nice-looking kit that finally provides a detailed alternative to the decades-old Monogram kit. With the nice range of colorful schemes worn by the T-28 in its career, this will make for an eye-catching model. Kudos to Roden for taking on this subject!

My sincere thanks to Squadron Mail Order for this review sample!