Cybermodeler Online

Celebrating 24 years of hobby news and reviews

PROUDLY SPONSORED BY:

  • modelrectifier.com
  • bnamodelworld.com
  • hobbyzone.biz

NOTICE:

The appearance of U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, Department of Defense, or NASA imagery or art does not constitute an endorsement nor is Cybermodeler Online affiliated with these organizations.

FOLLOW US:

  • Facebook
  • Parler
  • Twitter
  • RSS
  • YouTube

Stearman PT-13/N2S-2/5 Kaydet

ICM 1/32 Stearman PT-13/N2S-2/5 Kaydet Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

Date of Review March 2021 Manufacturer ICM
Subject Stearman PT-13/N2S-2/5 Kaydet Scale 1/32
Kit Number 32052 Primary Media Styrene
Pros Nice details Cons See text
Skill Level Experienced MSRP (USD) $64.99

First Look

Stearman PT-13/N2S-2/5 Kaydet
Stearman PT-13/N2S-2/5 Kaydet
Stearman PT-13/N2S-2/5 Kaydet

The Stearman Model 75 was designed as a training aircraft that was adopted by the U.S. Army Air Corps, U.S. Navy, and the Royal Canadian Air Force to train new pilots as these countries entered World War 2. Over 10,600 examples were built before production ended. There is some confusion about the various designators for this aircraft, but all were based upon the same airframe. The PT-13 (USAAC) and the N2S-2/5 (USN) were powered by the Lycoming 9-cylinder radial engine. The PT-17 and N2S-1/4 were powered by the Continental 7-cylinder radial engine, while the PT-18 was powered by the Jacobs R-755 7-cylinder engine. All of the engines that powered the Model 75 in its different variants were rated at 220 horsepower. While Boeing acquired Stearman Aircraft in 1934, the aircraft was known as the Stearman in U.S. circles while the RCAF called the aircraft the Kaydet. When the aircraft entered civilian service after the war, one of the more popular upgrades, regardless of the variant, was to replace the aircraft's engine with the R-965 Wasp Jr. 9-cylinder radial engine rated at 300 hp and turning a constant-speed propeller.

Almost one year ago, Roden(t) released their 1/32 PT-17 kit and I grabbed two and tried to build one of them. Out of the box, the kit looked great, but once i tried to mount the wings onto the fuselage, their promising kit turned out to be lacking in basic engineering and the project set aside. I have since seen others attempt and fail to get that kit to the finish line. That's when I learned that ICM was going to do this subject in 1/32 as well, so I waited (somewhat) patiently. I waited and acquired their PT-17 about five months ago, but I was still fuming over the substandard Roden(t) kit. I've recently learned from a few folks that have indeed built the ICM PT-17 that the kit builds quite nicely with care only required with the cockpit tubular frame (same as the Roden(t) kit). As I had mentioned in one of the previous articles, the only thing you need to render a PT-13 versus the PT-17 is a different engine. ICM has now released the Stearman with the nine-cylinder Lycoming R-680 engine to render the PT-13.

This kit is a simple layout and consists of four parts trees molded in gray styrene plus one tree of clear parts. The molding is sharp with nice details inside the cockpits and around the airframe. Among the features and options in this kit:

  • Nicely detailed Lycoming engine
  • Choice of fixed-pitch (wood) or adjustable pitch propellers
  • Nicely detailed cockpits
  • Nice surface detail on the instrument panels and instrument faces provided as decals
  • Positionable elevators
  • Positionable rudder
  • Positionable ailerons
  • Nice design for fool-proof gear struts

The decal sheet provides marking options for three aircraft:

  • N2S-2, 3553,401, NAS Corpus Christi, 1942
  • PT-13, 520, Randolph Field, 1941
  • N2S-5, 52941, USN, 1944

A few notes to consider:

  • The instructions provide a basic rigging illustration, but there are many good online resources for these details in more depth
  • The engine does not have an ignition harness so you're on your own
  • The painting instructions are laid out using only Revell and Tamiya color references but I have no idea where they got their color recommendations. See the color section below
  • The tubular frame around the cockpit is more delicate than the Roden(t) version and many of the frame parts come pre-broken. Given the petite diameter of the frame, I don't think glue is going to help, but given that the cockpit layout and installation is virtually identical to the Roden(t) kit, I may rob the frame structure out of that kit
  • The assembly of the fuselage, right down to the landing gear is nearly identical to the Rodent(t) kit. The engine design is different (not better)
  • The key question is whether the wing struts will work. Unlike the Roden(t) kit, the interplane struts have good mounts on both wings, while the cabane struts have good mounts on the upper wing while bottoms of the cabane struts look like they will get glued wherever they land on the fuselage.

Now that I know that this kit is buildable, it is time to get the PT-13 and PT-17 on the bench!

Here is a list of paints representing the ANA colors used by the Stearman:

 
AMMO
AV
GSI
HAT
LC
MIS
MRP
REV
TAM
TES
XTRA
True Blue
ANA 501
0229
 
 
A220
B220
C220
 
 
384
 
 
2030
X152
Orange Yellow
ANA 506
 
 
C329
H329
A066
B066
C066
 
 
 
 
 
 
X106
Aircraft Gray
ANA 512
0212
71.335
 
 
UA041
MMP102
134
 
 
 
X138
XA1138
Interior Green
ANA 611
0220
71.137
C351
H058
N058
A211
B211
C211
UA004
MMP059
131
A007
32360
 
 
X117
XA1117
Silver
0195
70.790
C008
H008
N008
A003
B003
C003
LC074
MMM006
003
32190
36190
AS12
LP11
X11
 
X038

ICM has done a great job with this kit and they can offer other variants of the Stearman by simply swapping out engines. You don't have to wait for that to happen as there are resin engines in the aftermarket that will allow you to render just about any variant, wartime or postwar, you might wish to build. I wound up purchasing two, one to build as the PT-13/N2S-2/5, the other as an N2S, but I'm still undecided whether to swap engines as described in the introduction.