Roden 1/48 T-28D 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. The T-28D was a USAF T-28A that was upgraded into the Counter Insurgency (COIN) role by replacing the R1300 engine with the more powerful R1820 which also powered the Navy's T-28s. The aircraft was also fitted with two .50 caliber machine gun pods plus six underwing pylons which could carry a variety of bomb and rocket armament.

Roden has released their latest installment in their T-28 Trojan series with this T-28D. Like the original Roden T-28B release reviewed here, this kit is molded in gray styrene but there are now nine parts trees (duplicates not shown) plus one tree of clear parts.The three new trees provide an array of armament for the pylons that were in the original kit.

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!)
• 2 x .50 caliber machine gun pods
• 2 x small bombs
• 2 x rocket pods
• 2 x SUU-14 cluster bomb dispenser pods

One 'feature' that isn't so nice are the scribed panel lines, but these will be less noticable after painting, especially under the Southeast Asia camouflage of the Special Ops Trojan.

Markings are provided for three examples:

• T-28D, 53-8364, 4400 Training Sqn, Eglin AFB, 1964
• T-28D, FG-282, Special CiA unit, Albertville, Congo, 1966
• T-28D, 49-1583, 606 SOS, NKP RTAFB, Thailand, 1960

The national markings of my example are a bit out of register (especially the Congo markings) and the edges of the black lettering are a bit fuzzy as well.

At last, Roden has produced my favorite version of the T-28, the T-28D COIN version which will look awesome on the shelf.

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