The Kitty Hawk T-6 Texan…

Where to begin with this thing?  It’s been out for a while now, releasing in 2014.  And it’s been reviewed all over the internet, with mixed reactions.

Opening the box it looks pretty nice.  The plastic looks nicely detailed and there’s no flash to be seen.  But the sprue gates, my god are they huge.  Not quite as big on smaller pieces, but bigger than what I know they could, and should, be.

The decals are nice and bright and should really pop once they’re on the kit.  There are some really interesting schemes that offer a nice variety of countries.  It looks like there may be some odd assemblies but we’ll see how they go when we get there.  Also, there is only one canopy style given that limits which of the schemes you can accurately build.

Let’s get started and see where it goes.

As with most aircraft kits, I’m starting on the cockpit.  The first thing I notice is that the plastic is extremely soft.  My Xacto knife digs right into the plastic so that’s something that I’ll have to be careful with going forward.  Thin pieces bend very easily while trying to cut them off with sprue cutters.  I’ve already had to resort to using a razor saw for a lot of the cockpit pieces.

Two of those pieces are the framework for the sides of the cockpit.  This part makes perfect sense.  The backside of the pieces, that you won’t see, are perfectly smooth.  The front side however, (you know, the side that you do see) is full of ejector pin marks.

What the fuck, Kitty Hawk?

You seriously couldn’t reverse this?  It’s honestly absurd and pretty infuriating.  These are the kinds of things that should be caught on test builds and not get through quality control.

We’ll see how these sidewalls, as well as the rest of the cockpit goes together in part two.  Stay tuned!