OzMods Scale Models

1/144 Lockheed T-33

Kit Number: 14404

Reviewed by  Jim Pearsall, IPMS# 2209

MSRP: $12.95 Aus + $9 Aus ($9.90 + $6.87 US) Shipping, Direct from OzMods Thanks to OzMods Scale Models for providing this review kit. The company: OzMods is apparently (from their web site) a production shop which can produce masters and molds in either soft media or metal. They have done resin conversion kits and complete models in resin for a number of years. Now they've branched out into limited run, injected aircraft kits in 1/144. In addition to the T-33, they also have a P-80, Canberra and B-57, all 1/144. Also, they have a conversion for the B-57 to a WB-57, with the larger engines and extended wings. The Aircraft The Lockheed T-33 is a logical development of the F-80 Shooting Star fighter of WW2 and Korea. Converting to a jet from prop planes can be a risky business, expensive in men and equipment. Dick Bong's death in a P-80 could be a prime example. Therefore, the fuselage was extended, an extra position was added, and the F-80, which was rapidly outclassed in Korea, became the T-33, which still soldiers on in a couple of Asian air forces. My personal experience with the T-33 was with the ARC-27 radio. The radio was a UHF set, and weighed about 70 pounds. The radio wasn't hard to get to; it sat in the nose compartment, about chest high. The problem was getting it out of the compartment. In the photo, you can see that the aft part of the opening for the panel is not vertical, but is angled. So when you removed the radio, you were holding your arms at about shoulder height, lifting, twisting and pulling the radio set, all at the same time to remove it. I always had to get help. The other memorable part of being on the flight line where there was a T-33 was that "Sunday wasn't Sunday without the T-33 coming home with a fire warning light". The T-Bird had a fire warning system which included a nylon cord strung through the engine compartment. The idea was that if the engine caught fire or overheated badly, the nylon would melt. The cord was hooked to a switch which would close if the cord lost tension when it melted. This activated a warning light on the instrument panel. Because the T-33 we had was about 15+ years old, the nylon cords were no longer new and fresh, and could break from fatigue. We'd hear the crash horn (you couldn't miss it) and go outdoors to see what the emergency was. Then the T-33 would land, the fire department would roll up, and everything would be OK. The Kit 3 sprues, in dark grey, 2 vac formed canopies, plus decals for USAF and Japanese Self-Defense AF T-33s. In total, 28 parts plus the canopies. It's 1/144, everything is "petite". Get good glasses or a magnifier. I downloaded several drawings from web sites (use Google Image search) and resized them with Paint Shop to 1/144. The drawings all pretty much agreed, and the model matched them. The Good Stuff The cockpits on newer 1/144 aircraft continue to improve at a tremendous pace. Six months ago, I was saying that "paint the top of the fuselage black and install the canopy" was state of the art. That's no longer true. This kit actually has tiny little recesses for the gauges on the control panels, good looking ejection seats, and control sticks. Due to the limitations of injecting the control sticks, they scale out to about 4 inches in diameter, so I replaced them with some fine wire. Nevertheless, the fact that they even bothered to supply them leaves me in wonderment. The tip tanks are round (don't laugh, I've seen my share of tanks which look "egg-shaped" or "figure 8 like" when viewed from the front), there's wonderful petite detail on the main wheels, and the panel lines are all engraved - even the one for the radio compartment.

The other stuff Due to the limitations of using these molds, the connections between the sprues and the parts is thicker than you'll find on a "main line" injection molded kit. And that leads me to my biggest headache on this kit. The connections on the fuselage come in on top of the fuselage halves. Where everyone can see it if you don't do a really great job of puttying, sanding, polishing and redoing the panel lines. My personal preference would have been to see them come in at the bottom. But that's just me. (Red arrows)

Another molding problem is much less problematical. When I assembled the fuselage halves, the nose and tail aligned nicely, as did the opening for the wing assembly. The opening for the cockpit was off about 1/8 inch. (Blue arrows) No problem, just make a small cut at the front and back to line things up. If the wing opening had been out of line like that, it would have required major surgery. There's apparently a small fit problem with the mold, as the wing, horizontal and vertical stabilizers all had a small "step" in the leading edge which had to be dealt with. Fortunately the Flex-I-File does this sort of job cleanly and without fuss. Completing Assembly In spite of my kvetching above, the assembly went pretty much as planned. The holes in the tip tanks are just the correct size to allow them to be installed without any filling, and they fit friction tight. Good engineering for 1/144! The wing assembly needs a little fiddling to fit into the fuselage opening, but I'd rather deal with that than have to fill some huge gap. I found another useful product on this build. I bought a bottle of Loctite gel-type super glue. It comes in a precision dispenser, where you squeeze the sides of the bottle, and a miniscule amount comes out. Perfect for putting the wheels on a 1/144 jet! Of course it took me several tries to figure out how the dispenser worked, and then several more to get the amount I wanted. But it's a really useful modeling tool, and it's handier than putting a large spot out on a bottle cap and applying it with a needle. Available at most home or hardware stores for about $3.95 for 4 gm. Finishing Since I decided to do the aircraft I worked on (we only had one), I couldn't use the kit decals. And it's overall natural metal. 1/144 is much better for the silver finish, as you can get much better coverage with the airbrush. I used Floquil Bright Silver, and discovered that I had to put the Future overcoat on real soon, as the finish comes off on your hands if you handle the model, even days after painting. Making the decals was actually pretty easy. The markings are ultra-simple, with just ANG and the serial on the tail, and ILL * ANG on the fuselage. I took the US "stars & bars" from my spares box (unused from a 1/144 F-4E). I printed the serials and text, and then ran them through a copier. I put small pieces of decal paper over the printed lettering, and ran the same piece through again. No use using an 8-1/2 X 11 piece of decal paper for lettering which works out to about 1-1/2 X 1 inch! The ANG and serial is 7 points, or .97 inches, the ILL ANG is 9 points, or .125 inches. The canopy went on quite nicely, thank you. I only had to use one, so the second goes into the spares box. The "shoot your own foot" came when I was doing the nose gear doors. Instead of cutting them with a small saw, I tried to cut them with a #11 blade. The part cracked at an angle, and I had to make new doors from sheet plastic.

Overall I am really glad John sent me this kit. It brings back fond memories of standing out at the edge of the flight line, waiting for the crash horn to shut off, and less pleasant ones of wrestling a really heavy radio. The kit is easy to build, even if it's not a "box shaker". The fit of the parts is good, excellent in places. There are challenges, but no real problems that made me put the kit aside until either inspiration or a new technology made completion possible. I had Combat Models' 1/32 F-105D as a "Continuing Project" for almost 20 years, until they invented CA glue for attaching non-plastic parts (I made my own metal landing gear legs) and a color printer for custom decals. This project just kind of flowed from start to finish. I even found my unit's 40th anniversary yearbook (1947-1987) which had a photo of the T-Bird, on the first look into the bookshelf! This kit makes me hope one of the specialty shops or mail-order businesses will sell OzMods Models here in the US. Sure like to build their B-57 and a PR Canberra. I'd really like to see this, to save shipping costs. Another reason for this is that my credit card company recently announced that they will start putting a 3% surcharge on all purchases in non-US currency. This is on top of raking me with their exchange rate. www.ozmods-kits.com OzMods Scale Models PO Box 700 BOOVAL, QLD, 4304 Australia

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