The Beechcraft T-6 Texan II is a single-engine turboprop aircraft built by the Raytheon Aircraft Company (now Hawker Beechcraft). Based on the Pilatus PC-9, the T-6 is used by the United States Air Force for basic pilot training and by the United States Navy for Primary and Intermediate Joint Naval Flight Officer (NFO) and Air Force Combat Systems Officer (CSO) training. It has replaced the Air Force's T-37B Tweet and is replacing the Navy's T-34C Turbo Mentor. The T-6A is also used as a basic trainer by the Royal Canadian Air Force (CT-156 Harvard II), the Moroccan Air Force, the Greek Air Force, the Israeli Air Force (Efroni), and the Iraqi Air Force. Other nations have shown interest and thanks to the multiple mission variants currently offered, it should find wider acceptance as the years go by.

When this was originally released a week or two ago, it raised quite a bit of hoopla. It is rare for a new company to do a trainer aircraft and even more when that aircraft is in 1/48 scale. Ibex is a company that is new to me and hails from Israel, not known as a hot-bed for new kits.

The kit itself comes with two plastic sprues a bag of resin, two vacuformed canopies and an awesome decal sheet. The external detailing on the injected plastic parts is really superb. Engraved panel lines are quite well done and while not as fine as you would see on, say, a Hasegawa kit, are more than acceptable. There is sidewall detailing on the inside of the fuselage halves. Instrument panels have good detail with dial outlines that are ready for the instrument decals supplied with the sheet. There are no ejector pin marks, no sink areas and I only had one broken part, a control stick that will be easily repaired.

Resin is used for some of the more complex molds such as the bang seats, prop spinner, forward cowling, wheels, exhaust and a few other small bits. The casting is flawless and if you have seen Isracast products, you know how these parts look. The bang seats have belt detail molded on them. The two vacuformed canopies are quite clear and molded in plastic that is thick enough to be easy to attach.

The instruction sheet is on a large section of full color, folded paper that is almost thick enough to be considered card. There are 13 very nicely drawn construction steps that include any colors needed and any trimming or modifications needed. It will require 20 grams of weight to keep it on its nose wheel, but there is a lot of room for that. A set of color photos of the two instrument panels and a decal placement guide are provided. This one looks like a full glass cockpit as supplied with Israeli aircraft. I have to assume the US planes are the same. FS 595 paint references are supplied where needed.

Markings are quite extensive and the decals are truly well printed by Cartograf. You get markings for any Israeli AF T-6A for which you can find a photo as the serial numbers are all separate. This plane is red and white like their Magisters used to be. All the red areas will need to be painted and are quite extensive. The other mass of options are for USAF airplanes. You get unit markings for four squadrons from the 8th and 33rd FTS at Vance AFB, two sets of markings for the 559th FTS and 12th FTW at Randolph AFB, and finally two sets of markings for the 84th FTS and 85th FTS at Laughlin AFB. These planes are white over FS 15044 blue and you get a full selection of serials so again, if you have a photo, you can build a model of that plane. A small addendum sheet is included as the original tail codes were undersize.

This is truly an excellent initial offering. Ibex has thought things through to provide a kit that will appeal to modelers all over. With additional markings for this kit available fromCarcal, you have no excuse not to pick up one, or two, or three....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-6_Texan_II

January 2012

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