Roden 1/48
JOV-1A Mohawk

First Look

The Roden Mohawk announcement came to me as a great surprise. Although this is a beloved subject to many, it seemed that it would be unlikely to appear in injected plastic form. Therefore some years ago I purchased two resin kits of the Mohawk done by Collect-Aire. As fate would have it Roden estimated that this model would be a profitable proposition. It certainly appears that it was a good gamble as great numbers are being sold by the various outlets state-wide and internationally. Roden is clearly planning to do more versions of the Mohawk as evidenced by the extra parts that are marked "not for use".

As the standard policy for most release schedules today, the less popular version of the Mohawk is first for to hit the market. I would like to have all the versions of the Mohawk so I started with the JOV-1A which was ordered from Linden Hill Imports.

The kit sports some very interesting box art of a Mohawk flying in a monsoon over a jungle with a winding river on the side and some rather upset looking monkeys (one of them looks to be shaking his fist at the coming Mohawk!). For those who like to frame the art there is a poster of it included in the kit!

The kit's plastic parts come in one big bag with the clear parts bagged in a smaller bag. The parts are tightly packed together and mine had many chips and scratches on them. One of my wings had a broken corner and one of the speed brakes was missing a hinge. The clear parts are very clear indeed but as you can see in the pictures the top part of the canopy is showing stress fracture marks. This is not fixable so I will have to figure out a way to order a replacement part or maybe use it as a master to form another part.

The fuselage appears to have all the necessary details but the surface finish was a bit rough on my sample. A little wet sanding will do just fine.

The wings look fine and I like the sharp trailing edges as well as the deep and properly formed exhausts. The wheel wells are deep but ejection pin marks disrupt the fine details.

The cockpit looks pretty good out of the box but if anybody comes up with a full resin replacement I would not pass it. So much glass and the option for open side windows begs for some killer seats and instrumentation (none present on the cockpit sides in the kit by the way).

Plenty of weight will need to be stuffed everywhere to keep this model on all three wheels.

There are 4 decal options provided and I hope the yellow of the US Army decals will be opaque enough to cover the olive drab camouflage.

Looking forward to completing this and the subsequent Mohawk releases.

References

• OV-1 Mohawk Photo Walk Around