IsraCast 1/72 T-6A/B Texan II Kit First Look

By Chuck Holte

First Look

The Beechcraft T-6A/B/C Texan II is a two-seat, single-engine turboprop primary instruction aircraft for the US Air Force, US Navy and numerous other military air arms.  The winning aircraft in the Pentagon’s Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JAPATS) competition, the Texan II is a militarized version of the Beech/Pilatus PC-9 basic trainer.  Designed to replace the T-37 and T-34, the first operational airframe was delivered to the USAF in 2000.  More info on the T-6A may be found at:  National Museum of the USAF Fact Sheet

Israeli based IsraCast recently released their T-6A/B/C Texan II mixed media kit in 1/72 scale.  It consists of thirty-five resin parts, metal landing gear, a small sheet of photo etchbrass, painting masks and a vac-form canopy.  Beautifully cast light gray resin parts include a one-piece fuselage and a one-piece wing with finely engraved detail and panel lines.  Cockpit side panel detail is molded into the fuselage and supplemented by separate cast instrument hoods, cockpit decals and finely detailed resin ejection seats.  Four pages of black and white photo assembly instructions are accompanied by eight pages of excellent full-color painting and decaling instructions.

The kit includes a full 6x8 inch sheet of beautifully printed decals for USN/USMC (4 a/c), USAF (7 a/c), Iraqi, Hellenic, Moroccan, Mexican, Israeli, New Zealand and Canadian T-6s.  The sheet includes the canopy detonation cord and a spare set of instrument decals.

In the box this looks like an outstanding mixed media craftsman style kit.  So far, the most difficult part of the kit/build is deciding which of the colorful schemes to use.  Looks like I may be buying more than one kit to resolve the problem.