Roden's 1/48 scale
Grumman OV-1A Mohawk

by Mick Evans

images by Brett Green

Roden's 1/48 scale OV-1A/JOV-1A Mohawk  is available online from Squadron.com

On opening the box for this kit I was surprised at the high quality of the parts and the detail provided on them. Roden has continued to improve the quality of their kits to a point where they are now comparable with releases from the major kit producing companies.

Roden's 1/48 scale OV-1A/JOV-1A Mohawk comprises 18 clear plastic parts and 186 plastic parts crisply moulded in a light grey styrene.

The cockpit detail is excellent with no less than 38 detail parts provided. The main instrument panel is moulded in clear plastic with a decal to be placed at the rear. The decal is printed in reverse to allow the markings to show through the clear panel. Each ejection seat is a sub assembly in itself with 8 parts provided for each seat.

The transparencies are nice and clear and the areas to be painted are frosted for good paint adhesion. The undercarriage wells and legs have great detail. One problem spot is a rather large ejector pin mark right through the center of the rib detail in each main wheel bay. The ejector pin marks in the nose wheel bay should be easy to repair, as it is a smooth flat surface with no detail near them.

A good load of drop tanks, rocket, and gun pods is provided. For those who wish for more choices will have to dig into Hasegawa weapons sets for alternatives.

Markings are supplied for 4 US Army aircraft operating in Vietnam, 2 in high visibility markings in a dark olive drab scheme, and 2 in low visibility markings in a lighter faded olive drab scheme.

Building Roden's Mohawk was quite easy with only a few fit problems.

Construction started with the some light cleanup of flash and some filling of a few sink areas around the speed brake area. The cockpit is nicely detailed except for the rear bulkhead. Photographs of this area show it to be quite a busy area and, this was overlooked by the manufacturer.

Once the cockpit is complete, the fuselage assembly is a very easy assembly process. The wings then become the next big challenge. The wheel wells have a rather large injector mark through the support ribbing and this takes some work to remove. I removed the 3 effected ribs and replaced them with plastic rod and under a coat of paint you cannot tell the difference. Also another raised injector mark near the main undercarriage mounts requires removing.

The wings are a simple assembly. The wingtips are a major fit problem and require some trial fitting and filling. The wings, horizontal tail, and fins were added after some cleanup of the mating surfaces and very little filler was required. The nose requires some trial fitting and careful gluing to achieve a good fit.

The kit is a tail sitter, so remember to fit a heap of weight in the nose, behind the cockpit and in the engine nacelles. Leave the engine exhausts off until the model is complete, just in case you have to add more weight. The next major task was the transparencies, and this nearly cost me my sanity. The overhead console is best left off until the windscreen is in place, as it needs to be trimmed up to fit.

Trial fit the upper transparency before the overhead console sets to ensure that it will sit down correctly. One point to remember when fitting the propeller blades is that as with most turbo props the blades are feathered before the engines are shut down.

The kit was then painted fully in Xtracolor Olive Drab before masking up the walkways and anti glare panels. The decals were fiddly for the walkway edges and, really tests the patience.

Roden's 1/48 scale Mohawk really looks the part when complete!
 

Thanks to Squadron.com for the sample. 

Model and Text Copyright © 2004 by Mick Evans 
Images (except underwing construction photo) Copyright © 2004 by Brett Green
Page Created 19 September, 2004
Last Updated 20 September, 2004

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