Scale Aviation Modeller International – September 2019

N

o r t h r o p ’ s T-3 8 T a l o n

is an iconic part of the

USAF pilot training

program, and has

been for nearly sixty-years,

with the irst light of the type

being undertaken in April 1959.

It was the irst supersonic

capable trainer produced, and

also the most numerous. NASA

have been using this highly

capable aircraft for astronaut

training, along with other

missions such as chase plane for

the Space Shuttle, and ferrying

contractors. This kit from

Trumpeter in 1/48 supplies two

versions of NASA livery decals,

comes with etched parts and

seatbelts, a crew ladder, and

plastic parts moulded in grey

and clear. There are no options

of moveable control surfaces,

but the speed brakes can be

posed in the open position.

CHECKING MY

REFERENCES

My irst mission for this build

was spending time online

looking closely at photographs

of what I wanted to create.

Immediately obvious was the

immaculate nature of the NASA

planes. I noticed a few missing

and inaccurate details on the

kit, and began considering how

to recreate them if possible,

allowing for my level of ability.

I started irst by making a plan

for the anti-collision light in

the tail of the aircraft. This

was achieved with small pieces

of metallic silver tape, which

I scribed detail into. I will

mask the light centre of when

painting, and later over the

silver metallic surface of the

tape, apply clear red, and then

micro Krystal Klear to create

the light. Initial inspection

of the plastic on the sprues

showed they are nicely moulded

with ine recessed panel lines.

However, the surface of the

plastic was quite a rough

texture, and this will not lend

itself well to the smooth glossy

surface I was trying to achieve.

So, the next step was to go

over the entire airframe with

2000 grit sandpaper to try and

smooth this out somewhat. The

2000 grit had little impact on

the panel lines, and afterwards

I polished the surface with the

back of the sandpaper (yes, the

paper side) and then with a soft

cloth. This had improved the

surface a great deal, and I drew

the line against being perfect,

for sake of keeping the panel

line details, and hoped the

primer layer would level it out

further. I left the fuselage for

later, as I would be required to

sand this anyway on the seams

when joining the fuselage.

COCKPIT AND

FUSELAGE

After this, I made a start on

step one in the manual. An A

page of instructions for just

the cockpit section greeted me,

and at irst glance it almost

looked like ifty-percent of

the kit parts are in this area.

I settled in for a few nights

work building the seats and the

cockpit. Details in the plastic

were quite nice out of the box,

helped along by the etched

seatbelts, HUD, and rear-view

mirrors. I must admit I had a

bit of trouble bending them to

look natural, and I found the

instructions a little unclear

how to go about this also. But I

Alistair Curnow builds the 1/48 Trumpeter T-38C

NASA’S

TALON

SEPTEMBER 2019 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

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FE ATURE

BY ALISTAIR CURNOW

T-38C TALON (NASA)

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