Scale Aviation Modeller International 08.2018

Cessna TO-1D Bird Dog

Miniwing Cessna TO-1D Bird Dog in 1/144th scale by Robert Podkoński

TYPE: Cessna TO-1D Bird Dog

MANUFACTURER: Miniwing

KIT NO: mini301

SCALE: 1/144

PARTS: 14 clear polystyrene

TYPE: Short Run

DECAL OPTIONS: 1 (seven different

packagings)

T

h e C e s s n a L-19/O-1

Bird Dog multipurpose

aircraft, was a militarised

development of the Cessna

170 lightweight, high-wing

monoplane. The greatest

difference from the latter type was

that the Bird Dogs had only two

seats in a tandem configuration.

Introduced in 1950, Cessna

L-19/O-1 saw action both in Korean

and Vietnam wars, and apart from

United States Army, Marines and

Air Forces, the type was used by

more than 20 other nations.

The last U.S. Army O-1 Bird Dog

was officially retired in 1974.

This new model of this small

but notable aircraft was the first

foray into polystyrene moulding of

the Czech manufacturer Miniwing.

This kit consists of only 14 clear

polystyrene parts on one runner,

packed into string-bag together

with vinyl pre-cut masks, a decal

sheet and instructions. The bag

is secured to a cardboard leaflet,

presenting the actual painting

scheme of the model. Miniwing’s

offers no less than seven different

boxings of this kit including U.S.

Army and USAF machines and

some more exotic ones, like JSDGF,

Thai or Chilean Bird Dogs. Each

package contains the same set of

parts and masks, differing only in

the decal sheet included. The one I

got for this review is the first in the

series, depicting the high-visibility

orange painted aircraft, used by

U.S. Army in Alaska for instrument

training purposes. The parts are

cleanly moulded, panel lines are

recessed and well-defined (being

much oversized for the scale, but

one can live with that). More on

vinyl masks and decals later.

CONSTRUCTION

The construction of course starts

with a cockpit, and in this case,

the only part that goes inside

the fuselage is a pilot’s seat.

There should be two of them, in

fact, but if you will look at the

photographs the second one was

usually barely visible or removed

entirely. Scratch-building of

the second seat as well as some

representations of the instrument

panels and control sticks should not

be difficult, however, even though

the parts of the model are thin

and transparent, almost nothing

would be visible after painting the

model. So any detailing is entirely

up to you. The pilot’s seat can be

added to the cockpit after gluing

together the fuselage sides. There

are no locating pins, but this is not

an issue as the fit is perfect and

the parts are tiny. Probably due to

my too enthusiastic cleaning up I

needed to use a bit of Tamiya putty

on the wing-fuselage joint line this

was the only filler used on the kit.

As the clear polystyrene is

usually more brittle than the

ordinary plastic I recommend using

a razor-saw to cut all the parts off

the sprue rather than cutters. Once

the main parts are together parts

I sanded the joints before adding

the pre-cut vinyl masks to cover

transparencies. The masks fit

perfectly, but being so small they

are a bit stiff and the adhesive does

not keep some of them in place

well enough (especially the ones

covering the complex curvatures

of the windscreen). Nevertheless,

these are a welcome addition, as

I presume cutting such masks by

myself next to impossible. (You

could attach the vinyal mask to

some Tamiya tape and then use

them as a template though in this

scale that may be a challenge!).

I now applied an overall coat of

Mr.Hobby grey primer/surfacer

from a spray can and after sanding

afew imperfections that were

now visible I could move on.

PAINTING AND DECALS

The specific painting scheme

could not be simpler: overall

orange with black anti-glare panel

on the engine cover and silver

undercarriage legs. I started by

painting the whole airframe with

Tamiya Orange (TS-12) and then

started decalling. The decals

are thin and in register, but a bit

transparent, especially the white of

the national insignia. They respond

very quickly after dipping in water

and conform perfectly to the

underlying surfaces with just a drop

of decal softening fluid. I sealed the

decals with a coat of transparent

lacquer. Next, I masked off the

56 • AUGUST 2018 • SCALE AVIATION MODELLER INTERNATIONAL

KIT REVIEWS

056-63-Reviews-0818.indd 56 12/07/2018 11:49