Czech Model 1/48 Curtiss A-12 Shrike By Will Riepl

Overview

The A 12 was a follow–up development of the A-8. The changes included a 630 HP 9-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-1690 radial engine. The US Army Air Corps ordered 46 A-12s in the early 1930s. The A-12 was an all-metal aircraft equipped with both flaps and leading edge slats, but retained the struts and wire wing bracing and fixed landing gear of the A-8. The majority of the A 12s were sent to the 3rd Attack Group in 1933-34. They were immediately assigned to air mail duties for three months. The A-12s continued to serve until mid-1936 when they were replaced by A-17s. The A-12s were then assigned to various units throughout the USAAC. At least ten of the A-12s were sold to China in 1936.

The Kit

This is a Limited Edition kit from Czech Model, which generally means mixed media. It has 29 parts molded in dark gray plastic that have finely scribed panel lines. There is some flash on the parts, but they will clean up easily. It has 38 resin parts, and one vacu-form canopy. There are also two white metal tail wheels. You can make three different aircraft with the decals included in the kit. Two are USAAC aircraft and one is Chinese Air Force.

The kit has a nice interior of made entirely of resin parts from True Details. This is the best part of the kit. The sidewalls are included and there are very nice castings of the seats and instrument panel.

There are no locator pins for keeping the fuselage lined up when gluing. It will be an easy fix to put some in, though. Also I can see that you will have to add some pins to the horizontal stabilizer to help keep them in place. You will have to look at your references as to where all the wires will go, but I do not think this will be a hard aircraft to rig. The engine is all resin and it is work of art. You have the engine crankcase and nine cylinders and the heads. When finished you will have a beautiful R1820 engine.

The decal sheet has some nice colorful A-12s. One is Olive Drab with yellow wings of the 13th Attack Squadron from Fort Crockett, Texas. There is also a Light Blue A-12 with yellow wings of the 26th Attack Squadron from Wheeler Field, Hawaii, and a Chinese A-12 of the 26th Squadron, 9 Attack Group. China.

Conclusion

Overall, I think for a limited run kit this is a very nice kit. The resin parts will make the kit into a first class model of the Shrike. My thanks to Squadron Mail Order for the review sample.