The NC-5A is land-based vehicle designed to provide external electric power to aircraft for pre-flight or maintenance purposes. It saw service on the U.S. Navy Air Stations and Marine Corps Air Stations from the mid-1950s until the mid-1970s. Within this period, the NC-5A was employed to service all types of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft of the Navy and Marine Corps.
This 1:72 scale model kit, produced by F4Models (cat. # 7024), contains resin parts, photo-etched parts and decals. It includes an option allowing to open up the rear compartment that houses power cables and is visible when the vehicle is powering up an aircraft.
For reference purposes, here are some historical photographs that show the NC-5A in action: photo, photo, photo, photo.
Notes:
- The Navy and Marine Corps NC-5As were used as power units; they did not tow aircraft or ground support equipment.
- This vehicle is a land-based equipment, but in a few isolated cases NC-5As were seen on aircraft carrier decks (e.g. during flight test programs).
- The MA-1 mobile power unit employed by the U.S. Air Force is substantially different from the Navy's NC-5A and is not intended to be built from this kit.
- This kit is for modellers with experience and high level of skill; do not buy this kit if you build your kits "out of the box" and use paint brush to hand-paint them.
The NC-8A is a land-based vehicle designed to provide external electric power to aircraft for pre-flight or maintenance purposes. It saw extensive service on the U.S. Navy Air Stations and Marine Corps Air Stations from the early 1970s and until the early 2000s.
This 1:72 scale model kit, produced by F4Models (cat. # 7025), contains resin and photo etched parts to build one NC-8A vehicle with an option allowing to open up the rear compartment that houses cable reels and is visible when the vehicle is powering up an aircraft.
For reference purposes, here are some historical photographs that show the NC-8A in action: photo, photo, photo, photo.
Notes:
- The NC-8A unit was not a tractor; it was not designed to tow aircraft or ground support equipment.
- This vehicle is a land-based equipment, it did not serve on aircraft carriers.
- This is not a copy of the Verlinden's kit; the Verlinden's kit had a number of inaccuracies in shape / geometry.
- This kit is for modellers with experience and high level of skill; do not buy this kit if you build your kits "out of the box" and use paint brush to hand-paint them.
UPDATE: Now manufactured by Hauler from Czech Republic.
This set (F4Models # 7017) contains metal photo-etched items to detail one Willys MB ¼ ton 4WD truck model.
Important notes:
- This is a detail set and not a full kit. It is suitable to detail the following model kits: Airfix # 01322; Heller # 79997; S-Model # 720046 & 720047. I cannot recommend combining this detail set with much older kits from Academy (# 1310 & 13416) and Hasegawa (# MT1 / 31101).
- The key item in this detail set is the correct radiator grille; this iconic feature of the G503 is poorly represented in all available plastic kits. Other items are also included, such as the windshield, dashboard, front and rear bumpers, spare wheel and jerry can holders and rearview mirrors.
- This set is mainly intended for aircraft diorama builders and not for AFV modellers. Therefore it does not contain options to detail those of the G503's factory-installed parts that, according to available historic photographs, were typically removed from airfield utility vehicles. In particular, the set contains no items to detail the crew weapons (rifles, machine guns) and respective holders / mounts, and no items to represent the standard spade and axe toolkit. Similarly, no items to detail the vehicle's drivetrain and suspension are included, as I believe this is unnecessary for a model intended for an airfield diorama. Besides, Airfix/Heller and S-Model kits both provide adequate detail in this regard.
- This set is for modellers with experience and high level of skill; do not buy this set if you build your kits "out of the box" and use paint brush to hand-paint them.
