Anyone Else get the Hobby Master RA-5C Vigilante?

[tmanthegreat]

Did anyone else get the new Hobby Master RA-5C Vigilante? If so, what are your thoughts?

I picked one of these up at my local Hobbytown USA store last Thursday. Overall, I think Hobby Master did a good job. Lots of diecast in the construction - basically most of the fuselage, wings, and stabilizers with really only the tail being plastic. They really captured the fast look of the A-5 in my opinion. Its a simple tooling overall as the RA-5C was a reconnaissance aircraft and didn't typically carry external stores on the wings. Panel lines are detailed nicely and the paint applications are good on my example. The cockpits are nicely detailed with full instrument panels, controls, and ejection seats with painted handles. It comes with the two pilot figures and they're tough to squeeze in the small cockpits. Landing gear use the simple plug-in-place design like many of the other HM aircraft, avoiding the mess of using all separate pieces for the doors and struts (which I like!) Sitting on its gears, the raised nose wheel and "high sitting" stance of the plane is replicated.

My biggest beef is that the model only comes with the closed canopy pieces, which limits its display options. It could have easily been tooled with hinged canopies like on many of the earlier HM jets or come with the separate pieces to display them open/closed, but not on this release. Perhaps such features will be included on future releases of the plane. You can sort of stand the canopies open, but they don't really stay in place. Again, it sort of limits the display options if one has the plane on its gears. The canopy pieces to fit snugly to the plane, however, and blend well into the fuselage. My other complaint is lack of movable horizontal stabilizers. Again, that was a feature that could have been easily incorporated into the model and made it just that much more interesting to display.

Despite the canopies and stabilizers, I am rather happy with the model. I think the biggest draw for me is that it's a model of such an obscure US Navy aircraft and it has a beautiful, fast, streamlined look. Comparing it to other Navy planes I have in 1:72 diecast, you can really see just how large the A-5 was, significantly bigger than contemporary aircraft like the A-4, A-7, and even the F-4 Phantom. Actually, the A-5 was longer and had a greater wing area than even the F-14! So my kudos to Hobby Master for providing us with an interesting model of a unique Cold War-era jet!

[snake]

Patiently waiting for mine, through my Canadian dealer. Shouldn't be much longer.

This was on many peoples wish lists for a long time, and great that HM has gotten around to doing it.

From what I have seen, looks like a very good model, but can understand Tmans minor complaints.

Just one of those aircraft that look like a Ferrari, even standing still. Gorgeous plane, even though it had a fairly short service life.

[aferguson]

the canopy was a bit of a disappointment, given the price tag. Lack of competiton these days is causing prices to rise while options decline. Still it is a nice model. I hope AF1 improves to the point where they give HM a serious run, then we should see better quality and options and some price reduction or at least moderation.

Afterall the excuse for the big price jump in diecasts a few years ago was the cost of oil and the cost of Chinese labour. Both have come way down yet diecast prices still rise...

[krieglok]

I am considering the RA-5C. I have been picking up various jet aircraft, mostly HM and other similar manufacturers. Getting back into the aircraft side of collecting. Thanks for the review....

Mine just arrived. The Kittyhawk version. It is a huge plane. The canopies are very tight fitting and getting the pilots into their seats was a challenge. The little rubber guys would spring out and bounce across the kitchen floor....

I have my plane in the gear up position. When it is on the stand, the stand jiggles back and fourth like a bobble-head doll. The stand may be a bit light weight for a plane this size. The plane is true to the prototype...very sleek and very little outside detail. No drop tanks or anything like that. The real ones didn't have them. It may look a bit flat if you are a lover of planes with lots of bombs, missiles and tanks hanging off the wings.

It is a excellent model of a Cold War plane.

TJM