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| In the 1960s, the U.S. Air Force needed an efficient low cost attack aircraft to counter the growing threat of communist-sponsored insurgency. In 1963 the A-37 "Dragonfly" was developed by modifying the Cessna T-37 trainer. |
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Pilots were impressed with the planes' maneuverability, rapid acceleration/deceleration and its highly accurate combat delivery system.
Maintenance crews praised the Dragonfly for being easy to repair with turn times averaging just 90 minutes between sorties. |
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The armament of the OA-37B consists of a 7.62mm minigun mounted in the nose and eight hardpoints on the wing, which can carry up to 7,000 pounds of ordnance and fuel.
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| In 1967 A-37s were combat tested for 3 months in South Vietnam and Laos during "Operation Combat Dragon". When the testing period drew to a close, the Dragonflies had logged more than 4,000 sorties without a single combat loss. |
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| This is a really nice kit and a joy to build. Better cockpit details would be nice, but it still looks great. |
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| I wasn't happy with the canopy in the closed position so I carefully cut the single piece canopy in two and positioned it open. It turned out to be fairly easy and really added to the the kit. |
Kit: Matchbox #PK0038 |
Scale: 1/72 |
| Cost: Purchased on Ebay for $5.00 (US) plus shipping. |
Decals: Stock.
Optional markings were included for McAlpine Helicopters Ltd. Hayes, Middlesex, England, 1984. |
| After Market Parts: None. |
Review: This kit has 93 parts in all, molded in a mix of light gray, dark gray and clear. All parts were flash free. There are few panel lines molded on this kit and deeply recessed but not enough to ruin the kit.
Some details such as landing gear and interior are over simplified but can be modified to look more realistic.
The parts fit together well with the exception of the clear pieces which will need filler. Matchbox only provides a floor and bulkhead for the rear cabin so customizing or blacking out the windows is recommended.
This kit could be a fast easy project for a beginner, or a nice fixer-upper for an experienced modeler. Do to the rarity of this subject in the modeling world I recommend this kit to any small scale helicopter enthusiast. |
Customizing: My interior is mostly scratchbuilt. I used various "spare part" seats with armrests to finish out the rear cabin in an executive style layout and constructed a table from scrap styrene. I painted the interior in two blue tones and white with seat harnesses fabricated from strips of masking tape. Aerials were made from scrap styrene and stretched sprue.
I took the lazy approach and just painted in the missing auxiliary intake centered above the cockpit. |
