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Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

Kendall Model Corporation (KMC) was one of the first of the "Cottage Industry" companies to make good quality, accurate resin conversions and up-dates widely available to the modelling public. Their range was as wide as it varied from propeller blades to complete conversions. KMC changed the focus of their production to manufacturing complete kits a while back and stopped producing their accessory range.

When KMC stopped producing their accessory range rumor was rife that True Details were going to pick up their range and many modellers crossed their fingers in the hope that the rumors were true.

Well we can all uncross our fingers! The rumours were true and True Details are now producing the KMC range under their own banner.

The first of these re-releases that I am aware of is True Details #49002 (ex KMC 48-6014). This is a cockpit update for Tamiya's 1/48 scale F4F-4 Wildcat.

The set consists of 16 resin pieces including a gunsight, two cockpit floodlights, the arrestor hook slide handle, an oxygen bottle, pilot's seat, left side sidewall controls, the main instrument panel, rudder pedal assembly, right side sidewall controls, two seat supports, a corrected cockpit floor and the top of the main fuel tank.

All parts are well cast, free from bubbles and will only require minimal preparation and a good scrub in dish-washing detergent before they are ready for paint. The only parts that are warped are the left and right sidewalls. This does not present a problem and I think that True Details have deliberately cast these parts thinly so as they will easily assume the same curve as the inside of the kit fuselage. These two parts have been cast thinner than the original KMC set and this change makes sense to me as it means that the modeller will have less plastic to remove from the inside of the kit's fuselage halves to make the sidewalls fit correctly.

Comparisons with the original KMC set are inevitable. The KMC set included an excellent A-4 sized instruction sheet that contained clear drawings of all the parts and a detailed painting guide. True Details use the same sheet but it is now half the size of the original and the clarity of the original is lost. The painting guide is still there though.

The True Detail packaging is their familiar header card with the resin parts in a plastic bag. Unfortunately, this type of packaging and crisp, thinly cast resin do not go together all that well. The seat back in my set was broken (not an easy repair I'm afraid!) and two other parts had been snapped from the casting plug.

These gripes aside, the set is beautiful and is highly recommended. Thank you True Details!

Highly Recommended.

Thanks to Squadron for the review sample.

True Details' Cockpit for Tamiya's 1/48 scale Wildcat will be available online from Squadron.com

Review Copyright © 2000 by Rodger Kelly
Page Created 03 April, 2001
Last updated 22 July, 2003

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