I have been waiting a long time for a 1/48 Mentor in injected plastic. Although several die-cast piston mentors have been released over the years, they were not accurate enough to warrant scratch-building a new cowl. When I first saw an advert for the kit earlier in the year I knew I’d add several into my collection. Phoenix is the only store that I know stocks the kit, and I’ve picked up 4 so far.

An initial glance at the kit contents reveals 2 crisp molded injected sprues, a bag of resin parts and 2 vac formed canopies. Decals for 2 USN trainer schemes. They appear to be very thin and should sit down well. My first model will not be using the kit decals.

The resin parts are free of bubbles and have large casting blocks that require a substantial effort to remove them. As far as accuracy of the interior is concerned, the kit has the 2 fore/aft side consoles different. There is detail in the front and almost none in the back. The real aircraft has the 2 cockpits basically the same. Before the resin tub is glued to one of the fuse halves. Check the canopy position to ensure proper placement of the panels. The marks on the fuselage half does not put the panels in the right place and will cause improper placement for the covers.

Cleanup and gluing of the major assemblies goes quick and may require only a few touches of liquid putty. One noticeable detail that you may wish to add is the wingtip lights. Very prevalent clear covers exist over the real machines wingtip lights and strobes. The interior of this area is white. Cut out the correct shape, glue in a section of clear plastic and sand it back to match the original profile. Alignment of the tails, intakes and gear are all straight forward. The 2 vac canopies are provided so that you can choose to open up the cockpit. With this kits inaccurate cockpit I choose to keep it closed.

Although the USN was the Mentors principle user, many other countries have used the C model for training and light attack duties. I have chosen to model one from Ecuador, that has colors similar to the SEA camo scheme.