1/48 Roden O-1 Bird Dog

[Floki]

Wanted a small build after my X-Wing Diorama and this is the smallest aircraft in the stash so thought it would be a easy build. The box art makes this look like it's a older kit but it's a new tool in 2018 according to scalemates. This is one pig of a kit, all the pieces are coated with mold release heaviest I've ever seen on a kit. Almost every piece has big hunks of flash. The clear parts was not separated in anyway from the other sprues in the box and have deep scratches all over them. I tried buffing the pieces and gave them a dip in AK gauzy but some parts the scratches was so deep that I just did the best I could. The kit has very few alignment pins and the ones that are there are wrong and had to be cut off to get a good fit. The Fuselage halves fit together surprisingly well with no filler needed except a very tiny poke right in front of the windscreen. The cockpit is lacking with no raised detail on the IP just flat with a decal. I thought about getting the Yahu IP for this but I wanted to build this OOB, I did add the medkit above the pilot made from a 1/35 German ammo pouch and a red cross decal from the spares. I also added a few more pieces to represent the missing radio equipment but decided not to wire anything up. It has a full engine but it wont let the fuselage close up. I used enough that gets seen through the front and allows the exhaust to poke through the back. The engine access panels fit surprisingly well except each side has nonfill from the mold and are rounded off and not flush with the nose "if that makes any sense" so I had to add a lot of filler in them spots.
This is where I'm at on this now





Thanks for looking in!
Skol!

[keavdog]

Oh boy.... I've heard some complaints about Roden. I've only built their T-28 and enjoyed the build. I have their 1/144 Bristol Britannia and it looks mostly nice. Tiny bit of flash, but the four props have 3 pour stubs all go to the hub

Looking forward to this build. I think I mentioned I have the 1/48 Model USA kit in the stash

[jeaton01]

Looks like an O-1 to me. I built the Roden C-123, C-141B, and Sea Gladiator and they all had some gotchas but I like the shape accuracy they usually have. I hope it works out well because I am going to school on you so when I get to mine I'll be ahead of the game! Lots of photos, please

[Floki]

Oh boy.... I've heard some complaints about Roden. I've only built their T-28 and enjoyed the build. I have their 1/144 Bristol Britannia and it looks mostly nice. Tiny bit of flash, but the four props have 3 pour stubs all go to the hub

Looking forward to this build. I think I mentioned I have the 1/48 Model USA kit in the stash

This is my first Roden kit, so far I haven't ran into anything I couldn't fix, maybe I've just built too many Bandai Star Wars kits lately.

Looks like an O-1 to me. I built the Roden C-123, C-141B, and Sea Gladiator and they all some gotchas but I like the shape accuracy they usually have. I hope it works out well because I am going to school on you so when I get to mine I'll be ahead of the game! Lots of photos, please

It does look like a Bird Dog and I'm almost done with construction not many photos of the build so far. I get caught up with building and recording it that I forget about photos sometimes.

[Stuart]

Roden - eek!

Can't be any worse than building an older kit though - it looks like an O-1 to me so well dome, I'm sure you'll do an excellent job on it!

[Floki]

Thank you Stuart. I've built worse I'm at the point I just want this done now.

[mustang1989]

Jeez bud. You've got your hands full with this one. Given the flash, mold release and other issues I'm very surprised that the fuselage halves went together as well as they did but hey.....there's a silver lining in that cloud eh? Looking forward to more on this one Clint!!

[LyleW]

Clint, looks great. Roden is certainly an interesting maker....I’ve almost bought this kit several times.

[Floki]

Jeez bud. You've got your hands full with this one. Given the flash, mold release and other issues I'm very surprised that the fuselage halves went together as well as they did but hey.....there's a silver lining in that cloud eh? Looking forward to more on this one Clint!!

It has a lot going against it that's for sure. I hit it with primer last night, should be ready for paint today

Clint, looks great. Roden is certainly an interesting maker....I’ve almost bought this kit several times.

You can make it look like a bird dog, just have to wrestle it into position. I kinda want to do the model usa kit to see what's worse

[keavdog]

PM me your address and I'll send you mine - I doubt I'll ever build it