Aircraft and History

The Beechcraft T-34A Mentor is a single engine, two place (tandem cockpit) military trainer developed in 1948. The design is based on the highly successful Model 35 Beechcraft V-tail Bonanza but uses a conventional tail and narrower fuselage seating two in a tandem arrangement. The T-34A first entered service with the US Air Force in 1953 and replaced the North American AT-6 Texan as the initial primary trainer. Two years later the Navy ordered the T-34B for the same role at the Air Force. The T-34A remained in service with the USAF for just a few years until it was replaced by the T-37 “tweet”. T-34’s that were not sent to flying clubs or foreign military sales were transferred to the USAF auxiliary Civil Air Patrol until they were retired in 2003.

They say first impressions really do define a relationship- and when I first received this kit and opened it up to see the vast amount of plastic inside, I knew this would be a long term commitment. One thing to note is the mix of gates from the older Centurion kit, mixed along with newer gates with the newer features of this specific Sho’t Kal kit like the explosive reactive armor (ERA). This led to some challenges during the build as the older Centurion parts trees had their labels raised in very small letters along the sides of the gates.- although the location varied. Sometimes it was on the edge and other times it was towards the middle. The newer trees had their labels as newer kits do - outside with a dedicated square label that is very easy to read. In the end, I used some masking tape labels I made myself as I grew tired of searching for which sprue was which.

According to ScaleMates.com, AFV Club has released no less than sixteen different kitting’s of the venerable British Centurion, five of which depict the various Israeli Defense Force (IDF) versions. The subject of this review is the Sho’t Kal Gimel Type II, which is identified on the box top as being from the time period of the 1982 Lebanon war (“Operation Peace for Galilee”). ‘Sho’t’ translates to ‘Whip’ and Kal is an abbreviation of where the powerplant was manufactured (Continental). Each new version of the IDF Centurion was given a new afterword which comes from a letter in the Semitic abjad, the alphabet or ‘writing system’ used in the Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu languages. In this case, ‘Gimel’ is the third letter in the abjad.