OH-58D Modernization Conversion

Published on
November 13, 2021
Review Author(s)
Scale
1/35
MSRP
$35.00
Product / Stock #
35-28
Base Kit
MRC Academy OH-58D Kiowa
Company: Werners Wings - Website: Visit Site
Provided by: Werners Wings - Website: Visit Site
Cover

Werner’s Wings has been around for some time and is known primarily for rotary wing subjects offering resin and resin in 1/32, 1/35, 1/48 and 1/72nd scale. Their attention to detail rivals all other resin and decal companies on the market and that can be attributed to the owner, Floyd Werner, who served in the US Army as a helicopter pilot and a helicopter pilot for a local police department. With Floyd’s personal experience with rotary aircraft and his connections in the aviation community, reference material he uses can be trusted to be the most authentic.

This set is a 3D printed item instead of a traditional resin set. An advantage of 3D printed items, major components can be made in one piece instead of casting multiple parts and you can also get super fine details which are apparent in this set. This set contains fourteen printed parts ranging from the M3P gun down to a few small antennas. The “egg beater” (AV2091) SATCOM antenna is simply a work of art but be extremely careful clipping away the support structure. 3D printed parts are extremely brittle and will break easily. Most of the parts are simply a drop on installation especially the ammo box which has the same mounting bosses as the kit ammo box. A few other items will require cutting portions away. The largest part in the aft fuselage with CMWS molded in. The cut lines required follow panel lines on the fuselage which really helps. Another area requiring modification on the kit is adding the CABS (Cockpit Air Bag System) which required trimming into the glareshield. The instructions clearly show where this part goes and online references are easy to find. This set will update your OH-58D to the latest configurations and cover most of the updates that have appeared over the later years of service. Not every part will be used so check your references.

As I stated above, extreme care will be needed when working with 3D printed parts since these parts are delicate. This set shows the very fine work from Werner’s Wings and it is nice to see use of an expanding technology to produce fine details. I plan on going to Werner’s Wings resin first on future helicopter builds. It is nice to see a company covering the rotary wing subjects with this much dedication.

I would like to thank Werner’s Wings for this review sample.

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