1:72 T33A, CIFAS 328, French Air Force, Bordeaux Merignac 1971

1:72 T-33A of the French Air Force, the year 1971

A finished collector model in 1:72 scale. It is not a kit: it is supplied assembled, painted and with the markings applied, so nothing needs doing with it and it goes straight into the display case. The model carries the markings of a French Air Force machine from 1971, when the type served for training and for auxiliary duties.

The real subject

The T-33A was a two-seat jet trainer derived from the first American production jet fighter. It had a straight wing with tanks on the tips and a single turbojet with a centrifugal compressor. Besides training it served for target towing, for training transit flights and for keeping staff pilots current. Its life in European air forces was exceptionally long and a number of machines flew for decades.

How a collector model differs from a kit

A kit gives the modeler freedom: the colors, the markings and the degree of wear are his own choice and the result is one of a kind. A finished model, by contrast, offers the certainty of an exactly specified version, a uniform look across the whole collection and the immediate option of standing it in a display case. Collections of finished models therefore grow in series, where one machine complements the next.

How to keep the model

• Display it out of direct sunlight, which fades the colors over time
• Remove dust with a soft brush, not with a cloth, which abrades the markings
• Hold the model by the fuselage, not by the wings and the tail surfaces
• Leave it room in the display case so that neighboring pieces do not touch