Question about the Kitty Hawk 1/32 T-28 Trojan

[mkd1966]

Greetings everyone,

I have a question concerning the 1/32 T-28 kits out there and if this has been discussed and I missed it I do apologize - but a lot of T-28 pictures you see have a green plexiglass sun shield inside of both the front and rear canopies that you could pop in or out... I've looked over the instructions and don't see anything mentioned and I was curious if someone had done this as a after market item... Thanks for looking, Mike

 

[Radub]

The green sun shields are not standard fit for USAF or Navy service aircraft. Those shields are not even that usual on civilian warbirds.

Radu

[Oldbaldguy]

Those sun screens seem to have had only sporadic use on operational airplanes and show up more often on restored household pets than they did back in the day.  I haven’t built my T-28 yet, so I have yet to troll the aftermarket looking for stuff for it.  Looks like they would be pretty easy to scratch with a little trial and error and ingenuity.  These types of screens usually just snap/pop in and out.

[Jack]

40 minutes ago, mkd1966 said:

Greetings everyone,

I have a question concerning the 1/32 T-28 kits out there and if this has been discussed and I missed it I do apologize - but a lot of T-28 pictures you see have a green plexiglass sun shield inside of both the front and rear canopies that you could pop in or out... I've looked over the instructions and don't see anything mentioned and I was curious if someone had done this as a after market item... Thanks for looking, Mike

 

 

Nice picture of that "poor man's mustang", sure would like to fly it.............

[thierry laurent]

The amount of aftermarket items released for the T-28 is quite low and afaik does not include such an item. This makes me think I've never seen such sunshields offered as kit accessories.

[Out2gtcha]

There are no such offerings for the T-28 in AM that I am aware of.

However,

If it were me and I was doing a shiny new civi bird or a resto war-bird I might consider taking some clear green and just masking and spraying the inside of the canopy. 

[mkd1966]

23 minutes ago, Out2gtcha said:

There are no such offerings for the T-28 in AM that I am aware of.

However,

If it were me and I was doing a shiny new civi bird or a resto war-bird I might consider taking some clear green and just masking and spraying the inside of the canopy. 

Thanks Brian,

I was already looking at options in the event I couldn't outright purchase it...

Mike

[Jack]

2 hours ago, Radub said:

The green sun shields are not standard fit for USAF or Navy service aircraft. Those shields are not even that usual on civilian warbirds.

Radu

 

Seen them being used on some warbirds at Oshkosh, thougth i would be a standard feature, but apparently not.

[Radub]

I just looked through my references and I cannot find a single photo of a Trojan in service with the USAF or the Navy with such a sun shield. No such items are listed in the parts lists. I am fairly certain that it is a civilian warbird thing. 

Radu 

[mkd1966]

27 minutes ago, Radub said:

I just looked through my references and I cannot find a single photo of a Trojan in service with the USAF or the Navy with such a sun shield. No such items are listed in the parts lists. I am fairly certain that it is a civilian warbird thing. 

Radu 

 

Maybe pilots didn't care for them so they removed them... I worked for a company in the mid to late 80's and early 90's that did maintenance and restorations on warbirds and they went out to the boneyard in Tucson, AZ to recover 3 "B" models and the boss was the first civilian owner - but all 3 of them had the green shields as they sat in the boneyard... I do remember that a couple of them were scratched really bad so we took them out because they looked horrible but never the less they did come with them... Here is a T-28 book and the Navy one on top clearly has it installed... Oh well, who knows the real answer... Maybe I'll get on some T-28 forums and see what kind of responses I get... Anyway, thanks everyone for the input... Mike

 

 

Edited June 3, 2022 by mkd1966

[Oldbaldguy]

1 hour ago, Radub said:

I just looked through my references and I cannot find a single photo of a Trojan in service with the USAF or the Navy with such a sun shield. No such items are listed in the parts lists. I am fairly certain that it is a civilian warbird thing. 

Radu 

Not entirely a warbird thing.  There are a few pix floating around in the ether of operational Navy T-28s with sunshields installed.  Doesn’t look like any were actually trainers but were station hacks used by senior guys for currency flights and general farting around.  Probably kept the sun off their balding heads while they earned their flight pay.

 

 

[MikeMaben]

Still wish somebody would release an A ...

[Radub]

9 hours ago, Oldbaldguy said:

Not entirely a warbird thing.  There are a few pix floating around in the ether of operational Navy T-28s with sunshields installed.  Doesn’t look like any were actually trainers but were station hacks used by senior guys for currency flights and general farting around.  Probably kept the sun off their balding heads while they earned their flight pay.

 

 

 

I am not trying to be argumentative just for the sake of it. As it happens I was involved in some research about the T-28 a while ago. I spent a lot of time looking through parts lists. I can tell you with absolute certainty that no such sun shield was included in any parts list. If someone jury-rigged something like that, it is entirely a custom job and non-standard. Service aircraft did not have them.

HTH,

Radu

[Royboy]

3 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

Still wish somebody would release an A ...

Never happy are we!! 

[Oldbaldguy]

5 hours ago, Radub said:

 

I am not trying to be argumentative just for the sake of it. As it happens I was involved in some research about the T-28 a while ago. I spent a lot of time looking through parts lists. I can tell you with absolute certainty that no such sun shield was included in any parts list. If someone jury-rigged something like that, it is entirely a custom job and non-standard. Service aircraft did not have them.

HTH,

Radu

Bottom line:  There are no absolutes in Naval Aviation.  Just because you can’t find a reference in a book doesn’t mean it never happened.  T-28s may not have rolled off the line at NAA with green gizmos in the tops of their canopies, but that does not mean some - maybe only a few - didn’t get them at some point in their operational life.  Field mods like this happen all the time.  In all your research, did you ever compile a list of NAA vendors and subcontractors for the T-28 buys?  How do you know that one of them at some point did not later supply parts or accessories - like sun screens - not called out in the original docs.  Improvements happen; equipment lists change.  The list of approved, operational one-offs the prime contractor/original builder never thought of is endless.  FYI:  a quick on-line search provided photos of two different T-28s still in the inventory (no N numbers I could see, attended by guys in uniform on what appears to be an installation) - one stationed at Whidbey Island, the other at Quantico -  with sun screens installed.  Might even have had aftermarket cup holders, I don’t know.  My point is, just because it ain’t in a book, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.