Testors US/NATO Aircraft Armament - 1/72 scale Rockets, Missiles ...

Kit Review
Testors US/NATO Aircraft Armament, 1/72 scale, kit no. 860
by Al Magnus
This set consists of 128 light grey plastic parts spread over two sprues. This is a reboxing of the
Italeri kit (kit number 177) under the Testors name, as evidenced by the “Made in Italy” printed
all over the poly bag, as well as the Italeri, “Made in Italy 1989” and the number 177 molded onto
the sprues.
(Box Top)
(Box Bottom)
© AC Magnus 2007

Thirteen different missiles can be made as listed below:
Missile No. of Copies No. of Parts per Kit Part No.s
missile
AIM-7F Sparrow 2 1 no part number
AIM-9L Sidewinder 4 1 no part number
AIM-54 Phoenix 2 2 1, 2
AGM-62 Walleye 2 2 11, 12
AGM-65 Maverick 2 2 26, 27
AGM-84 Harpoon 2 2 34, 35
AGM-88 HARM 2 1 no part number
AIM-120 AMRAAM 2 1 no part number
Aspide 2 1 no part number
Exocet 2 2 3, 4
Kormoran 2 6 36, 37, 38 (x2), 39 (x2)
Matra R550 2 1 no part number
Sea Skua 2 3 45, 46, 47
Also included in the set are parts to make two of each of the following other items:
AIS ECM Pod, AGM-88 HARM Missile Pylon, LAU 10/D Rocket Pod, LAU 61/A Rocket Pod,
LAU-68B/A Rocket Pod, Matra 155 Rocket Pod, Rockeye Mk 20 bomb, Mk 61 Nuclear Bomb,
Mk 82 GP Bomb, Mk 82 Laser Guided Bomb, Mk 83 GP Bomb, Mk 83 Laser Guided Bomb, Mk
84 GP Bomb and Mk 84 Laser Guided Bomb.
Instructions come as a four-page booklet. Only the subjects consisting of more than one part are
shown in the instruction sheet, though all subjects are present in the painting guide. There is no
decal sheet so it is up to the builder to either attempt to paint all the stripes or find an alternative
decal source.
For the most part the moldings are acceptable but not great. Some of the missiles have raised
panel lines, and most of them have some detail around the fins and engraved lines separating the
missile body from the head, but there are a few
noticeable oddities. The AGM-65 Mavericks are
totally devoid of any detail whatsoever. The AIM-7
Sparrows (right) have two strange protuberances on
the front of the missile that I have never seen on any
other manufacturers’ version of the Sparrow -
electrical conduits maybe I had to check the web to
see if I cold find any pictures of Sparrows with
them, but I failed. Also one of the Sparrow missiles
is missing the tips on two of the rear fins.
On the Sea Skuas (above), the slope from the thicker forebody to the narrower tail is too steep and
should have more taper.
© AC Magnus 2007

There are a few injector pin marks that will need to be filled. The majority of the wings and fins
are a tad on the thick side.
My plan was to build one of the Aspides for my “Missiles of the World” collection. This proved
to be problematic. Closer inspection showed that the fins were slightly off from each other. The
foreward most fins were the most obvious with a couple of them located slightly further aft than
the other two. Also the front end of two of the fins where they meet the fuselage were not
completely cast and exhibited a small notch in the leading edge. And to make matters worse, one
of the fins was noticeably smaller than the other three.
I decided that I would try to make at least one good Aspide from the two. My solution was to
remove the one small fin from one Aspide and replace it with a fin from the other Aspide. The
notches were filled and sanded – not an easy task considering the small area in which to work.
For those desiring a better looking Aspide to add to their aircraft models it would probably be
easier to use an AIM-7 Sparrow, remove the foreward fins and add your own cut from plastic
sheet. If you don’t want to go through all the trouble of replacing the fins, you could use the
existing Aspides but make sure that they get mounted with the bad fins facing up to the wing
where they would be partially hidden from view.
All in all, this kit is a bit of a disappointment. The lack of detail and no decals seriously
undermine its value. When comparing the subjects in this set with those that are in common in the
various Hasegawa sets, it is obvious that the Hasegawa representations are much better and
having decals in the Hasegawa kits is a big advantage. In my opinion this set’s value comes from
the subjects that can not be found in the Hasegawa releases - which are mostly the bombs and
rocket pods. As for the missiles, outside of the R.550, Exocet and Kormoran, the Hasegawa
missiles are better representations.
© AC Magnus 2007