TG-16A USAF Glider  

Brengun, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by David Couche

The DG Flugzeugbau DG-1000 is a glider of the Two Seater Class built by DG Flugzeugbau. Some versions have a retractable engine and propeller. It first flew in July 2000 at Speyer in Germany. There are four models, with 18- and 20-metre wings of HQK-51 profile. The latest DG-1001 variant replaced the DG-505 in production.

With 18 m (59 ft) span wings it is fully certified for aerobatics (+7 -5 g); with a 20 m (66 ft) span wings it is certified for limited aerobatics (+5 -2.65 g).

In 2011, the DG-1000 was selected by the USAF as a replacement for the Blanik TG-10. It will serve as a basic soaring trainer for cadets at the United States Air Force Academy. It also serves as the primary competition platform for the USAF Academy Aerobatic Demonstration Team. Its USAF designation is TG-16A.

*Text from Wikipedia

Brengun have again released another nice little kit to continue their run of new esoteric releases over the last 12 months or so. This time it is a 1/48 TG-16A USAF, which is a two-seat glider from the early 2000s.

The kit comes in an end opening folding cardboard box, with colour profiles on the back. All parts are sealed in a plastic bag, so no escaping parts.

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There is one white injected sprue tree for this kit, having a parts count of 36, along with a single clean injected canopy sections on another sprue tree. There is a small decal sheet for the simple marking schemes used by the USAF, basically all white with simple markings. A double-sided B&W A4 instruction sheet is included.

The sprue tree has the fuselage halves, wings, and a tail plane around the perimeter of the sprue tree with the smaller, more delicate parts, in the centre as a method of protecting them. There is some minor flash on some parts which will clean up easily. Some of the detail is a bit soft, lacking real crispness, especially around the wheels. The instrument panels have soft detail and more disappointingly, there are no decals to detail these very obvious features of this glider (as you will see in the cockpit photograph above). This omission will either challenge you to paint by hand or have you scabbling through the decal sets to find individual instrument decals. And while on missing items, with the very exposed cockpit, not having seat belts in the kit is disappointing.

There are few recessed panel lines, but all seem to be to scale and crisp in nature. Thankfully this kit has been moulded in white plastic, which many people find it hard to work with as blemishes are hard to see etc, but certainly a positive with a white paint job. The wings are one piece so needs just a clean up around the edges without seams to be dealt with. Be aware that the fuselage is very fine towards the rear and will need careful handling.

The two pieces of canopy are quite clear but will need a bit of a polish up to improve the visibility into the highly visible style cockpit. You have the option of closed or open canopies.

The instructions are a double sided A4 with 11 simple steps in the construction process. Colour callouts are generic colours with you needing to get reference photos of the cockpits etc to try and colour match, especially the different greys.

The instructions also include several different versions for the USAF aircraft, all white with minor differences between each. One is more colourful with a series of fluorescent orange stripes and flashes.

Brengun has given us another relatively unknown aircraft or in this case, a glider in the TG-16A. For a short run injection kit, whilst not flawless and needing some minor clean-up, it is of a high quality and well thought out kit. And not to mention it should be a quick build as well. This is an interesting subject will certainly interest the glider modellers …. and yes, I would recommend this kit and I am certainly going to build it.

Thanks to Brengun for the review sample.

Review Text Copyright © 2022 by David Couche
Images Copyright © 2022 by Brett Green
Page Created 24 February, 2022
Last updated 1 April, 2022

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