Pictured here before I went to town on the weathering, it satisfied my two basic criteria for a fun build. It's big and it *was* cheap. For reasons unclear the price has shot up lately. Must have grown in popularity after the 75th anniversary of D-Day. This kit goes back to 1978 and originally came boxed as a Normandy Skytrain. I may yet repaint it as such.
As with Revell's reboxed Monogram kits, it's clunky, basic, lacking detail and with lamentable transparencies. The cockpit glassware on this was especially difficult to fit and I may revisit it for some major surgery in future. None of that matters though. You get a chunky Dakota with miniguns. The decals are terrible but finding after market decals isn't a problem if it bothers you.
One warning about this. I said it was big and it is. It occupies almost as much space as the B17 in 1:48. It won't fit on many shelves. This one I did freehand with the airbrush. I have seen more elaborate attempts at this camouflage but my skills aren't there yet. The build itself was a walk in the park. The interior detail is a bit basic - but most of it can't be seen. I'm not a big one for going overboard on the interior. It just has to pass a cursory inspection.
Building this kit is largely reminiscent of the Revell B17 Memphis Belle kit. It has roughly the same flaws, and feels like much the same plastic. Slightly waxy with thick sprues. But as with that kit, if you're a halfway competent builder you can sort out the worst of the problems to produce something quite respectable. There is, I believe, a more modern kit of this by Trumpeter which will no doubt be a magnitude better (and more expensive), but I like these cheap and basic kits as palette cleansers after more complex and expensive builds.
I would recommend building a Dakota to any modeller. It's a lovely aeroplane and to be able to hold a large model of it just to admire it is great. Unlike may other aircraft, it's beautiful from any angle - and very possibly one of the most gorgeous aeroplanes ever built. And this one has miniguns. What's not to like?
No comments:
Post a Comment