The Little World

Okay, okay, I know. It’s just another 1:72 DC-3/C-47/Dakota. But it’s my plane and my workshop and my weblog column so I have a right to be excited. Particularly since I found a bargain.

The kit is Italeri and has been out for a while. It sat on the hobby shop shelf next to other Italeri and Airfix iterations of the same plane – but at a considerable price reduction. In comparison to the Airfix offering, I get it for under half price. Not dissing Airfix, but not overlooking the wallet either.

The plane is destined to be exhibited in Stein’s Air World in Wet Dog as an RCAF museum piece so the basic body is more than accurate enough. Museums aren’t fussy these days – they can’t afford to be.

The aircraft turns out to be surprisingly large and the sprues correspondingly so. Good mouldings, very little flash anywhere. Good windows on sensible fittings and very clear – and the C-47 doesn’t have all that many awkward openings anyway. Lots of variation in the decals…I’m not going to attempt the invasion stripes as they don’t feature in any of the restored RCAF pictures I can find in real museums.

This first day is one of the nicest ones in any build as it really roughs out what the structure is going to look like. I’ve done the interior subassembly and will paint it tomorrow, and the wings, tail, and minor subassemblies are well on the way to the paint shop. As I am an out of the box builder for many things I do not have to agonise about opening shut doors or shutting open ones.*

*  Much like the people who use the refrigerator in this house…