The Little World

I am either the best father in the world or the worst one. The decision will not be mine, though I would like to be told so that I can dress appropriately.

The chance to be best came when my daughter was an airplane enthusiast a few years back ( she still is…) and took an interest in twin-boom planes. At some birthday or Christmas occasion I must have noted this and bought her an Italeri model of a C-119 Fairchild Flying Boxcar.

As far as the worst goes I probably qualify now, as I have taken the gift back and intend to build it for my model airport.

Before you throw bricks at me, I must reveal that my daughter, Victoria, had the idea – when she saw how well the little Piasecki HUP Retriever came out in Canadian colours she dived into her closet and unearthed the as-yet-unbuilt kit and presented it to me. I am not being a First Nation giver. And I am enormously grateful for the chance to do this aircraft. It was one of the standards of my childhood.

The box is big – because the airplane is big.

If it was not marked 1:72 on the outside you might be forgiven for thinking that it was 1:48 scale. The engine diameters give it away, and the pilot seats as well, but nearly every other part of the airframe of this plane is deceptively jumbo-sized. Even the tail booms are bigger than WW2 Soviet fighter planes.

It would also appear that we have a multi-deck plane. The tail is the standard clamshell and not the modified beavertail, so I don’t know how much you’ll see of it – but intend to leave as much open as I can. Italeri have provided a rather sharp looking example of a Dodge army truck and there will probably be a number of Canadian Army 1:76 scale die-cast models available from Oxford Diecast that can be used in the fuselage. I am prepared to stuff it to the gills.

I’m sorry that the decal sheet doesn’t include RCAF colours. This can be remedied, I suspect, by a letter and some money to Belcher’s Bits in Ontario. It is altogether too nice and too large a kit to do with mere inkjet printing – and as it will be colourful, the livery needs to be sharp. It will not be a weekend build.

Note: the illustration of grey sprues against a white scoop is somewhat problematical. I am going to fetch some black and some green paper from the main studio to see if they would be better. In the meantime please be patient with the corrugated plasti-board used for this one.