The Little World

Readers of this column will have seen my report on the Special Hobby 1:72 Douglas Digby Mk I – the RCAF version of the USAAC B-18 bomber. I was thrilled to find that kit and quite enjoyed the building experience – even though some parts of it went down the silly rabbit holes of too much photo-etch brass and resin parts. It was evident when I went through the sprues that Special Hobby was making use of the basic structure to throw out multiple variants. I’ve now seen 4 seperate boxings.

This issue is the pre-war USAAC version in clean metal with national strips on the tail and the red-white-blue roundels. If this was not desired I could build it as a USAAF plane that got to Australia after the fall of the Philippines – there are at least two pictured on a reliable Google site and one is marked as sitting on the airfield here in Perth. They sport olive drab and grey.

But I have a bottle of a silver paint that has never been tried before, and I think I will stick to the plan outlined in the kit itself – indeed one of the decal schemes seems to be a preserved aircraft at an American museum so that counts for plenty. It will make a nice contrast to the camouflaged RCAF scheme.

This Bolo also has the earlier turret and nose – and I must say that it is a lot more attractive as a shape. Special Hobby have made a separate fuselage with the nose integral to the shape. Though there are parts in the kit that echo the Digby, they can be stored away – this can stand on its own.

I’m afraid the same internal nonsense is provided, but having been inoculated, I may not react to the instructions – I know what will not be seen.