The Little World

I built a Canadian Gooney Bird a last year as part of my Air World collection – a Burma Biscuit Bomber that has been preserved in the Canadian museums as a flying tribute. That should have finished my fascination with the Dakota/C-47/Skytrain/ Gooney bird for some time. Not a bit of it. I had collected an aftermarket set of USAAF, RAAF. and RNZAF decals specifically for the C-47 in the pacific and it must have been calling to me. When I saw the low price of the Italeri C-47 Skytrain in Hobbytech ( under $ 35AUD ) I was instantly alert.

The kit is the largely the same as the Dakota I built before, but I think there are a few new air scoops and a plain exhaust that were not there before. In any case. at <$ 35, I was not going to hesitate.

Imagine my pleasure when I opened the box and discovered that the kit is moulded in olive drab plastic. It’ll be sun-bleached olive drab and grey in the final result, but this gave me a preview of what it would look like. Make no mistake – the colour that a kit is moulded in can make a real difference – not only to what paint you put onto it, but whether it excites you or not.

Note that basic alignment is not rocket science – it is just making the dihedral right and the tailplanes tight in their slots. There might be a few putty gaps but as long as the thing is not a crab, all is well.

Three sprues is all; a D-Day decal sheet, which I’ll donate to the club, and a basic instruction sheet.