The Little World

I was ambushed by this kit through an email from a Melbourne hobby shop. They send out regular lists of new arrivals and this was in the same order as the Hawker Sea Fury. It also came with a companion Beech 18 – a USAAF AT-11. The cost of this kit is $19 and the chance it gives to build an iconic civil aircraft is priceless.

You see, one of the feeder airlines in Alberta – Lethbridge Air Service – actually ran a Beech 18 for many years and it’s now in a museum in Calgary. So if I want a feeder plane for Alberta Central Airways this is the perfect choice. I can look at internet pictures of the real, real thing.

The kit is no better than the Hawker in terms of plastic quality – there is a surface roughness that worries me. The civil examples of this plane nearly all have polished metal finishes and the rough pebbling of the PM models moulding may show through the paint. But the parts are all there and even the plastic windscreen is fairly good. The side windows are dreadful, but I will still build the plane with them in place. For $ 19 I can hardly complain.

The instructions are as diagrammatic as the Hawker’s were and the colour instructions similarly colourless. The decals are pleasant and the SEAC roundels may come in handy for another build.

I have high hopes as this plane is cheap enough to build repeatedly and it was used all over Canada by the RCAF Transport and Training commands.