The Little World

Some kits fly out the door of the hobby shop as soon as they arrive. Some stay until the sales. Some stay until the owner dies and the executors hacksaw the door open.

The reasons for this can be many – the kit is horrible – the kit is so obscure than no living being feels any call to it – or the kit has been overpriced all along. Make no mistake – modellers may be ignorant of general finance but they can tell the value of a kit to the ha’penny. You ask just that fraction more and you will stock the kit forever.

I think the Italeri Douglas RB66B may have been tarred with a bit of the horrible brush by the ignorant. It may be out of the ken of the average Spitfire/Messerschmitt/Mustang modeller. But it is definitely not over-priced. This twin engine jet bomber, a cold and hot war aircraft, costs less than $ 35 AUD and represents stunning value for money.

It may be an older Hasegawa mould – many of the Italeri offerings seem to have come to them that way. If so, it is more than welcome. The panel lines are raised, but delicate and precise. I do not intend to re-scribe for any reason. The sprue trees seem flash-free and the overall impression is of a model that would cost double the price.

As far as obscurity goes, the B-66 might have been somewhat of a dead end for the USAF, but the reconfiguration for the reconnaissance role made perfect sense. This plane snooped and spied for the US in Europe as well as Asia – and the call-out and decal sheet support examples from the UK, Germany, as well as the Japanese bases during the Vietnam war. I cannot say which I will choose but there is a strong temptation to do something not done before.

This may also be a kit that would repay pre-shading – at least in the lower sections.

It will become the home build in my Little Workshop for the next few weeks.