SPA Modeler

Thanks to Revell and Scale Plastic Aircraft Modeler I have been provided with this 1/48th scale Revell/Monogram kit of the Douglas C-47 to review for you all here.



Background:
The Douglas C-47 Skytrain is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in front line service with various military operators through the 1950's. The C-47 differed from the civilian DC-3 in numerous modifications, including being fitted with a cargo door and a strengthened floor.

During World War II, the armed forces of many countries used the C-47 and modified DC-3's for the transport of troops, cargo, and wounded. The U.S. Naval designation was R4D. More than 10,000 aircraft were produced in Long Beach and Santa Monica, California and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

After World War II, thousands of C-47's were sold on the surplus market and converted to civilian passenger or cargo use. The C-47 has had a very long career with many military and civilian operators around the world. Some are actually still in regular service to this day. There have been many variants over the years for both specialized military roles and upgrades for civilian operators.

*Sourced from Wikipedia, some of it verbatim

DISCLAIMER: I am not an expert on any aircraft and certainly not the C-47. I just build models. My points of view will be from a builders aspect. I will not delve into accuracy or shape fidelity in scale because honestly, I couldn't tell you anyway. If something in this review is wrong I will happily stand corrected.

The Kit:

The kit comes in a rather large top opening box. This is great because I always use these types of boxes as the parts trays on my builds. The bottom portion is corrugated and is very sturdy which I really like. I hate flimsy boxes that fall apart or cave in after being handled or having other kits stacked on top of them. The box art is of the D-Day para-drop featuring numerous C-47's in full D-Day stripes dropping their paratroops and is quite nice.

Upon opening the box my first impression was WOW! This is a bigger airplane than I was expecting. I've seen C-47's in museums and the like but I was still surprised by how big the 1/48th scale model actually is. All of the sprues are molded in an olive colored plastic with one clear sprue and all are individually wrapped which is excellent. Here is the sprue with the main fuselage halves on it with a standard X-acto knife for scale reference.



The instructions come in a standard A5 size booklet that are a typical Revell affair with step by step construction sequences and generic paint color call outs.



There are 14 construction steps for the airplane itself. One page is devoted to painting the paratroopers, pilots, and mechanic. Did I mention the figures? More on that later. The last two pages are devoted to the painting and markings instructions for the two schemes provided in the kit.



The instructions seem pretty good over all. I like Revell's approach when it comes to instructions. Maybe it is just the nostalgia of my youth, but it is usually very clear where things go and what gets painted what color. Two things jump out at me though from the instructions. Firstly, there are 3 different intakes provided for the top of the engine nacelles. The instructions specify them as early, mid, and late. Yet they do not tell you which to do for whichever scheme you are doing with the kit. Both sets of marking instructions have the late intakes shown on them so as far as I can tell that is what I will be using since I am doing an out of the box scheme. Secondly, just with my preliminary looking up pictures of the C-47 on the internet I suspect that some of the color call outs for the interior are a little generic and bogus. They basically want you to paint everything on the inside of the aircraft interior green except for the instrument panels and such which are flat black. Looking at pictures of the the real aircraft interior there is much variation. For instance, the floor in the cargo bay was bare aluminum with black anti skid strips. This is not mentioned in the instructions. Over all though, I would say that if you followed the painting instructions to the letter you wouldn't come out with a bad result.

Let's move on the the decals:

The decal sheet is HUGE! But..... most of it is taken up by the D-Day stripes provided for both the over and under wing and the fuselage. I'll be painting these as I'm sure most will want to. This is because it's just really hard to get a decal that big to lay down like it should and conform to compound curves. It's definitely doable as I've done it before, I just don't want to take the chance. Plus painting these markings always looks better, at least to me. It is a nice option though for those that don't want to fuss with the painting and masking.



The rest of the sheet is taken up by the national markings, stencils(of which a fair bit are provided), and the specifics of each plane. The coolest of these individual markings to me is the black panel on the port side of the aircraft depicting how many different drops, glider tugs, and cargo hauls it has undertaken. There are two different aircraft you can model from this kit. One is "Buzz Buggy" from the 81st Troop Carrier Squadron. This one is Olive Drab and Dark Green on the top side with Neutral Gray on the bottom. It is apparently piloted by a Looney Tunes fan as it has Bugs Bunny nose art on both sides of the nose. The second scheme is "Drag 'Em Oot," apparently piloted by a Scottish football hooligan. This is from the 87th Troop Carrier Squadron. This one is Olive Drab over Neutral Gray.

Lastly, some decals are provided for some, but not all of the instrument panels. They look pretty good and if they lay down over the kit parts well, which I think they will, should look convincing. The rest of the instruments they advise you to just paint with white and silver details. I really don't think much of this detail is going to show up after the plane gets put together though.





My experience with Revell decals as of late is that they are pretty good. The sheet looks nice and I don't expect any real problems with the decals I plan to use as long as I have a nice glossy undercoat.

Next up we'll take a look at the plastic in the kit.

Nice review. I have that kit in the stash in a RoG Berlin airlift boxing. The size is keeping me from building it, where to put such a large beast?

Adam, great to see this one on the table! I am so looking forward to this puppy! It is an iconic aircraft to be sure, one of the few that to me scream airplane. This one is a piece of history. Can't wait to see your treatment.

it comes with figures?

how's the fit?

Cool! You can use the second episode of "Band of Brothers" as reference.

Thanks guys!

Owl, for answers to your questions read on.

Mostrich, I had exactly the same thought!

Ok gang, let's examine some plastic!

I'm going to start with the figures because it's one of the very unique features of this kit. You get 12 in all. There are 9 paratroopers, a pilot, co-pilot or crew chief (I can't really tell), and a mechanic. The copyright molded onto this kit is 1978. Considering that, I think the molding of the figures is quite good. There are some mold seams to be cleaned up on each one, but nothing that a little scraping and sanding won't take care of.







The paratroopers are also nicely molded, but I was a bit let down. This is because you get 3 sets of identical triplets.







While they are nice it would have been better to have a little more differentiation between them and maybe some different poses.

The kit itself is molded in rather hard, but not really brittle, olive colored plastic. It features fine raised panel lines with some recessed lines here and there such as the cowl flaps. Raised panel lines are a huge no no in this day and age. There is, however, an argument that this is actually more correct for the C-47 because the real thing featured overlapping panel construction. The raised panel lines really don't bother me. For some it may be a deal breaker. The one saving grace of this though is that it is not completely covered in huge raised rivets like some other kits of it's age. Here is a shot of the top of the wing showing the typical raised detail.



The fabric covered control surfaces are replicated on this kit and in my opinion are way over done. This could be fixed with some sanding. However, I don't think I will bother on my build.



I think the single biggest let down of the kit detail wise are the engines. They are simply really generic looking with soft and simplified details. Resin versions are available.



The props are the correct type for the schemes provided in the box and look OK with decent hub detail.



The kit comes with a pretty complete, if simplified interior. The lavatory with toilet and sink in the back of the plane is even represented. Anyone know of any 1/48th scale resin toilet paper rolls? I really think the pilot seats could use some replacing. They seem way to thick and simplified. Also, no belt detail is molded in and nothing is provided. This is strange to me since the benches in the cargo bay have about a zillion molded in belts. I think those will actually look OK under a coat of paint and a wash.





The clear parts are REALLY REALLY thick! Twice as thick as the plastic on the fuselage and wings. However, they are blemish free and crystal clear and should work nicely as no edges of them will really be showing.



Over all, there are some mold seams to clean up on most of the parts and very little flash here and there. I did not find any mold misalignment on any of the parts. There are some ejector marks here and there but most of them will be in hidden places. I was concerned about a couple that were on the cockpit bulkhead with some cross hatched detail that got messed up. But then I realized they will be right behind the pilots seats and will not be seen at all. I was anxious to see how all the major parts would fit together so I taped them up. I think the biggest problem will be attaching the 5 wing pieces to the fuselage. The two fuselage halves seem like they will go together OK but it remains to be seen how all of the interior and especially all the bulkheads will fit in there.





This is a kit that is going to require some work to get everything to line up and fit well, and even then it seems there will be some inevitable filling and sanding and restoring to the raised details. It is nothing a modeler of moderate skill level won't be able to handle, but for a beginner trying to make a decent model it's probably not the best starting point.

Up next we'll start painting the interior.

Glad you got this one!
(coulda been mine, if summer wasn't so dang busy for me :( )

I started this one many moons ago. Also started with the figs...did a bit of surgery to re-pose some arms and heads, to add a bit of variety. Got as far as closing up the fuselage. She's been languishing in the cabinet of doom for at least a dozen years.


Someday.....someday!

I love your C-47, want to board it in the early morning darkness loaded down with over a hundred pounds of gear, and want to jump out of it wearing a static line over enemy-occupied territory...

Manny1943 wrote:I love your C-47, want to board it in the early morning darkness loaded down with over a hundred pounds of gear, and want to jump out of it wearing a static line over enemy-occupied territory...

'

Now you are starting to sound like Stikpusher!


Anyway, by the looks of it I think I should get some quickboost engines before starting this bird.