Thursday, July 24, 2014

Model Airplane International 08/2014

Aircraft like the KC-135E look superb in the larger (1:72) scale but they're just not practical. This is where Minicraft has seen a niche in the market with a whole range of subjects covered in the smaller-scale range. The newest of these is the KC-135E in USAF service. Where the WC-130 I built a while back (See Issue No.105) was an updated kit with new parts, this is prominently marked on the box as being an 'all-new tooling'. On opening it you will find five sprues of pale grey-coloured plastic with another of clear containing one part, the cockpit glazing. The parts count on the grey-coloured sprues works out to fifty-eight. The instructions are of the usual booklet style covering the ten assembly stages with the last two pages covering the two markings options provided. Once again the decal sheet is by Cartogaf, so the quality is assured. The two options for schemes in the kit are both for USAF aircraft, the first of which is a standard squadron aircraft from the Kansas Air National Guard circa 2004. The second is the subject of the box artwork for a New Jersey ANG aircraft also from 2004 but with the addition of large tiger graphics on the forward fuselage. If you have read my earlier review of the Minicraft WC-130 you will see that it proved to be hard work due to the use of old and new parts and at times quite frustrating. Let's see if this new kit will be any better. After a quick wash the first job was to clip the main parts from the sprues and check them for fit. My first impressions were that this was a distinct improvement on the previous build but that I would still be reaching for the filler fairly soon. The first step in the instructions is the nose gear bay and undercarriage.

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