Kitech (Hobbycraft) 1/72 De Havilland Canada DHC.4 Caribou

KITECH (HOBBYCRAFT) 1:72 DE HAVILLAND CANADA DHC.4 CARIBOU
'INBOX Review'

Reviewer: Richard Stracey (rec.models.scale)

KITECH 1/72 O8M 3214H - DHC-4 CARIBOU

The De Havilland Canada DHC-4 was developed to meet a U S Army requirement for a STOL transport aircraft. The first flight was on 30^th July 1958 and the last of the 307 came off the production line in late 1973. The U S Army received five for evaluation which they named YAC-1. They received a total of 159 which they referred to as CV2s and later C7s. In 1967 the USAF took control of all the U S Army fixed wing aircraft. Some of these were captured by the N Vietnamese who are reported to have used them into the 1970s. Other users were/are Canada, Malaysia, India, Spain, Brazil, Tanzania and Australia. Due to economics not many were used commercially but Ansett MAL flew one in Papua New Guinea and AMOCO in Ecuador and (if you count it as commercial) Air America in S E Asia. Their STOL capabilities are quite amazing to witness. The Caribou has a wingspan of 29.15m length of 22.13m, has a payload of 4 tons or 30 passengers. It is powered by two P+W R2000 2 row 14 cyl engines. Pen Turbo have developed a turbo conversion using two P+W PT6A engines driving 5 blade props.

This 2003 Kitech model reminds me of the Hobbycraft kit, the “give away” is the fact that “Hobbycraft” is stamped on the sprues! I suspect that Kitech, a Hong Kong company with factory in Fujian Province China probably makes the Hobbycraft kits for them. Anyway, the kit consists of three sprues of 80 parts in crisp light grey plastic and one sprue (D) of five parts in clear plastic. The nine step instructions include a “sprue map” and three views of three of the four decal options. The very glossy decals are for a U S Army “24171” and RAAF “A4-173” and A-179 all in Olive drab and a S Vietnam “GN 630744” in typical Vietnam war four colour camouflage. Other than the roundels none of the RAAF decals are useable. Royal Australian Air Foroe? The sprues are sealed in cellophane and the box with uninspiring artwork looks sturdy enough for mail order purposes. I think that for some reason there were two Hobbycraft kits, HC1343 with, I think RCAF, Tanzanian, Spanish and USAF decals and HC 1344 with RCAF and UN decals.

Construction looks to be standard and simple. The cockpit doesn’t look much like the real thing and is pretty basic. It really needs work or, if anyone makes one, an aftermarket replacement. Everything else looks fine although the aerials (C1&C2) probably differed from aircraft to aircraft so it may be worth trying to find photos of the aircraft that you wish to depict. The only option, other than “wheels up or down” is the radar nose (A3) which is used (according to the instructions) for the U S Army version. Kitech/Hobbycraft provides spinners (C32) but I can’t ever remember seeing a Caribou wearing them. The engines (C13&14) look pretty basic but is of no problem as they are well hidden inside the cowlings. Although not mentioned I suspect the model will require quite a load of lead to keep the nose wheel on the ground. The transparencies look a bit “cloudy” but a dose of Future or whatever should fix that.

In conclusion I think quite a good model should result from this kit and I look forward to making it…..one day. I haven’t my reference books handy but there is a fair amount of information on the internet.

RHS/08

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