Heller 1/72 Douglas Skyraider

HELLER 1:72 DOUGLAS SKYRAIDER
'In The Box Review'

Reviewer: Dave McDougall (captain.haddock@btinternet.com)

Kit: Heller 1/72^nd scale Douglas Skyraider (kit #79840)

Aircraft: Ed Heinemann, chief engineer at Douglas El Segundo was so unimpressed by his XBTD-1 series built to US Navy specification for a carrier-based dive-bomber/torpedo-carrier that he took it upon himself to design a simpler machine which he judged more useful. Designated XBT2D-1 when flown on 18 March 1945, this aircraft became the Douglas AD Skyraider, and enjoyed an amazingly long and varied career. Crewed by a pilot only, the AD was at the time the largest production single-seater.

Parts: These come in a small sturdy box with a proper lid. (Other manufacturers please take note!). Seven sprues of metallic grey plastic. 87 pieces in total plus 1 transparent cockpit canopy. No bag; they are all floating around loose in the box. Pretty much flash free – I only saw a little bit of flash on a few of the smaller items. However, there is an injection pin mark on each of the weapon pylons. As there are twelve of these, this is a tad annoying. There don’t appear to be any other injection pin marks on any visible areas of any of the other parts.

Instructions: One large folded A3 size sheet with instructions on one side only. There is one paragraph of information about the Skyraider. A thirteen step exploded view construction diagram which looks straightforward. The last step shows the painting guide and decal placement. Colour call outs are for Heller's own brand paint.

Versions: One US Navy aircraft in a dark blue overall. The kit doesn’t say what example is represented.

Decals: Thirteen decals printed by Heller. They look acceptable and are in register. One or two lines are not quite as crisp as they could be.

Accuracy: The Skyraider had a 15.25m wingspan and a fuselage length of 11.84m. In 1/72^nd scale this equates to – 21.18cm and 16.44cm respectively. The Heller kit’s wings each come in two parts. Combine this with the fuselage and it’s a bit tricky to get an exact scale measurement. However, the wings do have a span of approximately 21cm. The fuselage is easy to measure at 16cm. I don’t see any great problems with accuracy at this stage. – There are no things that scream “wrong”.

Detail: Pretty good. The control surfaces are engraved, whilst all other lines are raised with some nice panel lines and some finely done rivet detail..

Options: You get a lot of different armament in the kit. – Two large and one small bomb plus twelve missiles. (Sorry, but I don’t know what types they are and the kit gives no information on this.)

Impressions: Looks a nice kit. The detail is nice and crisp. I’ll have to do some research to find out what particular model is represented as Heller don’t give a helping hand in this direction at all.

Related Review: Heller 1/72 Skyraider

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