Airfix 1/72 Douglas DC-3 Dakota

AIRFIX 1:72 DOUGLAS DC-3 DAKOTA

Reviewer: Tim Beales (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted: 26 January 2004

Kit Details:

Douglas DC-3 in 1/72 scale by Airfix (#05031)

The Aircraft:

Although not a combatant type at all, the Douglas DC-3 can make claim to be one of the greatest civilian and military aircraft ever to have been made. It has been manufactured in the thousands, and has served from the 1930s to the present day.

The DC-3 was conceived in 1934 as an extended version of the Douglas DC-2 airliner. The DC-3 really came into its own in World War 2, when there was a crying need for a long-range aircraft that could be used for general haulage, transport, and communications. Although outwardly very similar to the DC-3, the C-47 Skytrain (the military version of the DC-3) had more powerful engines, internal strengthening of the airframe, and most noticeable to the outside observer, provision of large cargo doors on the port fuselage. The inner seating arrangement was also different for the DC-3 and the C-47.

There were a large number of DC-3 sub-variants used for navigation training, reconnaissance, and air-sea rescue, among many other roles. There was a gunship version that fought in Vietnam, and there was even a floatplane version of the DC-3. An impressive array of functionalities that would take up far too much space to list, never mind discuss in such a short space.

The Kit:

This is yet another old kit that has been repeatedly updated and reissued by Airfix over the years. The DC-3 (C-47) has had such a wide usage base that I feel Airfix can keep this game up for sometime, and well into the period when we are buying models with our old age pension, (and still keep telling ourselves that we will get around to making them one day). The present kit comprises of 62 parts cast in white plastic on large sprues. In the current guise, Airfix have issued parts covering a civilian DC-3 airliner from the 1950s, and a non-combatant military DC-3 from Canada. Not all the parts on the sprues are used, and so there will be many items for the spares box, or if wished, another variant of the DC-3 can be easily modelled from a reference profile and your own decals.

Addendum supplied by Lasse Petersen:
The current issue of a DC3 in an Airfix box, is a reboxing of the - admittedly somewhat elderly - Italeri kit, not the far older original Airfix kit. The original Airfix kit (which I would like to see reissued, BTW) had the good old-fashioned raised rivets all over. Actually this might look more correct than the lengthwise trenches on the Italeri kit. The Italeri kit itself has also been boxed by Revell twice.

The original Airfix DC3/C-47/Dakota was issued long ago, and to my best knowledge only updated once, resulting in an AC-47 gunship. I have read articles that claim that it is the most inaccurate of the three 1/72 scale Dakotas (the third being ESCI), but I have all three in my stash, and personally believe this is exaggerated. Unfortunately my only example of the Airfix Dakota was one I built as a kid, and it has lost its surface detail in an experiment with natural metal finishes. Italeri has trenches for panel lines, but nice engines. Airfix is crude, especially undercarriage and engines, but otherwise looks good.

Instructions:

The instructions are spread across ten A4 pages, and show well spaced large clear assembly stages, which are easy for the constructor to follow.

Construction:

Assembly begins by taking the internal cabin floor, which runs along the entire fuselage from the cockpit to the rear of the aircraft, and cementing the following components into the appropriate slots: the front instrument panel, two control levers, two seats, two pilots, and either a rear cockpit bulkhead and a rear fuselage bulkhead, or a rear cockpit bulkhead a middle cabin bulkhead, and a rear fuselage bulkhead. Airfix suggests painting the control sticks, instrument panel, cockpit floor, and seats in the RCAF version black (H33), with the fuselage interior dark grey (H27) and the pilots in grey (H64) for the RCAF and blue (H96) for the BEA version.

The first modification, depending on what option the builder wishes to make, is now needed, as one has to open up an extra window on the port side for the BEA version. The cockpit walls are recommended to be painted either black for the RCAF version, or green (H30) for the BEA version. The windows for both sides are supplied on transparent strips, which are cemented into the inner fuselage wall before the cockpit and fuselage floor/bulkhead assembly is glued onto the appropriate locating tabs. The two fuselage halves can now be joined and the tail wheel inserted into a locating slot on the lower fuselage. On dry fitting, I found that to get a good fit, I needed to do a little sanding of the bulkheads, and presumably because of the age of the moulds, the upper joint around the cockpit formed a step at the cockpit window. I have encountered this in other models, and knew that the infamous “third hand” would be required to hold this flush with the rest of the fuselage while the glue dried. This was fiddly, and because of the models’ size, it took a bit of effort to manipulate the fuselage so that I got a virtually flush joint. For insurance purposes, I ran Humbrol filler over the joints, and gently sanded it smooth.

The second modification now needs to be exercised, depending on the build option chosen. The RCAF version has the large opening cargo-type door, while the BEA has a simple passenger entrance. Airfix cater for these options by providing two separate “slabs” with the proper doors moulded in that locate into the appropriate hole in the port fuselage. This stage of the construction is rounded off by cementing into place the two rear tailplanes (each made from a top and lower half), and gluing the fuselage onto the lower middle section that makes up the wing.

Airfix next recommend making the undercarriage, which is quite simple. Each wheel is made from a right and left half, and the central axel hole locates into two pins either side of an “H”-type undercarriage unit. Two pins located on top of the two legs of the "H"-type undercarriage unit locate into two holes in the engine nacelle cut outs situated on the lower side of the central wing unit glued to the fuselage. The top half of the port and starboard wings are now glued into place, along with the remaining (shorter) parts of the lower wing. A stirrup-shaped undercarriage jack leg is cemented onto the back of the "H"-type undercarriage leg, and glued to the base of the inner undercarriage nacelle.

The model is now flipped over, and the engines installed. The right port and starboard engines are identical, and comprise of a backing plate onto which the two cylinder head units locate (a collar is supplied that locates on the rear of the front cylinder unit for those modellers who wish to have a rotating propeller) The engine housing is formed from a right and left half that enclose the engine cylinder units, and an exhaust blanking plate is located in recesses on the bottom of the engine housings. The engine units then locate onto lips around the engine nacelles, and are finished off with a simple bent exhaust that locates onto the outermost side of each engine housing. The propeller is a simple three-blade type. I found that I had to use a little Humbrol filler around all the seams to hide the joins.

The model is finished off by adding the common cockpit windshield, upper astrodome, and landing light transparencies on the port and starboard wings. Optional parts are then required for the air intakes above the engine units (long = RCAF, short = BEA), lower aerials and pitot tubes, and lower and upper navigation devices for the BEA and RCAF versions, respectively. The rear of the aircraft for the two options is also different, with the BEA option requiring a piece (navigational aid?) to be cemented into place at the very rear of the fuselage. Once this is done, it’s now time to bag and paint the model.

Colour Schemes/Decals:

Decals are provided for two aircraft. The first is a Douglas DC-3-CSR Dakota of a Royal Canadian Air Force Search and Rescue unit, based at Abbotsford in 1967. This has a white top to the fuselage (H130) and a silver lower half (H11). The rudder is silver/white (H11/H130). The wings are chrome (H191) with silver ailerons (H11) and red tips (H174). The tailplanes are red and silver.

The second aircraft is a Douglas DC-3 Dakota with an all-white (?) fuselage (H130) with chrome wings and undersides (H191) that flew with British European Airways (BEA) from Northolt in 1950. This aircraft has silver ailerons and rudders (H11).

Both aircraft have black de-icer bands on the wing leading edges. Both sets of decals are in register and are very good. One criticism of the Airfix decals is that the colours could have been a little stronger, and for me, the various greys (formed as a series of closely spaced dots) denoting the colours on the painting guide featured in the instructions were indistinguishable. The options represented in the paint guide seemed to have identical dot densities to me, making life very difficult, I still don't know if I have the correct paint job for the BEA Dakota scheme!

Final Comments:

All in all, and notwithstanding the slight problems aligning the fuselage halves and the vagueness of the paint schemes offered in the instructions, this kit is an enjoyable build. I would say that, because of the size of the aircraft and the ease of construction, I would recommend this kit to new modellers wanting to make a larger kit when upsizing from 1/72-scale Me109s and Spitfires etc. For intermediate modellers, it provides ample chance to customise and to experiment with new paint schemes. Advanced modellers, of course, will do their own thing anyway.

web hosting • domain names • video sharing
free online games • photo sharing
free blog • short URLs