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Review by: Geoff Coughlin
Our thanks to Revell Germany for supplying our review sample: www.revell.de
Ok, let’s get started…
It’s been a while that’s for sure since I built a model in 1:144 scale, the Revell BAe 146 I think for Tamiya mag way back… still, whenever a ‘new’ kit comes along there’s always an opportunity to look further than your usual areas of interest. So it was when this nice-looking kit arrived. The date stamp says that the tooling is from 2008 and well, there you go, it just goes to show that I for one missed this first time – assuming it was released then?
Could be a good idea to check out my Here Now in-box review of the kit at this stage, because I don’t want to repeat it all again here and bore you in the process.
Have a plan…
Nothing too taxing with this build; I know because it has taken me all of a day to get to the stage you see at the end of this first instalment – can’t be bad. First off there are a few observations to make. Firstly, the cockpit interior will hardly be visible at all, so probably not worth going to town in there and, to be honest the same can be said of the rear cargo hold. I am building my kit with the rear cargo doors open and it’s clear now that I’ve closed the fuselage that you can hardly see anything in there too, so some careful dry-brushing of the darker grey internals is all but wasted time – such is life!
Into the cockpit…
There are 6 seats in here, 4 ahead of the bulkhead and a pair facing aft to the rear of it. I loosely followed the colour guide in kit instructions as to painting – darker RLM 66 Grey for the floor and a blue/grey colour for the seat cushions. Check out Google Images by inserting C-17 Globemaster cockpit and you’ll get plenty of images. Whilst I had no intention of adding the detail that’s in the real aircraft (you simply won’t see any of it) I wanted to check the general arrangement and colours. The bulkhead is left unpainted as it’s already light grey. All I did add were some thin metal foil strips as shoulder harness straps – the foil being black I left it so they might just be visible through the cockpit glazing on the completed model but that’s it, nothing else stands a chance of being seen.
So the cockpit is done – blimey, this is a quick build!
Rear cargo hold…
.You’re quickly into this area of the build. The design of the rear interior fuselage as a complete separate pod or lining that is just enclosed within the main fuselage halves is nothing short of brilliant – what a good idea. The floor has some really impressive moulded detail, along with the rear cargo ramp. These received a coat of very light grey Tamiya Deck Tan paint and given an oil wash with a thin mix of Paynes Grey thinned with Rowney Low Odour Thinners. In truth, I may as well not have bothered with the hold floor, nor the internal wall colours of light and dark greys (just follow the instructions for demarcation line). I say this because, yes, you guessed it, nothing will be visible when your model is finished. Having said that maybe that’s not strictly true because if you separate the loading ramp as I did (I wanted to create a bit of interest in the look of the model – there’s a lot of grey to break up) the rear inner portion of the fuselage interior can just be seen when viewed at table-top level.