Revell C-160 Transall 1:220

Review by: Geoff Coughlin

Price: £4.40 approx (UK – May 2011)

Our thanks to Revell Germany for supplying our review sample: www.revell.de

A little bit of inspiration (plus some good detail shots)

The Revell Kit

1:220 scale is hardly mainstream these days, so this scale might seem unattractive as your new C-160 Transall won’t easily fit into your collection. This scale issue starts to make you look closer at what your £5 is likely to buy.

Click on Image to enlarge/go back.

Box and Contents

Revell persist with rather flimsy boxes that are doubtless cheap to produce but not so good in either protecting the contents or proving useful during construction. Having said that, the artwork is usually impressive enough and that’s the case here. Let’s go inside…

It is clear that this is a pocket money kit aimed at the very junior, entry-level modeller. This is nothing like the quality and tooling of the 1:72 kit released back in 2006. The kit is poor by any standards when you consider what’s been made available here. The sprues are moulded in dark green polystyrene.

Panel lines are raised and most can live with that, but, sadly there are large ‘roundels’ moulded in raised detail above and below the wings as well as on the fuselage. Not good. This is clearly an old tooling from an unknown source that Revell has re-packaged and branded.

There is no windscreen or cockpit, with the windscreen is merely moulded into the solid fuselage halves – not good at all! Black decals are provided to represent the windows.

Basic representations of the main gear units are included and the propeller blades are also simple in form.

Clear Parts

No clear parts are included.

Instructions and Decals

Click on Image to Enlarge/go back.

The Revell instructions follow their usual exploded stages format. Location of parts is clear but colour paint coding is for Revell paints only. However, the colour names are provided and this will help you to match your own choice of paints. This is a basic model and so should present no difficulty in working out where the parts are located, even for inexperienced modellers.

The decals seem good quality. Certainly colour saturation and register is good and all markings are accurate and sharp in their detail. This is probably the best part of the package; good quality decals will make a world of difference to your completed model.

Conclusion

As I’ve pointed out, this is a simple package, but one so basic cannot be recommended – even to new scale modellers. It’d far better if the manufacturer produces – or at least buy in – more up-to-date subject material that includes the basics like clear parts and reasonably accurate detail.

Not Recommended.

Geoff C.