As
the new Revell kit came into the stores I had to get one asap. As there was only
the old (and horrible) Heller kit around for years, I was happy to hear Revell
did a new kit of this tactical transport aircraft.
The
Transall is not as well known as the Hercules and in my mind the Transall was the
smaller aircraft, but no – it is nearly the same size with nearly the same
wingspan, just with another concept for the powerplants with two high power
engines compared to the for medium power engines of the Herc.
Main
customers where Germany and France, the two nations that
where also developing and manufacturing the aircraft. Since 1968 the
Transall forms the backbone of the tactical Transport in Germany and was used in
countless flights worldwide, with a special mark on humanitarian flights.
For this purpose, some Transall are always painted in white colour, not in
the usual camouflage paint.
As
I opened the kit I was impressed – as were those who wrote the
different reviews that are around. Great details, fine engraved panel
lines and a complete set of decals for early Transalls.
So
I started building and came very fast to a problem of the kit: the fit of the
nacelle is not good, the interior seems to be too big and there where a lot of
steps and gaps to fill, even after I took my hobby knife and removed a lot of
plastic from the cockpit section.
So
building the model was somewhat disturbing, but overall detail is still great
and after the kit is finished it looks great.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The
plan was to build my Transall into an white aircraft, assigned to an UN-Mission
with the titles only applied if this is the case. So I chose a Transall of the
German Contingent of UNOSOM in Somalia
back in 1993/1994, the
decals came from different sets or where homemade, the stencils and walkways are
from the great decal sheet of the kit.
Painting
was done using Gunze and Tamiya Acrylics and oil paint and pastel chalk for a
decent weathering.
Hope,
you like it.
Thomas
Any
comments – just send an e-mail by clicking my name at the top of this article.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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