1/48 Trumpeter C-47A Skytrain

Gallery Article by Dennis Robert Ferriol on July 6 2009

 

Photos by Noel Carpio

This is the 1/48 scale C-47A Skytrain released by Trumpeter in 2008 (Kit No. 02828).  The kit is made up of crisply-molded light gray styrene, clear parts for the windows, cockpit windshield and instrument panel, photo-etched details, rubber tires, and a set of white metal main landing gear struts.  

The joy with this kit is that it comes in the now-standard Trumpeter recessed rivets with finely scribed details.  Not only does it look exquisite on the outside, modelers will be impressed to find a nearly complete flight and cargo compartment, with individual bucket seats and photo-etch lap belts for the paratroopers.  To top it all of, an overhead lighting system is also incorporated.  The only thing lacking, which the old Monogram kit has, is the rear compartment bathroom or honey-bucket compartment.

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As with all my Trumpeter builds involving clear instrument panels, I carefully drilled each dial face to do away with painting around them, I then sprayed the panel flat black and installed the film on the backside, carefully aligning the dials with the bored-out holes of the panel.  As a final touch, i put droplets of Future on each dial to simulate glass lenses.  

The installation of the kit's photo-etched seat/lap belts for the 27 bucket seats inside the cargo compartment was probably the most grueling process.  However, it was well worth the effort as evidenced in the photos.  The clear parts for the windows are meant to be installed from the inside so I opted to pre-paint the OD color for the exterior around the window sills first to eliminate masking the clear parts later in the build.  

This was purely an OOB build but the engines were just begging for some extra detailing,  So, I added ignition wiring harnesses made from fine copper wire.  

This plane was a commission build for a client and I could say it was a delight to make owing to the excellent engineering and quality molding put in by Trumpeter.  I'm looking forward to start on my own kit.  Highly recommended for big plane enthusiasts. 

Dennis Robert Ferriol

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Photos and text © by Dennis Robert Ferriol