When I was visiting Emil the Enabler
(wave hello, everyone!)
at the Skyway model shop
I got one of these:
Yup. The new Roden 1/144 C-124 Globemaster II.
This kit has caused a lot of excitement in the small scale world.
Well, I finally opened the box and the poly-bags this weekend.
This review over on
Cybermodeler is pretty good and not too far off the mark. Still, I thought you might be interested in my impressions.
If you've built aircraft in 1/144, you've probably built your fair share of Minicraft kits because they seem to have the most offerings in that scale. My first thought upon seeing the new Roden C-124 kit is that it shouldn't be any more difficult than say a Minicraft C-54/DC-6. Now that's pretty far from "shake-n-bake" kit. Be forewarned.
In my copy, the fuselage edges are very roughly molded and will take a fair amount of cleanup. It's not flash, but just rough molding with little nubs here and there aside from the usual sprue gates. The bottom part of the left fin on my kit was short-shot just like the sample in the
Cybermodeler review, but I should be able to find a fix. The odd thing is the only major flash to be found anywhere on this kit is at the edges of the horiz. stabs. which are on the same sprue as the short-shot tail.
The
Cybermodeler review talks about the wings & tailfeathers being butt-joined and the wings having alignment pins. The tail parts are butt-joined and since they're relatively small and light, this shouldn't be a problem as their attachment points are very nicely cut into the fuselage. The "alignment pins" on two-piece wings are actually 1/3 inch high tabs on the end that fit into holes cut in the wing-root on the fuselage. This and the sculpting of the wing-fuselage join area should help get things lined up ok. However, if you use any after-market engines, props, or landing gear, you might want to consider reinforcing the join with a thin metal rod. Goodness knows how this wing attachment will be in practice. It seems like it was given some thought but I can see where there might be trouble.
The engines are similar to those on the Minicraft C-54 but just slightly better detailed, and I mean slightly. They come attached to a circle backing which fits into a notch just inside the two-piece cowling. Fear not though, because Roden toughtfully provides a nice "nose ring" front for the cowlings making engines & cowlings a 4 piece assembly.
The Roden C-124 has a clear part for the cockpit glass, but unlike many Minicraft kits, it's a small part (just a hair larger than the cockpit glass in the 1/200 Spruce Goose). It doesn't take up much of the nose, but it does form the cockpit "roof". However, in this scale and with the kit parts provided, it won't pay to put much work into detailing the front office. In fact, I wish most of these kits omitted clear parts and just had a well-formed fuselage and nose. Window decals seem fine to me in this scale and the hassles blending in clear parts don't seem worth any benefit given how little of the cockpit is usually visible.
For some reason, Roden decided to engrave a few portholes on the fuselage. Fortunately, there's window decals for these so I probably won't bother filling them.
The kit has a nice marking scheme for the decals, but the large "Continental Division" on mine seems a little out-of-register, making that marking look a bit blurry. The other decals appear fine and if these are like Roden decals I've used in the past, they should go on ok.
All in all I think this is a buildable kit of a pretty unique subject. Anyone with experience in 1/144 should be able to make a decent model from what's in the box. However, with a detail level that barely matches Revell of Germany and is only a shade better than your average Minicraft kit in this scale, some might think the $36 price tag a bit high.
Brian da Basher
