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Reviewed by Adam Rehorn
Kit #:
04009
Type:
Injection moulded styrene (not cheese, as it may appear upon handling.)
Maker:
Heller/Airfix, Made in France
Cost:
Depends; I believe this kit is out of production, as it should be.
Don't pay much
Aftermarket:
Printer cartridge box liner, fabric and Testors decal kit
Above: It's done! This is the
Airfix Trimotor kit painted up as the RAF's only Trimotor of WWII, serial number X5000. Building this kit was a long
and painful journey.
The Ford Trimotor is one of the
many designs that were put forth in the early period of airline expansion. While only 199 were built, this corrugated
flier, widely known as the 'Tin Goose', has become legendary in the annals of aviation. It was tough, durable and simple
- and its ability as a workhorse was second to none. Unfortunately, it was also a transitional airplane, which means
that its design was not able to take advantage of the improved aerodynamic knowledge that became available during the 1930's.
There has been a lot written about the Ford Trimotor, so I will skip the rest of the history lesson. Readers are free
to do their own investigations into the story of the Tin Goose.
It's no surprise that a number of different models
of the Trimotor have been made. However, it seems as though the Airfix kit is the only one in 1/72. There's an
old Revell/Monogram kit, which is now reissued, that is available in 1/77. (Can YOU say "box scale? I KNEW you could!)
Unfortunately, from what I can see, the R/M kit is not very accurate, at least in profile shape. I also think in might
be the older 4-AT model (Yep! ed.). Thus, if you want a 'normal' scale kit of the Goose's most numerous model,
the 5-AT, the Airfix kit is the only injection moulded game in town.
The Kit:
There's not a
lot I can say about the Airfix Trimotor kit; well, not much positive anyway. In the name of fairness, I'll stick to
the facts, first. The kit is moulded in silver plastic, with the body being built like a box, with a floor, ceiling
and two sides. The wings are large and come in five pieces, with the opening cargo hatches as separate components. The
engine nacelles are several pieces, as are the landing gear.
The engine struts come either in pairs or triples,
and the landing gear struts are actually moulded as a single piece. The engines are one piece each, and the detail is
minimal, but good on them. The tailplane is a single piece, and the fin/rudder is too. Clear parts are provided
for the cockpit windows, side windows, landing lights and the window to what I believe is the washroom. Cockpit and
interior detail is minimal. My example is one I picked up second-hand, so there were no decals, although a very limited
sheet with American Airways markings is supposed to be included.
Above: This view of the starboard engine and landing gear shows the myriad of struts that came mostly in
pairs. The finished product exudes a false aura of strength and rigidity.
Okay, that's all the nice stuff
I can say.
Upon opening the box, one encounters the typical "Airfix jumble" of loose parts, thick trees and a general
sense of disregard for good model packing. The real problems start when you try to actually build this thing.
Test fitting the parts is nearly impossible because there are very few locator pins, and they're all tiny and ineffective.
In addition, the plastic is quite soft, and bends easily. However, it's also very weak, which leads to a lot of problems
handling the smaller bits of the plane. I found that most thin parts, like struts, landing gear legs and the exhausts
would break if handled for more than a few seconds. The plastic has the consistency and durability of warm cheddar:
bend it, and you get a chalky mess that doesn't fit back together right.
The fit of all the parts is terrible, and
the internal guides for the cockpit and load floor are awful. There's a slot for a stand, but one isn't included in
this version. I can only imagine the chaos if it were made of the same material as the rest of the plane. The
Goose is heavy, and would fold a stand made from the same material in seconds. The clear parts are actually quite good,
but exceptionally thick and brittle, and my 'canopy' piece broke FOUR FRIGGIN' TIMES! More on that later.
Above: Here's a good view of the crack in the window glass. You can see that it is a major
problem. This is the third failure that plagued this piece.
Building the Tin Goose:
I
like to build kits no one else wants to or would dare to. I've built lots of FROGs and even Starfix kits. Thus,
I consider myself to be something of a hardened veteran when it comes to crappy kits. Well, just when I didn't think
it could be worse than the Gannet or the Uhu, the Trimotor comes along.
This is the WORST kit, I have EVER built. PERIOD!!! Yeah, I probably said that
about the Gannet, and at the time, that was true. However, my review of that kit is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, and despite
its flaws, it was still kind of loveable. The Trimotor IS NOT. Honest to God, I thought of abandoning this project
more than I did of finishing it. This kit was so horrible that I swear I will not build another Airfix kit again. EVER.
I HATE THEM. In fact, building this monster was so scarring, that I'm taking a break from airplanes for a while.
I have some nice Revell Germany kits on my stack that I'd love to build, but the thought of another airplane right now literally
nauseates me.
Congratulations Airfix! You made me hate airplane kits, if even for a short while. This is
a remarkable achievement. The only thing that hurts more is that I brought it on myself. I paid nothing for the
kit, and got nothing but problems in return from it. If this kit was a horse, it would be glue by now. If it were
a car, it would be beer cans by now. If it were a person, it would be a politician. Yeah, it's that bad.
Due
to the corrugations in the Goose's skin, filling and sanding the joints between major subassemblies is impossible. Also,
despite the cheddarness of the plastic, NOTHING will glue it well! I tried Ambroid Proweld, Testors liquid and tube
cement, CA and white glue. It doesn't seem to matter what's used, the plane will still fall apart. The Testors
liquid cement is the best, but not by much.
To get my Goose finished, I more or less followed the instructions, although
I did have to modify things a bit. I glued all the struts to the engine nacelles before installing them in the wing.
I also had to modify the tail wheel, since it's supposed to be held on by what appears to be a triangular A-frame at the center,
and a shock-damped strut out the top. Well, the strut is there, but the triangular part that's supposed to represent
the A-frame is too small!
You can't actually attach the tail wheel to the body at more than one point without modifying
it! Given the stress-handling properties of the Airfix plastic, this is not advisable. I just used some spare,
non-Airfix sprue to extend the A-frame's base. This gave me the results I needed.
Above: This side view shows the addition I made to the tailwheel A-frame. The new piece is the thicker
cross section piece between the wheel and the end of the plane.
I also glued the cargo panniers
in the wings shut, since I couldn't see them standing up to repeated openings, and I didn't want them open anyways.
There's no detail in the wings, and having them open is pointless. Unfortunately, there's supposed to be a strake near
the opening end of the doors that's neither moulded on nor included in the kit.
Above: This view of the wing underside shows the roundel, landing light and edge of the wing cargo door.
There should be a strake there, but alas, Airfix forgot that detail. It probably would have broken off anyway.
I attached the tailplane after
I painted it and the fin/rudder after they were painted. The tail struts are only partially correct: there should be
the two included plus another four thinner ones. I'm actually glad they weren't included. They'd never have survived
being cut off the sprue.
Above: This view of the empennage shows the two struts that Airfix provided. Three times that many
are really supposed to be there. You can also see why I needed the extra support for the tailwheel.
Why my Tin Goose is Different:
The
problem with the Trimotor is that it is a very pedestrian subject as far as I'm concerned: most of them were silver!
What I really wanted was a very obscure paint scheme. I thought I had found it when I saw some decals that were for
sale depicting a Bolivian machine from the Gran Chaco war of the mid 1930's. Unfortunately, the picture on the decal
sheet was only black and white, and I don't know what colours the plane should have been in. Thus, I was stuck.
However, I really wanted a military Trimotor in some sort of camouflage.
It turns out that those are pretty rare.
However, thanks to SteveN and RCAFfan at the Modeling Madness forums, I became aware that a single Trimotor had been used by the RAF during the middle of 1940. Thanks to their research,
I found out that Trimotor G-ACAE, originally registered to A.E. Guiness of Dublin, was impressed into service in June 1940,
and flown to both Norway and into Dunkerque during the retreat. It served with 271 Troop Transport Squadron with the
number X5000 and was based at Doncaster Civil Airport. Unfortunately, the plane didn't last long, and Mr. Guiness' plane
was written off at Limavady Airport after it was run into a ditch during a take off.
Above: This shows serial number X5000 in a paint scheme similar to what the real plane most likely wore
during its brief RAF service.
No one else seems to know much
about this plane, and it seems that only a single black and white photo of the bird, from just behind the body roundel forward
on the starboard side, exists. Needless to say, this isn't much to go on, but I was really fired up by the chance to
do an RAF Trimotor! I'd never heard of it, and searches on the internet turned up no other models of this plane.
Unfortunately, there are some things about X5000 that differ significantly from the Airfix kit.
Building the
X5000:
The two most distressing differences were the shape of the rear door and the presence of wheel pants
on the X5000. Clearly, the markings were also a problem: I don't have spares British markings in my decal box.
All
I can say is: Huge props to SteveN!! This man (who works on Kalamazoo's Trimotor, just so you know), was kind enough
to send me the pants from his Italeri Ju-52, as well as a full set of decals, including custom made, laser printed, X5000
codes! It is no exaggeration that without this help, I would never have bothered to actually try and make a model of
the X5000 a reality.
The door, however, was something I had to deal with on my own. Cutting the right shape of
hole into the body was easy. The hard part was making a new door. Just so everyone out there understands, you
should all know that I don't have any sheet styrene lying around. It's never been a problem before, but it sure was
for this. Thankfully, I had the innards from a printer cartridge box, which was a very thin plastic. However,
I only had enough contiguously flat material to make 3 attempts at a door.
Above: This is my first attempt at making the door. Unfortunately, the styrofoam had too much give
in it, and the door just bent. I needed something a bit more solid; balsa wood was the answer!
First, I cut the sheet to the right
size and test fitted it. Once I had it right, I had to figure out how to get the corrugations in it. This was
achieved by first drawing in lines that matched the spacing of the tops of the ridges (local maxima, for all the mathematicians
and engineers out there). Then, I used the back of my Xacto knife to 'draw' in the ridges. I did this over some
spare balsa wood, so that the wood would deform under pressure, and create a ridge in the door. My first attempt failed,
but the second worked perfectly! I then mounted the new door to the old one, and cut the hole for the window.
I was overjoyed with this success, but then again, I hadn't built much else of the kit at that point.
Above: This shows the final door in the Goose's fuselage. It fit very well, actually.
In the one picture of the X5000,
there appear to be curtains in the windows. This was a godsend, since it meant I could cover the windows and not have
to build any of the interior. I used some white material that my grandmother found in her sewing supplies for this purpose.
I glued in the windows (once the body's sides and floor were together) and then white glued the material behind the windows,
applying glue on the over hang above and below the glass area. Again, this was very successful. So far, so good.
Once
I put the wings on, though, things went wrong. The cockpit glass was cracked when I got the kit, and promptly broke
during test fitting. I'm sure you can imagine the thrill I felt at that. Unfortunately, the crack runs right through
one of the overhead windows, which looked terrible. I therefore decided just to 'blank out' the two inner overhead windows.
After gluing, sanding, filling and polishing the glass, I white glued it in place and custom cut Tamiya tape to mask the remaining
glass areas. There were no bars left to indicate what was frame.
Upon installing the wing, the glass cracked,
AGAIN. It would do this TWO MORE TIMES during construction. Eventually, I got so pissed off that I just filled
and stand the glass, and decided to delete all but the triangular forward overhead windows. It's not authentic, I admit.
However, it was a choice made easier in the face of consistently eroding sanity. Likewise, the two rounded windows behind
the flight deck (which are curtained on my plane) don't exist on the 5-AT-D model of the Trimotor. However, to just
paint them over would have looked worse than leaving them as glass (there'd be no corrugations on them), so I opted to do
just that.
Above: You can see the 'curtains' very
clearly in this shot. Also, you can see the windows behind the cockpit that shouldn't be there on this model Trimotor.
Regardless, I put curtains in them anyway.
To add further unpleasantness to
the build of the X5000, the landing gear V struts showed a marked tendency to BREAK. All four attachment points to the
body broke at some time, and I am living in fear of the day that they give out again, sending my finished kit once and for
all to the same fate that befell the real X5000. Is it a curse?
Painting the X5000:
Here
again, SteveN came to my rescue. Completely out of the goodness of his heart, he drew and coloured a cammo plan for
the X5000 and posted it on Modeling Madness. I assume it is based on the British standard scheme (at the time) for multi-engined
aircraft. This plan showed the top, bottom and starboard side. I had to make up the port side cammo myself.
The
most shocking part of the paint scheme to me was the yellow underside! I always thought it was only for trainers, but
SteveN, RCAFfan and my own research showed that impressed civil aircraft also received this treatment. While the thought
of shooting more yellow didn't appeal to me (I had just finished my Zaku II HB, and was kind of sick of yellow), I have to admit that there was something bizarrely attractive about the paint scheme.
For
all undersides, I used Tamiya X-8 Lemon Yellow. The brown was done next using Gunze H37 Wood Brown. The green
was Tamiya XF-13 (lucky!) J.A. Green. I know purists will rag on me for not using standard RAF colours. Well,
those colours are the closest I had in my paint locker, and I certainly wasn't going to go splurging for new paints just for
this beast. Besides, the end result is pretty nice, if I do say so myself.
Unfortunately, the decals Steve sent
me did not do the job. They were far too thick to adhere to the corrugations. I don't have any decal set, and
have never needed it before now. However, I really could have used some on this kit. Despite this, Steve's decals
were handy: I used the dimensions to draw and print my own decals using Testors decal kit. These still didn't conform
perfectly, but given that two or three layers of decal were needed to get the colour right, they did a remarkable job.
The
engine cylinders were brushed black, then drybrushed silver. The exhaust pipes were done in Testors 7ml Aluminum, then
black washed, then painted with a Testors Model Master acrylic red-brown to simulate rusting. Then, one final black
wash was applied. I was appalled to find that the front engine exhaust pipes didn't fit at all well into the cylinders
like they're supposed to. The only recourse I had was to fit the pipes into the spaces between the cylinders.
Again, this was for sanity's sake, primarily.
Above: This "worm's eye view" shows all
the colours on the X5000 to good effect, as well as the aging on the exhaust pipes and dry brushing on the cylinders.
Conclusion:
This
kit represents the very extremes of modeling, for me. On one hand, I have never been so frustrated, infuriated and physically
sickened by the crappiness of a kit. I have also never been so sick of a kit when I was finished, nor have I been so
unhappy with the finished product for quite some time. On the other hand, this kit showed me that the modeling community
is a very close-nit, friendly and helpful one. For that, I am grateful.
I wanted to give up on this project
a lot. However, I felt that if I did, I would be slapping everyone who helped me in my quest to build this plane in
the face. I was not willing to so cavalierly disregard the help of so many and the kindness of SteveN in particular.
For their help, discussion and insight on this project, I am truly blessed.
Unfortunately, I don't feel that
the end product is as good as the sum of its intentions. The decals aren't that great, even now, and some fit issues
were insurmountable. While I am generally pleased with the result, and I am glad to see such a rarely discussed bird
gracing my shelves, I can't help but feel that the finished kit is somehow inadequate. I really did put all my skill
into this plane, but I am left with the impression that my work may have fallen short. If I have disappointed anyone,
I do apologize. There's just not much else that I could do with this kit. That's not an excuse, just an explanation.
It
seems that the Airfix Trimotor is not a kit you see built that often these days. I can certainly see why. It is
a horrible kit, with no
redeeming features whatsoever. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend it to anyone, except
those who have a soft spot for Ford's wavy-skinned workhorse. I always try to find a silver lining when I build a crappy
kit. Unfortunately, all I can put as an epitaph for the Trimotor is this: "It's finally done. Maybe I won't see
it in my dreams anymore."
I hope that someone out there will enjoy looking at my model more than I did building it.
Of course, if you look at the pictures and your eyes don't bleed, then you have already enjoyed it more than me.
Above: This view of the Trimotor
almost makes it look relaxed. Too bad its impossible to relax while building it!
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