I didn’t do a work in progress for this, probably a good thing. I started it back in April after I finished Mini MMB. But it sat all summer, fall, and even part of winter before I got back to working on it. The fit on this kit was not up to par with most other Italeri kits I have done. There was a lot of putty, sand, prime, repeat done on the wing root seams, and the main fuselage seam on the underside. It has raised panel lines, so whatever I sanded away I just scribed. I thought once I got done with the paint it would be smooth sailing. I should know better than that by now. There weren’t many decals, but boy were they a pain. They looked great, so I assumed I have no problems. Well the glue was very thick and opaque, almost white. Luckily it dried clear. If you didn’t get the decal right where you wanted it the first time plan on moving it in peices, cause they tore very easily. Managed to get them on there, still not sure how. Took me almost all day yesterday to finish it up. The micro mask I used to mask the smaller windows gave me hell coming off. I poked a few windows back through the fuselage, and used micro crystal clear to make a new window. Overall I’m happy with how it came out.
1/72 and 1/144. I did the “Baby” one a few years ago, and just liked how it looked and wanted to do a bigger one. Again…what was I thinking?!
I have sometimes wondered about this kit in 1/72. Why? well I have had the exact same Wingroot problems and Bottom seam problems with my Airfix and AMT versions!
I almost wonder if they just didn’t share the mold around a bit!
Looks pretty good, Keyda. I usually just plan on those sort of frustrations with older Italeri kits.
I think I compared the Airfix and Italeri kits once and the fuselages were a bit different, but all I have are Airfix 1/72 kits at the moment. I know Scalemates says they are the same but I would differ as Airfix first issued the kit from there own molds, and then later issued the Italeri plastic under the Airfix label. I remember the Airfix having the correct corner on the lower fuselage side and that was missing on the Italeri kit. The kit No.'s with the early Airfix plastic that I have are MPC 1-4502, and Airfix Pattern 881 and kit no. 09001-0.
tempestjohnny, Thank you! It’s been around almost as long as me, lol. I was only 3 when this particular kit was molded. I do love my Hercs, but this one just seemed to fight me more than any other Herc kit I have built, and I’ve done a couple in the same scale.
Tanker-Builder, it is possible! This one just seemed so much worse than the others I’ve built in the same scale. I really should of reinforced the wing root seams, and I most certainly will when I build the DC-130 kit I have in the stash, it’s the same Testors box, so it’s likely the same mold.
Thanks Jeaton! I landed up buying the new Zvezda 1/72 Herc. We’ll see when it comes in how it is. It looked good in the pics, and seems to be the most accurate offering out there currently.
Yeah, Every kit of this I have built, no matter what scale, seems to have the wing-root situation. It’s almost as if they measured one model’s fuselage, then measured another model’s wing root area. They never seem to match up top to bottom. Ever !
