1/72 Revell Transall C-160D 

by Thomas Neuss

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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.

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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.

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Photos and text © by Thomas Neuss