Minicraft

1/144 Boeing C-18/C-137/707-320

Kit Number: 14594

Reviewed by  Jim Pearsall, IPMS# 2209

MSRP: $30.99 Website: www.minicraftmodels.com The US Air Force and Navy, as well as a half-dozen foreign air forces have made use of new/used Boeing 707s. The original designation of the military 707 was C-137, but the last ones were different enough, particularly in the engines that they got the "new" designation C-18. The VC-137, Air Force One is probably the best known example, but the E-3 AWACS, E-8 Joint STARS, E-6 Mercury are all in US service, as well as 707 refueling aircraft for Canada and Brazil. There are 27 air forces listed on Wikipedia as 707 users. So if you want to really go for it, you could build this kit for the air forces of Benin, Angola, Portugal, Germany or Togo. When I heard Minicraft's C-18 was available for review, I jumped at the chance. I thought it might be the EC-18. As you can see from the accompanying photo, the EC-18 has a largely reworked nose. Having built an E-3 AWACS and seen the E-8 J-STARS and NATO AWACS from Minicraft, I was really hoping for a new nose section. When I received the kit, it is the same basic mold used for their 707, E-3 AWACS and E-8 Joint Stars. I resolved to see what aftermarket products could do to make this kit a better product. Aftermarket Products I found replacement engines at Airline-Hobby.com. They are from Contrails Models / InFormation. There's a review here. I also received the new 707 resin nose from Two Mikes Resin. The review is here.

The Kit The 707 / C-18 kit has some really good engineering features. All parts are flash free. This may not seem like kudos for a new kit, but this mold has a few miles on it. It's been well maintained. Assembly is pretty straightforward. Assemble the fuselage halves. Assemble the wings. Put the wings on the fuselage, add the horizontal stabilizers. Assemble and mount the engines. These are the first 4 steps. Then when you get to Step 5, you discover that you can't install part 15, the separator for the main landing gear well. It has to be put in back in Step 1. Additionally, there's another error in this step. The main gear doors should be closed when the gear is down. Then the build continues: Main Landing Gear Nose Gear Step 1, Fuselage Halves. Other than the need to put in part 15 at this time, the fuselage halves go together well. Because of the length of the fuselage, there is some need for putty along the top and bottom seams. After I completed this assembly, I cut the nose off and replaced it with the aftermarket part. Step 2, Wings The wing assemblies are probably the best part of the whole project. The wing tops and bottoms are well formed, with no warp. These parts go together very well, and require only a little work on the leading edges. Step 3, Wings and Horizontal Stabilizers Here again the wings are marvelous. The tabs go almost clear through the fuselage and interlock, giving a superior fit and great strength. The horizontal stabilizers are designed to fit with correct dihedral. I have trouble getting butt joints like these to fit cleanly, and at least one application of putty is necessary to get an acceptable wing root and stabilizer join. I painted the upper white area and the lower fuselage/wing/stabilizers ADC gray at this time. Step 4, Engines. For this build I didn't use the Minicraft engines. In the previous AWACS build, I found them to have poor fit, especially the bottom seams and the pylon to engine fit was poor. I bought a set from Contrails Models / InFormation. I'm still looking for a really great set of engines for the 707. The Contrails Models engines have problems with resin bubbles and voids, and I had problems getting the pylons to fit the wings. These items are covered in another review. I painted the engine interiors and exteriors, but held off assembly until later. Step 5, Main Landing Gear Well I had already installed Part 15, and I installed the gear doors in the correct (closed) position. The doors were a very tight fit, and I had to do some filing and sanding to get them to go into the openings. Even with all my experience, I manage to reduce one side too much, or to not make the edge straight. Putty is my friend. I left off installing the main gear until after I had finished painting and decals. Decals. The decals are really great. I did the C-18 which appears on the box art. It's identified as a T-18 in the instructions. I managed to get that black cheat line to exactly match the masked line between the white top and gray bottom of the aircraft. The markings went on well, and the instructions were very good. Minicraft includes 3 different US flags for the tail. Someone there is convinced that the same flag is used on both sides of the tail. I'm equally convinced that the blue field should be toward the nose of the aircraft. I base my conviction on my admittedly out of date copy of TO 1-1-4, paragraph 4-2(b). I did have a problem with the window decals. These decals run the whole length of the fuselage, and I fouled up royally when I touched the aircraft before these decals were fully dry. Fortunately there are other window decals on the sheet, and I may go back with tape and try to remove the screwed up section and replace it. I now have much more respect for the airliner modelers. Final Assembly I had previously painted and assembled the landing gear. The main gear goes in quite nicely, and is strong. It's also easy to get it square and straight, so all the wheels sit on the ground. The nose gear was slightly problematical, as I had cut the pins off, not expecting the Two Mikes gear well to be as deep as it was. Easily fixable. The final step was the probe on the top of the tail. I had to drill a hole for it, and have only knocked it off once. So far. OVERALL EVALUAION. Recommended. This is a good kit, although it does have some engine fit issues, and the cockpit shape leaves some room for improvement. But that's what the aftermarket stuff does for you. Any modeler with a couple of kits completed would be able to build an acceptable Boeing 707 / C-18 /C-137 from this kit. Now that I've used the aftermarket engines, my opinion of the Minicraft engines has come up several notches. Thanks to Minicraft for the review kit and IPMS/USA for letting me review it.