Revell-Germany

1/144 C-17

Kit Number: 04044-0389

Reviewed by  Rod Lees, IPMS# 10821

MSRP: ~$39.75 Website: www.revell.de I ordered this kit from A2Zee Models; (www.a2zeemodels.co.uk) Alistair had this kit to me in SIX days from Scotland to Sunny Oklahoma. Kit cost and shipping cost was extremely reasonable, due to exchange rates. I highly recommend A2Zee for fast service and "value for money", as excellent pricing used to be referred to when I lived in the UK. They also have some cool aftermarket resin and decals for Nimrods and other aircraft… This kit really got my attention when I learned it was being released. First, Revell of Germany have been producing excellent, accurate, reasonably priced kits for several years now. Second, they don't cost $100+ per kit. This C-17 is no exception. 1/144 scale is not my preferred size to work with, but it can't be beat for larger aircraft. When assembled, this kit is as big as a B-26 in 1/48th scale. It comes in a long end-opening box that crushes at the drop of a hat. Fortunately I had no shipping damage, so it was off to the workshop for prepainting.

120 light gray parts, 13 clear parts. The impressive interior includes interior details as separate panels for the cargo compartment, which line up beautifully with the fuselage halves. The wing carry-through box snaps into place, and everything lines up. The floor has engraved walkway and cargo pallet rail details; the decal sheet has a floor overlay so you won't go mad painting the no-slip walkways. Paint the floor aluminum, decal on, and you are done. The cargo compartment painting guide shows the upper portion of the interior as aluminum; my visits to the aircraft show the standard light /off-whitish interior green to be prevalent. Don't forget to paint the incorporated "up position" troop seats; these should be black, with off white belts. The cockpit section is simple; no control yokes, just seats. They can be very visible through the cockpit windows; the seats themselves are light blue, with dark blue-gray seat covers. I painted on shoulder straps with white paint. If you are into super detailing in this scale, dive in!

The wheel well sponson interiors are separate items; I left off the landing gear until I had finished painting the jet. The gear is a bit complicated as on the real aircraft; take your time and you will have four sets of gear with all tires on the ground. There were some gaps around the sponsons and the fuselage sides, but that's probably due to my poor building skills. The gear doors come ready to be installed in "Gear up" position; to display open, you must cut them. No problem, simply follow the engraved line. Wheel and tire assemblies are detailed for this scale; tough to paint 14 of the little buggers, but I got it done. The cargo ramp can be installed open or shut; it is hinged, and must be cut from the floor if you want it open. The door and interior are well detailed, with alignment pegs jutting from the aft portion and actuating rams in place.

Wings did not fit so well on my build; again, probably me. A bit of putty fixed the seam. The trademark "Winglets" fit well; I only lost one of the miniscule navigation lights during installation. (They are about 1/32" in length!) Engines are best assembled and left off until after you have painted and masked the side metallic areas, and the intake ring. I recommend the strakes that fit on both sides of the engines be left off until the aircraft is complete; makes it easier to mask the ring cowls, and they don't ping off into space so easily. I painted the leading edge bare metal areas with Tamiya bare metal silver from a rattle can; masked them before I installed the engines, which made my life easier. The engines fit perfectly. The cockpit window assembly is my favorite kind; it incorporates part of the fuselage aft of the windows, which means I can putty if required (it was) without destroying the windows. I like this type of engineering. Note to builders: The Bare metal areas on the aircraft are there because we AF maintainers found out early in the life of the jet that the thrust reversers would impinge high temperature gasses on these areas when operated, which tended to blister the paint. Titanium does not take paint well anyway, so the decision was made to keep them "Clean" bare metal. (They aren't deicing boots as other authors have stated; the C-17, like most modern aircraft, uses bleed air for heating and deicing the leading edges). You can have your C-17 painted any color of 36173 "AMC gray" you like. I used Tamiya's "Kure arsenal gray, TS 66" spray, which is an extremely close match according to my FS 595 fan deck, and looks the part. I have tried Testors Model Masters interpretation of this gray in the past, and thought it was too light. Tamiya gloss coat, and then… The only difficult part of the build: The decals. Markings for Charlston AFB, SC, or McChord AFB, WA are provided. On the paper they look great, wing walks and all major details are included… but even with total gloss coverage, I had difficulty with silvering. Started with Micro Sol; went to Walthers Decal solvent, and even resorted to the old trick of using Tenax 7 on them (Carefully!). I was able to finally get the majority of them snuggled down, after cutting, poking, and prodding… another gloss coat to seal them (and even out the finish; the decals have a flat finish), then Dullcoat and it was time to remove the masking. Verdict: Revell has a winner! Having built a large 1/72 resin C-17 (which took a year off my life), Revell's kit is the perfect blend of size, complexity, and detail. Could they be talked into 1/72nd scale? Hmmm… Only after they do a C-141B, please! If you are in the OKC area you can view this model at Freedom Hobbies in Norman. Review copy courtesy of A2Zee and my wallet…