Douglas C-54D Thunderbirds
Platinum Edition

Revell, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Brett Green

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The Douglas C-54 Skymaster was a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and the Korean War. Like the Douglas C-47 Skytrain, the C-54 Skymaster was derived from a civilian airliner (the Douglas DC-4).

Besides transport of cargo, the C-54 also carried presidents, prime ministers, and military staff. Dozens of variants of the C-54 were employed in a wide variety of non-combat roles such as air-sea rescue, scientific and military research, and missile tracking and recovery. During the Berlin Airlift it hauled coal and food supplies to West Berlin.

After the Korean War it continued to be used for military and civilian uses by more than 30 countries. This was one of the first aircraft to carry the President of the United States and to assume the call sign Air Force One. *

* Historical summary courtesy of Wikipedia.

Revell released their 1/72 scale C-54D kit in 2015. This was fitted out in troop carrier and cargo configuration with bench seats and webbing along the cabin sidewalls.

A DC-4 version was offered in 2016, presumably in commercial passenger configuration.

Revell's has now delivered a Douglas C-54D in USAF Thunderbirds aerobatic display team markings. This is labelled as "Platinum Edition"

The kit comprises around 334 parts in grey plastic, 22 clear parts and decals for the one very colourful marking scheme.

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Thumbnail panels:

The "Platinum" element is four photo-etched frets. Three of these are pre-printed in colour.

This is an impressively big model, even in 1/72 scale. Surface textures are mainly very fine and crisply recessed panel lines.

Trailing edges of the separate control surfaces are impressively sharp.

Flaps may be posed dropped or raised too.

Interior detail looks very good. The cockpit features all the main elements including well-detailed bulkheads and consoles.

The cabin interor is totally different to the initial troop carrier / cargo release. The interior sidewalls are smooth and passenger seats are supplied.

The big cargo doors may be posed in a number of different open or closed positions. The forward cockpit entry door is a separate part too.

The engines look great, each featuring fine detail and six rows of cylinder banks, pushrods, manifolds and exhausts.

A number of different wheel options are provided.

Eduard's photo-etched frets are supplied in three different packs, each with their own instructions. They are not integrated with the kit instructions.

The colour photo-etched cockpit fret provides the big instrument panel, throttles and quadrants, pilot's and co-pilot's harness straps, control yokes and more.

The second part of the interior details provides two frets of in-scale red webbing and lap harnesses for bench seats, so you won't need these here.

Highlights of the exterior fret are the four ignition harnesses for the engines and undercarriage and wheel bay detail.

The clear sprue includes the side windows, each side moulded as one strip, making assembly easier and cleaner. The canopy features extremely fine windscreen detail, although it is likely that this part will be more defined when the final version of the kit is released. Other clear parts include several domes, windows and lights.

Markings for the colourful Thunderbirds scheme are provided on the big decal sheet. These have been printed by Cartograf.

All the markings are in perfect register on my sample.

This is a big, well-detailed kit of an important subject. The addition of Eduard photo-etch and thes colourful Thunderbird markings makes the model even more appealing

Revell model kits are available from all good toy and model retailers. For details visit www.revell.de/en, @RevellGermany or facebook.com/Revell

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