Most modelers prefer that the camouflage and markings on their models be historically accurate, but we rely on someone else to do the grunt research work. Before I went to Vietnam, I was already a modeler and IPMS member. I had a WWII modeler friend and mentor, Joe Lynch, who advised me to take lots of photos of anything I might want to build a model of when I came home. He said there was no way I’d remember serial numbers and exact colors and so on, and he was right. Luckily, just before coming home, I remembered, bought a camera, and took photos from every angle of the helicopter I flew in the most. I didn’t get to take many other photos, as I got the camera too late into my tour. I don’t think it mattered as I didn’t really have many photo ops since my eye was supposed to be looking thru a gunsight, not a camera lens. At this point, I was “getting short” – I only had a couple months left to my tour.

What's in the Box

The box, with a very nice photograph of one of the featured aircraft in pristine condition on the top, is crammed full of plastic and is a typical example of Hasegawa's practice of getting the most out of their molds. There are two sprues specifically identified for the TA-4, one labeled "A-4M,” with the remainder of the plastic sprues being labeled "A-4." There is an additional sprue of a material, identified as "UR," that has a tail pipe extension and blade antennas specifically for an Israeli TA-4. The kit instructions recommend CA glue for these parts, so they're probably not plastic, yet they come on a sprue and feel and cut softer than resin or plastic. For purposes of this review, right or wrong, I'll call them urethane. Since there are parts for different A-4 versions, there will be parts left over.

Weapon History

Developed in the late ‘60s to replace the M134 7.62mm mini-gun then in use on lightweight helicopter gunships, the M197 20mm 3-barrel rotary cannon is found primarily in the chin mounted turret of later AH-1 Cobras. A derivative of the M61 cannon found on nearly all US fighters since the F-104, the M197 trades 6-barrels and a higher rate of fire for lighter weight and stopping power gained with a 20mm round. The M197 is still in use today on the Cobra, specifically the AH-1W and AH-1Z operated by the USMC.

Kit Contents

More than just an aftermarket part to superglue in place, the Model Master M197 is a very detailed miniature model kit, with extra emphasis on the miniature! The kit is highlighted by three beautifully turned cannon barrels, a small photo etch fret, and an impossibly small bit of brass representing the center nut. My particular kit was packaged with an extra center nut.

This Special Edition dual kit is a re-release of Hasegawa’s DC-3/C-47 kit with decals included to build two variants of the L2D “Tabby,” the Japanese copy of the C-47, and one USAAF C-47. The parts are typical Hasegawa – molded in gray and with super detail. On my sample, something apparently happened to the C-47 during packaging because it had what looked like tank tracks across the left vertical fin, and the antenna and pitot masts were bent horizontal. It all turned out OK with some putty and re-scribing. The kit could use the addition of some details – there are no exhaust stacks, for instance.

The L2D kit has the World’s Smallest Resin Part included for the antenna cover atop the forward fuselage – and that pretty well typifies the main issue I had with these kits: size. The builds are straightforward, but some of the smaller parts are so tiny, it’s difficult to hold them and clean up sprue nubs, sand off mold seams, and so forth.

Vintage Flyer is a relatively new decal company producing airline decals from the late 1930s to the late 1960s, according to their website. This review is for their Santa Fe Skyway DC-3 decals in 1/144th, which is quite interesting as Santa Fe Skyway was not around for long at all! These decals will be used on a Minicraft DC-3.

The decals come in a standard Ziplock-type bag. They are Alps printed and come with at least one coat of sealer on them, but adding another coat couldn’t hurt. They are crisply printed on three separate sheets. One sheet contains solid white decals as the underlying base for most of the colorful decals. There is another sheet that contains all the black markings. Finally, the third sheet has the colorful artwork on them, such as the Santa Fe logo. This will lead to a lengthy decal process, as you should let each decal cure before adding another one on top of it.