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BAC

This week is another aircraft. As aircraft are by far the most popular subjects I'd thought I'd alternate each week.

Here's the old Airfix DC-3 Dakota and the modified tool to the AC-47 Gunship.

Here's what the History section says about each,

Dakota;
Douglas DC-3 Dakota 483/04003-1
1/72 scale. Available from 1960 to 1973. Retooled as 04016 AC-47 in 1973. Also issued by Plasty (Germany) as kit series 1644 number 3 (1960s), by Airfix Corporation of America as kit number 2-98 (1963 to 1966), by Airfix Craftmaster (USA) as kit number 1407 (1966 to 1969) and by MPC (USA) in the Profile series as kit number 2-1512 (1971 to 1973?). R Humm

AC-47 Gunship
Douglas AC-47 Gunship 04016-7/9 04016/05020
1/72 scale. Retooling of 483. Available from 1973 to 1982. Listed for reissue in 1985 as 9 05020 but not released. Reissued in Series 5 from 1986 to 1991. Also issued by MPC (USA) in the Bonus series as kit number 2-0204 (1976 to 1978) and as kit number 1-4308 (early 1980s) and by USAirfix as kit number 50010 (1980?).

So, the 'Gunship' is a re-tool of the original 1960 kit. A few of Airfix's kits have been 're-tooled' (Hawker Hart to Demon, Vickers VC-10 to K2 Tanker to name two) but what does this mean? What did they do to the DC3? Not very much really.

Here's some sprue shots. The original Dc-3 kit is the one in the darker silvery grey plastic, the AC-47 is the paler kit.

The difference with the fuselage appears just to be an added beacon on top of the tail, a couple of venturi under the cockpit windows and the rear windows shortened.

This sprue is the same except one of the three fuselage machine guns has been added.

No changes here!

The changes here are the floor has been lengthened to accomodate the machine guns and the crew figures are different. (And a broken prop on the old kit!)

This final sprue shows the other two machine guns.

So there you have it, hardly any changes at all. A change of crew, three guns and the floor, a few small details on the fuselage and a decal change.

Here's the two sets of instructions,

The original 'wordy' ones!

Choice of 'Silver City' airliner or WW2 version. Note no paint numbers, just what colours to use.

Here's the later ones.

Just one version with colour call outs for the old Airfix range of paints.

What are they worth? Again it always depends on condition, box type and the 'mood' on the day but reckon on spending around £18-£33 for the original DC3 -mine was at the bottom end as most of the bits were loose in the box and a couple broken (anyone got a spare Dak prop?).
The later AC47 goes for around £12-£25ish.

I believe the tool for the AC-47 still exists but over the last few years Airfix has reboxed the finer molded ex Italeri kit.

Cheers!
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Flash Flash · Silver Star Joined: 16 May 2006 Posts: 2938

Thanks BAC !
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Does this count as a new signature?

johnwalker · Posted: Wed 03 Dec 2008 19:55 pm Post subject:

Nice summary. One other change to the AC-47 was the addition of 2 "modern" pilots (feet crossed, right arm extended style) replacing the original aircrew.

John
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BAC · Posted: Wed 03 Dec 2008 20:17 pm Post subject:

daniel7891 · Posted: Wed 03 Dec 2008 21:26 pm Post subject:

Another great one
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Cheers

Daniel

Owen · Posted: Wed 03 Dec 2008 21:31 pm Post subject:

There's a bit of family history in those AC-47 instructions, as my Dad was part of the team which redesigned them back in the day. The Dakota kit was one of them

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Owen
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" - Douglas Adams

Airfix Modelling SIG Member
Beyond the Box SIG Member

tempestfan · Posted: Thu 04 Dec 2008 08:06 am Post subject:

Thanks Brian !
One more small mod appears to be added hinges on the crew entry door.
I'm puzzled at the price qouted by you for the AC - I should have a look if I have some ACs to spare and post them on ebay UK...
The T4 versions come up regularly here, I'd estimate about one every two or three weeks, and the last two I bought - a very rare bilingual T5 version and a T6 - were somewhere in the 5 € region.
Standard C-47s on the other hand quite often go well above the 40€ line.
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Oh if I could just find the time to build ONE MORE model...

peebeep · Guest

avro683 · Posted: Thu 04 Dec 2008 17:02 pm Post subject:

Wonderfully nostalgic stuff. One could say, I suppose, rivetting.
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Tony

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BAC · Posted: Wed 10 Dec 2008 15:46 pm Post subject:

This would have been a good week to buy either of these kits off E-Bay. An older boxing of the DC-3 went for around £14 and an AC-47 went for just £5.99!
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Beaufighter · Posted: Tue 19 May 2009 00:44 am Post subject:

I can't believe I've only just noticed this thread. I'm thrilled to see that the much cheaper AC-47 is for all intents and purposes the same kit as the original DC-3 that I remember building in, indeed, about 1973. So if I want to repeat the experience it doesn't have to cost me collector's prices - excellent news.
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