The SAAF Forum

Here's the Trumpeter 48th scale Dak. Started the build last weekend. Nice kit with lots of detail.

This is the cabin interior with some of the detail



This is a pic of the wheelbays - looks quite accurate from pics I have of the Museum Dak

Very nice detail, looking forward to see it later

Theuns

Almost a pity to close the fuselage!

Remember the Revell/Monogram kits with the transparant fuselages?

Ja, this Trumpeter kit is a bit of an odd one. Looks like there'll be major fit problems, fuselage halves warped. Also the engine nacelles are totally incorrect and are basically cyclindrical and do not taper towards the front like the real thing - apparently Trumpeter used a Li-2 as a sample (Russian copy of C-47 with different engines). But Hannants to the rescue with the correct shape resin nacelles from Quickboost and R1830 resin engines from Airies !

Hmmm,, ... thanks for the heads up will have a closer look before purchasing this kit, have been eyeing up the Condor as well.

Besides the engine difference the Li-2 also had the door on the left handside and a dorsal turret option if I remember correctly.

Hi W407594F. The kit is not that bad. The surface detailing is nice as well as the undercarriage detail. The rest of the kit is definitely a DC-3/C-47. It seems to be just the engine nacelles - even the oil coolers beneath the nacelles are C-47 style with nice photoetch inserts to replicate the tubing. The only other fault I can find is that the rear starboard window (where the toilet is) is located ahead of the toilet cabin on the model. It's something I think I'll leave as is ......

The Li-2 also had extra cockpit window and another cargo door.

Here's the Airies resin engine - fresh from Hannants !!



This is going to be fun - look at all the individual parts.

Cockpit interior completed and painted in sick green and odd beige - this is what they really looked like inside !!

Myriad of seatbelts was fun to glue into place. Each one bent into a different shape.... Bulkhead details not entirely correct for SAAF Dak but won't really be visible anyway.



Navigator's station will be totally lost once inside fuselage.



Some random pastelling to simulate structure - not too much will be seen once enclosed between fuslege halves



Trumpeter provided a nice printed acetate sheet simulating the instrument dials - unfortunately, the instrument panel is too thick - anyway, I don't think much will be seen anyway due to limited view into the cockpit.

Toilet window - on Trumpter kit, it's located in the main cabin. This is incorrect and must be moved to behind the rear main cabin bulkhead.

Many irritating punch marks had to be filled and sanded down - if not, these are quite visible through the rear open cargo door :

And now for the part I really am not looking forward to - the Eduard photoetch flaps. Dropped flaps are a prominent feature of Daks and thus the need for better detail than provided in the kit :

Here's the photo etch sheet :



Some of the inserts partially bent and assembled :



Mods to the kit flap bays include removal of plastic frames :

Here's the corrected engine nacelle from QuickBoost :

Mmmmm.... that does make a diferrence.
Looking forward to the engines with some paint on.

Cheers

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IIRC those seats in the "line dak" were made from fibreglass and very uncoumfortable
Interesting that on the full size Dak there is no main spar running through the inner and outer wing sections,you can see on the models asweel, it has a substantial flange that holds the sections together with a load of carefully torqued bolts!
Same on the Spammy.

Have you made up your mind as to the final collours? Cammo, dazle dak or dakelton?

Theuns