1/72 Khee Kha Art Products Cessna 185 Skywagon

Gallery Article by Alexandre Bigey on Aug 2 2013

 

 

This very accurate vac kit I had via http://www.mtaonline.net/~zdk/. It features vacformed main and clear parts plus a few resin items including those for 2 cowling and 3 prop options, as all sorts of C180 and 185 variants may be obtained from it. Thorough guidelines are included in the comprehensive instructions sheet and they are worth reading even by the experienced modeler. Extra items like cargo pod or floats are also available via the same producer as aftermarket resin parts. The basic kit features no decals but a limited amount of kits were reboxed by Arctic Decals / LN Decals with a couple of colorful liveries. To be checked via http://www.lndecals.com where decal sheets alone may also be obtained.

 

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During construction, everything may be done using the kit parts only but I provided my own spare box items for wing struts and wheels, the landing gear legs and cowl flaps being made from brass sheet. The flight controls corrugations are very well represented, but due to some damage I sanded off those on ailerons and flaps, to restore them using Archer Resin Decals O-scale louvers which I cut according to the flight controls geometry. The result was beyond expectations and the trailing edges are now as thin as can be.

On ebay I found the Ronin Decals for the beautiful TAA Sunbird livery but I'm afraid they were quickly discontinued, until someone else takes over as it often happens... This is about a 1962 C185A operated along the TAA Sunbird routes and Papua New Guinea until 1965. 

Alexandre Bigey

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Photos and text © by Alexandre Bigey