Broplan 1/72 Boeing Model 80A-1
Catalog No. MS-106
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History
Another acquisition from my trip to Portugal, the Broplan Boeing Model
80 was the first thing I saw upon entering the model shop. This kit was
discussed on the Wings of Peace Yahoo group shortly after it was released
and was high on my want list. Broplan kits are not easy to come by in
the States, so Carlos was kind enough to let me have this one.
Rather than give a history of the Boeing Model 80, I will instead direct
you to Jim Schubert’s Internet Modeler review of ‘Flying
the Boeing Model 80’, which is the single best reference for
this kit.
The Kit:
The Broplan Boeing Model 80 is a lovely vacuform kit, one of the best
that I have seen. It comes in a nice side opening box and contains five
medium sized sheets, three bags of injected parts, a very nice canopy
and, unusual with vacuform kits, three very nice decal sheets which give
you all of the complex trim markings to build NC224M.
The five plastic sheets provide both fuselage halves and wing spars,
wings and tail surfaces, upper wing center section (including fuel tanks),
bulkheads, engine nacelles, wheels and mudguards. All of these are very
well molded with nice surface detail. The vacuformed canopy is also very
nice and quite clear.
The bags of injection molded parts are, on the other hand, a bit crude.
Struts, propellers, Townsend rings, and tail surfaces to make the tri-tailed
Boeing, clear acetate, exhausts and landing gear and tail wheel are all
provided, some in duplicate. Another bag contains three Pratt and Whitney
‘Hornet’ engines of acceptable quality. All of these parts
will require major clean up and some bits may be better to scratchbuild.
No interior is provided for the passenger compartment and precious little
is provided for the cockpit. Little is seen of either of these, so it
is up to the modeler to decide how much work they want to put into these
areas.
I don’t know why it is, but I am always a bit more disappointed
to find poorly molded detail parts in a vacuform than none at all.
Still, the decal sheet makes up for the few shortcomings of this kit;
it is really beautiful and will make this kit outstanding as well as a
good bit easier than having to come up with all of these markings on your
own. Boeing logo, registrations, window trim, fuselage trim, tail trim,
cowling trim, all are provided. The modeler will have to create white
decal (or paint) bases for the Boeing logos, but otherwise a complete
set of markings. The decal sheet should be sprayed with at least two coats
of clear acrylic prior to use.
Conclusion:
As with all vacuforms, this kit is a project and will take some time,
care and dedication to build, but Broplan are to be congratulated for
giving modelers a stunning starting point. This is not so much a complex
kit as it is a complex aircraft. When finished, the French Grey, International
Orange and Dark Boeing Green biplane tri-motored airliner will be an amazing
model to be sure!
Broplan kits are available from Aeroclub in the UK.
Here is a completed
model of this kit built by Jim Lund
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