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In Formation’s 1/144 Convair CV-580

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

History

Designed for short-haul usage, the Convair CV240/340/440 was aimed at becoming a DC-3 replacement. American Airlines initiated the requirements, looking to replace its ageing DC-3 fleet. The resultant CV110 was too small so it was scaled up, becoming the CV240. A fuselage stretch created the CV340, while the CV440 had some aerodynamic changes done to it.

Convair wasn't finished with the type, though, and by mating an Allison turboprop to a CV240 the next generation of airliner was created. Different engines resulted in different designations, with PacAero in California creating CV580s from CV340 & CV440 airframes and using Allison engines. Convair, with their own conversion program, created the CV600 from CV240s and CV640 from CV340s & CV440s. These planes had Rolls Royce Dart engines rather than the Allisons found on the CV580s.

The turboprop Convairs are still seen in the skies today and will likely serve on for many years to come.

The Kit

This is an all-resin kit of the famous Convair twin and it’s been a long time in coming.  There has been few twin-engined small airliner kits out there, which is a pity considering how pervasive they were (and still are, in their modern regional jet and commuter turboprop versions).  This kit is molded in a white resin, with a total of forty parts.  A simple instruction sheet is also included with a few line drawings and plenty of text.

If you’re looking for a simple project this might be the kit for you.  The fuselage is molded as one solid piece, so if you’re one who wants to superdetail interiors, this isn’t the kit (or the scale, for that matter!) for you.  As far as accuracy goes, I’ve seen an in-between test shot of the fuselage and this final production example appears to have fixed all the things that I saw wrong, so I think we’ve got a pretty good CV-580 on our hands.  There are some very fine recessed panel lines on the fuselage, but they aren’t very deep and will likely disappear under a primer coat, so you’ll want to drag your scriber along these guys first.  The tail section is a bit rough, with a very large pour gate on the end, but there’s an included replacement tailcone for those who don’t want to bother with cleaning up that area after lopping off that gate.  In fact, that is doubly beneficial as those of you with a drill press could then drill out the fuselage to help cure the tail-sitting problem that this kit is bound to have.

The flying surfaces in this kit are nicely done, with recessed panel lines and beautiful detailing on the wings, especially around the ailerons.  The only real issue I have with any of these parts is with the vertical fin, as there’s no distinct line showing where to cut it off of the pour gate.  Definitely something to cut large and trim down.  The separate nacelles are very well done, with nice intake scoops suitably hollowed out.  There’s two types of propeller blades included, both Aero Products and Hamilton Standard.  Research your Convair and use the proper prop.  A quick glance shows the nacelles to be at slightly different angles to one another, but whether this will be visible once the wings are removed from the pour gates and attached to the fuselage I don’t know.  Also it appears that one nacelle is slightly smaller than the other (or slightly larger, depending on which way you look at it), so be prepared for a bit of filling work once you mount the separate nacelle front.  Some two-part sculpting epoxy would work perfectly for this (such as Milliput or Apoxy).

The undercarriage is also nicely molded and looks to be sturdy enough to hold the completed model, which will be rather heavy.  You might want to pin the gear with metal rod though, just to give it added strength at the attachment point.  The gear doors are thin and some care will be needed to not damage them in removing them from the pour gate.  All of the parts are very well packaged and nothing was damaged in transit, not even the thin prop blades.

The decal choice is for an early Frontier CV-580, with the decals printed by Draw Decal. These are ALPS-printed decals and are very well done. You'll have to cut out the excess film, but other than that these are thin and in perfect register. I'm sure that Draw Decal will be doing many more Convair sheets in the future, so be sure to check out their website.

Conclusion

While this is a nice kit, it definitely is not for the beginner resin modeler.  There will be a fair amount of work in cleaning it up and fitting it together, as well as the minor filling issues, all of which is accentuated by the fact that the majority of Convairs had ample areas of natural metal.  But with time and careful modeling (read: no weekend slammer) you’ll end up with a great example of one of those famous yet unsung aircraft of the civil aviation world.

Our thanks to In Formation for the review sample. For more information, visit the In Formation section of the Draw Decal website.