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Tally Ho! 1/72 C-47 Dakota/Skytrain Part I & II

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

Considering how incredibly successful the C-47 was for many air forces over many years, it is surprising to discover the lack of decals for this famous plane.  These two sheets make up for that lack, providing markings for three aircraft each.  The first sheet has a pair of US C-47s and one British, while Part II has one Soviet, one Czech and one Israeli C-47.  Both sheets are very well printed with excellent register and bright solid colors.

Taking a closer look at Part I, the first US example features a reclining nude woman on the nose above the name ‘Classy Chassis’.  Painted in olive drab over neutral gray with medium green splotches along the trailing edges of the flying surfaces, this plane flew with the 55^th Troop Carrier Squadron out of Mindoro Island in December of 1944.  The name ‘Jungle Skippers’ is printed in white along the fuselage.  The second US example is also finished in olive drab over neutral gray, but this one is from Europe and comes with the requisite invasion stripes on the fuselage and wings.  The upper surfaces of these stripes have been overpainted with olive drab, but only slightly.  Named ‘Turf and Sport Special’, this C-47 from the 61^st TCS took part during Operation Market Garden in September of 1944.  The final example in Part I is a British Dakota Mk. I of 267 Squadron out of Egypt in 1942.  It’s finished in dark earth and middlestone over azure blue.  A winged horse is in black on the nose.

Part II offers some interesting examples that are further away from the mainstream.  Starting with the easiest one, the Israeli example is camouflaged in the three-color sand, brown and light green scheme over light blue.  Black bands are on the wing undersides where the exhaust stains would be.  There’s not much else on this scheme, mainly being white numbers.  The second example has a simpler camouflage, being the Czech C-47 finished in dark green over light blue.  The wingtips and underside of the nose is painted in white and the code letters of D-25 is in white on the fuselage sides and repeated in black underneath the wings.  The final option is the Soviet example and you’ll have a bit of work to do on this one as it has a dorsal turret fitted on the fuselage.  The camouflage is standard US olive drab over neutral gray, with the US markings painted out with Russian paints (green for the fuselage & wings and blue for the lower wings).  Stars are on the fuselage and tail as well as the undersides of the wings.

Both sheets include a complete set of stenciling for one aircraft, with the stencil instructions being included as a separate piece of paper.  This keeps the main instructions clear of too much clutter, and makes it possible that Tally Ho! Might come out with a stand-alone sheet of C-47 stenciling.  If you’ve got some Italeri C-47 kits and are wanting something a bit different for them, grab these sheets.