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Minicraft 1/144 FAA DC-3 N34

By Thomas Solinski

Minicraft Models Kit # 14538

I know Internet Modeler is a very family oriented site, but bear with me just a moment and please allow me to introduce you to my mistress.  In what most families would consider weird, my wife actually allows me to go off with my mistress for weekend trips.  Of course it helps that I’m 53 and my mistress is 64 years old. 

Here’s a picture of her with me at Oshkosh last year.

And here’s a shot of her waiting for me at work in the morning.

Oh, did I mention that she’s an airplane which makes the acceptance of her as a mistress lot easier on the family.

I fell in love with N34 the day I interviewed for my engineering job at the FAA office of Aviation System Standards in Oklahoma City in 1988.  I finished my interview, and I was feeling pretty good about it, and as I was walking back to my car I stopped to look at N34 parked between two hangars, and just as I stopped, they started cranking the #1 engine, followed shortly by the second.  If you’ve ever heard a pair of R-1830’s idling, you will know the music to my ears that I heard that day.  The only thought I had after that was “I have GOT to work here!”  Over the next 17 years I was fortunate enough to ride on N34 to one or two displays.  Since 2005 I have been responsible for the hands-on and contract maintenance for her and I act as the single point of contact in the FAA for arranging N34’s appearance at air shows across the country.

A Little History of N34

See this great article from the daily paper at EAA Air Venture 2008.

N34 is unique in that it has held all three of the designations it could hold as an Douglas Commercial aircraft. It was finished at the Douglas plant that is now Building 3001 at Tinker AFB OK, in May of 1945 as a USAAF TC-47B, S/N 45-77027.

The day after its completion through the miracle of government paperwork it became a US Navy R4D-7, BuNo 99856, lastly the FAA converted and modified the airplane to a DC-3 type II, SN 33359, flight inspection aircraft, used to calibrate all of the radio navigation devices in the U.S.  N34 is the only artifact on the National Registry of Historic Places that can come to you.

The Kit

The contents of this new kit are identical to later issues of the Minicraft DC-3/C47, which contain both Pratt and Whitney and Wright engines and nacelles.  I did a review of several of these a few months ago here in IM.

Sadly, the kit is a “universal” kit it still has the oddity of an eighth window on the right side of the fuselage, it has the standard airline configuration of a standard air-stair door and baggage door on the left side.  Lastly the vertical fin is still a touch too short and missing the characteristic rotating beacon.

Colors and Markings

I’ve ANXIOUSLY waited for this kit since 2002, and my biggest disappointment came shortly after I opened the box.  N34 is trimmed in a very dark shade of orange, roughly FS 122215.   There isn’t a picture out there on the web that doesn’t clearly show orange as the color on the stripes and the flight controls.  Minicraft’s decal makers managed to (at least in my copy) make the stripes and flight controls RED, not an orangey-red, just out right RED!  Hmmmph.

Furthermore, the marking depict N34 as she appeared prior to the last repaint in 2002.  The lower portions of the aircraft were covered in an aluminized lacquer finish, close in appearance to Testors Model Master Aluminum enamel.  After 2002 the lower half of the aircraft was painted in a gloss gray close to FS 16376. 

 

So, on one hand, thank you so much Minicraft for giving us a model of a still flying National Treasure.   But… you missed the mark by just thaaaat much.

        

Review of this kit (and the three others I bought) courtesy my wallet.