Civilian hell...

... or review build: Roden, Carvair ATL98, 1/144.

I understand that Hollywood stars refer to the non-actor world as 'the civilians'. I refer to the 'stars' as degenerates who are part and parcel of the decline of the West. But that's neither here nor there, as here is...

civilian model hell.

I've had a short run of 1/144 kit bashing recently - Tupelov 'Badgers', Vickers Valiant - so I thought that I would go for an interesting civilian 1/144 in the shape of the Carvair. This was a British conversion of the Douglas DC-4, turning that passenger aircraft into a car and passenger carrier for the days when one might think of taking the Rover, Jag, or Austin Cambridge, over to the Continong (Europe, that is) by air. It was the bright idea of Sir Freddie Laker, a rather famous, and innovative figure in British post-war aviation, whose efforts to bring cheap air travel to the masses were crushed by the dead hand of state-sponsored airlines.  So, what do Roden give us in 1/144:

 

A rather nice bit of box art, very atmospheric, top banana.

 

In addition to the wings and fuselage, three sprues of softish, grey plastic. These make up into:

 

Touch where it fits hell!  Yes, I forgot to mention that despite my repeated assertions to the contrary, I've been messing around with a short-run kit again! O me miserum. 

 

Just look at those gaping trenches in the fuselage halves and the wing roots.

 

 

But, things got worse....

 

 

To be continued...