Herpa French Air Force Transall C-160 1/500
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Wings900 Reviews Military Aircraft
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Thursday, 09 July 2009 |
Description
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The Transall C-160 is a french/german cargo turboprop introduced in 1967, and designed primarily to for the military. Unlike it's bigger american cousin the C-130 Hercules, it had a limited success, with 214 units built. It is however much loved and praised by the french and german air forces airmen. The Transalls were to be replaced by the long awaited Airbus A400M a while ago, but the "long awaited" part make them fly until now. Besides the air forces of the manufacturing countries, the south african air force operated a large fleet of this model, and the turkish air force still does. The little model surely deserves a genuine interest and a thorough inspection. The reader is asked to forgive me for having skipped the research concerning the exact wing our little friend belonged to. Enjoy the review.
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Model Details
| | Manufacturer:
Airline: French Air Force
Make: Transall
Model: C-160
Scale:
1:500
Part Number: 20352
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Model Review
| | Mould & Assembly: A very good mould, given the size. The characteristic silhouette of the Transall, especially the aft part, is easily recognizable, and the tail is nicely done. I was afraid that a model with a high wing plan (i.e. fixed to the upper part of the fuselage), the infamous HerpaSeam (TM) would be much more visible for being on top and not under the belly, but in this case it is hidden surprisingly well.
The nose is very realistic, and so are the cockpit windows.
The main gear, the bulby main gearbays, and the engines are very well done. The front gear is also good, with a nice bending to the aft, but on the real Transall the wheels don't completely clear the gearbay when it is on the ground, even when it is empty. On the model, it is completely out, with some scaled centimeters to spare.
Once again, the tail, being nicely done as I mentioned, could have been much nicer if the fuselage had a lowered emplacement to place the tail in. That could have avoided the visible gap at the beginning of the wing root.
A more important issue would be the fact that on all the pictures of the 64-GQ I saw, the plane had an enormous tubular probe (conduit) over the cockpit for inflight refueling. I couldn't find out if this was present on the plane from the beginning of it's career, or if it was installed after some update. It would be really a shame it the first case was true, because Herpa could choose from a myriad of other french Transalls, without the conduit, to represent.
Realism: Exact colors, polices and symbols. Herpa's standards didn't disappoint, once again. Even the curves of the camouflage paintings are exactly the same. The tips of the propeller blades painted in yellow are cute AND realistic.
Details: Military planes in camouflage colors are usually immune to HN/FS (Herpa Naked Fuselage Syndrome). So it is the case here, and the model has all the needed details to make it look realistic and pleasant to examine. I cannot see any important detail that wasn't represented.
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Pluses
| | Unusual airplane and operator
Good mould overall
Realistic paintscheme
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Minuses
| | Real counterpart (always or after an upgrade) was equipped with refueling probe
Front gear a millibit too high
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Photos
Editor review: Bonjour Transall
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
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| Overall rating |
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8.3 |
| Mould & Assembly |
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9.0 |
| Realism |
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8.0 |
| Details |
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8.0 |
| Overall Impression |
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8.0 |
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