Wings900 - Herpa Wings Berlin Airlift 60th Anniversary Set DC-3/C-47A SCENIX 1:500

Within its Scenix Edition series, Herpa is releasing a diorama set to mark the 60th anniversary of the start of the Berlin airlift, which will take the onlooker back audio-visually to the dramatic times of the blockade. From June 24, 1948 until May 12, 1949, The Soviet Union blocked all access roads via water and land to the Western sectors of Berlin to force the western allies to pull out of Berlin, which the Soviet Union claimed for itself. They then provided the West-Berlin population via air with food and coal. Three C-47 models of the US Air Force – among the also the legendary “Camel Caravan To Berlin” with the hand-painted camel “Clarence” on the fuselage as well as “The Berlin Train” whose original is now displayed on the premises of the former Rhine Main Air Force Base near Frankfurt /M. – sound their unique engines in front of the Tempelhof airport scenery. With the historic plea of former mayor Ernst Reuter to the “Peoples of the world”, a speech by US president Harry S. Truman and an excerpt from the reporting by the Deutschen Wochenschau of the time, these dramatic months come to life again. The set is limited to 1,200 items.

Model Details

Manufacturer: Herpa

Airline: US Airforce
Make: Douglas
Model: DC-3
Scale: 1:500
Part Number: 461498

Model Review

Mould & Assembly: Three models, one mould. It is a good mould, certainly for this scale. The Douglas DC-3 is not a very big plane, so donwnsizing it makes the characteristic elements on this plane difficult to keep in the right proportions. I think Herpa succeeded very well in creating a replica of the original plane. Small remark on the nose: I think it could be more pointed. But perhaps I can't see it right on the provided pictures.

The assembly on the "green" model is perfect. The green paint hides the place where the wings are attached to the fuselage. On the "chrome" models, this is more visible, but even there it is nearly invisible.
Realism: From a (small) distance the realism is great, more in detail there are some small issues.

My biggest concern is the back landing gear. Way too big. It looks like the solution Herpa has chosen for the 1/1000-scale: a gear-and-wheel-in-one and then make the wheel out of paint. It is just not very nice to look at.

The front gears are very well made. I believe this represents the best possible in this scale.

An other small issue are the cockpit- and other windows. Because of the lack of windowframes they are hardly visible. These windowframes aren't on the real plane, but in this scale, no frames makes the windows difficult to see.

Further details include the propellor tips and engine-fronts in realistic coloring. Even the registration number is there. In all a very "real" model.
Details: A nice touch is the well-placed "The Berlin Train"-marking on the nose of the green model. It is good to see Herpa take care of such small but important details. The "Camel Caravan" features the same beautifull markings in high detail.

Pluses

details in livery
good mould
assembly

Minuses

rear landing gear
windows

Photos

Editor review: Three nice historic models

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful


Overall rating		7.0
Mould & Assembly		8.0
Realism		6.0
Details		7.0
Overall Impression		7.0

Three nice historic models, good mould and enough detailing. There are some small issues that could be better, but in total it is very much worth getting. If you like diorama's, that is.

I can understand the dioramabuilding by people as a hobby, but these prefab diorama's from Herpa have to fit all your needs at once if you have to pay this much for it. What i really do not understand is the sound button. I personally think it is a bit childish to push that button and listen to some sounds while looking at your prefab-diorama.

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