ANARE C-47 Dakota Conversion (for Italeri kit) - 1:72 Red Roo Models

[Paul A H]

ANARE C-47 Dakota Conversion (for Italeri kit)

1:72 Red Roo Models

The ANARE, or Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition, was borne out of the success of the British, Australian, New Zealand Antarctic Research Expeditions (BANZARE) which took place in the late 1920s and early 1930s. These expeditions were led by renowned explorer Sir Peter Mawson, who had been part of Shackletons Nimrod expedition in 1907 and had been a member of the party that was first to reach the magnetic south pole.

Although plans to expand these expeditions were put on hold by the Second World War, Mawsons enthusiasm was undiminished. As a result of his lobbying, the Australian Government committed to establish a permanent station on Antarctica in early 1947. By the 1950s, several permanent bases had been established and were being resupplied by a specially formed Antarctic Flight equipped with Auster and Beaver aircraft. In 1959, the flight re-equipped with a specially modified Dakota.

Modified by De Havilland Australia, the new aircraft was fitted with improved avionics and navigational equipment, as well as the all-important skis and JATO (Jet Assisted Take Off) bottles. Sadly, Ann Cheries (as the aircraft was christened) career lasted less than a year. During a particularly severe storm on the night of 8 December 1960, she was blown a full eight miles from Rumdoodle Base, where she was stationed, into a crevasse in the ice shelf. As it was considered impractical to retrieve her, she was abandoned to the elements.

This multimedia conversion kit has been produced by Red Roo Models in partnership with Hawkeye Models, also of Australia. It is comprised of a number of resin parts, as well as various lengths of brass rod, some silver coloured thread and a piece of mesh. A large decal sheet and colourful instructions round off the package. Everything is packed into a clear plastic bag, and despite the fact that some of the more delicate items are reinforced with wire, a couple of small parts were broken when I unpacked them. I think a sturdy cardboard box would be a better choice for a package such as this.

The main landing gear skis are comprised of the skis themselves, aerodynamic tailplanes and bracing wires to hold them in place. A resin jig is included so you shouldnt run into any difficulty lining everything up. The other resin parts include the rear tail ski, the fairing for the radio compass, the radome for the Marconi Doppler scanner, the oblique camera ports, the drift sight, the vertical camera port, the nose antenna fairing, the JATO bottles (reinforced with wire), the repositioned oil coolers and the plug for the gap where the oil coolers would be on an unmodified Dakota. The brass wire parts are used for various antennas and the sheet of mesh is used for the cargo net. The instructions are very comprehensive and there are plenty of drawings too.

The decal sheet is superbly printed and includes a decent selection of stencils as well as all of the national markings. The Ann Cherie moniker is faithfully reproduced, as is the ANARE skiing penguin character.

Conclusion

If this kind of subject floats your boat then youll be very happy with this conversion set. Alternatively, if you happen to have a spare Italeri Dakota lying around and dont know what to do with it, then this set should provide some inspiration. The resin parts are nicely cast (by CMR) and the decals look like they should perform very well. Overall I think this set can be highly recommended. If you want to see what the completed model will look like, follow the buy it now link to Red Roos website or check out the picture below, showing a completed model build by Peter Mahoney of Hawkeye Models.

Model by Peter Mahoney

Review sample courtesy of

[woody37]

Now that looks great on ski's

[Julien]

Not seen this one before. Looks great.

Julien

[Viking]

Wouldn't mind doing one of these, looks great.

[Romeo Alpha Yankee]

It is a lovely model, Peter is a mate of mine and master modeller (even if he does not admit it himself). I have one of these conversions waiting to be done.

Edited February 18, 2013 by TrojanThunder

[Ed Russell]

With My Red Roo hat on, thanks for the review. We are sorry about broken parts, let us know by PM what you need replaced as I assume you are going to make it. I'm afraid you got the crappy 'reviewer's copy' which, for ease of bulk shipping with other review products, didn't come in a box - the 'real' ones are in a sturdy cardboard box!

UK purchasers are in a better position than anyone to get one as we have just despatched virtually the last of them to Model-Craft, our UK connection. We were a bit surprised at how quickly they sold out.

[roginoz]

I'm in the middle of making this Red Roo converted DC3 as I post, and it's gone together very well. The resin parts require minimal work , just a light sand where they come off the posts, and look the goods.

Presently taking 5 to rest failing eyesight after "knitting" the ski limiting cables.

A word of warning, from my thusfar limited experience with the decals - the instruction sheet suggests soaking the decals for one minute. My experience

is that this would be far too long, in fact a quick dip in water to soak the paper, then a rest on tissue before application will be sufficient.

Gotta agree about the comprehensive instruction sheet.

Congrats, Red Roo !

[justplanecrazy]

I've got one and the resin is fantastic, looking forward to building it.

Nick

[Paul A H]

Just a timely reminder that the full range of Red Roo products are available from model-craft.co.uk. Visit http://www.model-craft.co.uk/ and get your order in!

[Robin]

Hi Ed R/R.

With regard to the ANARE Dakota, given the possibility that the Airfix ski's are the same, is there a possibility that you would market the decals on their own.

Robin.

[Ed Russell]

The Airfix skis are close to ours, which are standard US pattern skis, but not the same. We wonder if they looked at a preserved or still extant working one on a later version of the skis - they are never very forthcoming about their research though. Pity, as we could have helped them.

There are other items apart from the skis in the conversion kit - including fairing for the radio compass, radome for the Marconi Doppler scanner, oblique camera ports, drift sight, vertical camera port, nose antenna fairing, JATO bottles, oil coolers etc. so we wouldn't be doing anyone a service by just selling the decals.

The bad news is that we sold out very quickly, the good news is that we have enough decals to make a reissue. We have looked at the Airfix kit closely and considered whether to adapt our conversion to it. As we only have decals for another 40 items we thought it wasn't worth the considerable effort in modifying the masters. I am pretty sure an experienced modeller would not have much difficulty adapting our conversion to the Airfix kit.

For news on when the ANARE will become available again, go to our web site at www.redroomodels.com and sign up for the newsletter.

Unfortunately, at this time, we don't have a UK distributor since David at Model-Craft retired.

[Robin]

Ed.

Thank you for the information, good news on the future re-issue of the decals. I am sure, that given the excellent conversion information on your instructions, it would not be too difficult to construct the extra parts. Thanks.

Robin.

[Ed Russell]

given the excellent conversion information on your instructions, it would not be too difficult to construct the extra parts.

Even at a minimal value on your time I reckon you are better off buying them from us. We have had another look at the Airfix kit and re-inforced our conclusion above that it should easily make an ANARE Dakota in the right hands. Our next couple of DC-3 conversions will be suitable for both the new Airfix kit and the Italeri kit, which we expect will remain in production, and given the price difference, may be the model of choice for many anyway.