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Why no 1/72 DHC-4 Caribou?


Mountain goat

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Hi,

The other day I was wondering why in the recent past I have had so much trouble obtaining a 1/72 kit of the venerable Caribou (which also, coincidentally, happens to be my favourite transport aircraft). 

 

As far as I'm aware only Hobbycraft from Canada has ever brought one out to relatively modern standards, but it seemingly disappeared years ago. Any thoughts among fellow Caribou enthusiasts on what the chances are of this kit returning to shop's shelves? Also, does anyone know what happened to the molds for this model kit?

 

Jay

 

800px-Royal_Australian_Air_Force_DHC-4_C

Pic by Bidgee

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18 minutes ago, Mountain goat said:

..........  does anyone know what happened to the molds for this model kit?

 

According to Scalemates  - https://www.scalemates.com/kits/kitech-08m-3214h-dhc-4-caribou--134895 - the moulds were with Kitech at some point.

 

Built the Hobbycraft release which was a straightforward enough kit and had a novel way of dealing with a lack of cabin detail by providing the seat back webbing as decals to be applied on the inside of the windows , the kit was however a dedicated tail-sitter and I seriously misjudged the weight required to avoid this.

Edited by Des
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The Hobbycraft kit was also released by Kitech.

 

It has its issues, the biggest if the wing diheral, but it looks like a 'Bou and is the only kit around. I will eventually build mine as a RAAF aircraft.

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The OzMods 1:48 'Bou is a stunner, and well worth having, but (a) it's a vacform, which may deter some, and (b) it may or may not be still available - it was re-released a wee while back, but I don't know whether there are any left.

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If I remember right all Hobbycraft moulds were made by others, mostly in Korea, so the mould for the Caribou may still be somewhere.

What remains to be seen is if any company may be interested in reissuing this kit. The market for a kit of the type is somewhat limited, the presence of an existing mould sure brings the cost down by a big margin, but it may still be a commercially dangerous bet for a company

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Caribou was in my opinion the best kit Hobbycraft tooled, and would like someone to re-release it, Kitech sold their toolings( like Revell's Rafale and Sabredog) to other companies before, as well as issuing them under their brand.

Btw, would like to see HC Beaver in both scales again, and Allison Mustangs in 32nd scale as well.

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The Hobbycraft Caribou has also been sold by Academy and then by Kitech....and was it good ? Well they did manage to do nine cylinders in the engine front and that should have been fourteen cylinders in two rows...

It never stopped me from buying a few (at one point i owned five of these) it looked like a Bou..

And i don’t think that we see it back soon but it would be welcome with these kits doing very silly prices..

 

cheers, Jan 

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9 hours ago, janneman36 said:

The Hobbycraft Caribou has also been sold by Academy and then by Kitech....and was it good ? Well they did manage to do nine cylinders in the engine front and that should have been fourteen cylinders in two rows...

It never stopped me from buying a few (at one point i owned five of these) it looked like a Bou..

And i don’t think that we see it back soon but it would be welcome with these kits doing very silly prices..

 

cheers, Jan 

Academy makes sense, as they made the moulds for several of the kits issued by Hobbycraft and a few of these are now in the catalogue of the Korean company.

Was the Kitech kit the same as the original HC in terms of quality ? All the Kitech kits I've seen were lower quality copies of other kits (mostly Academy), so I wonder if in this case too their kit was a clone or if this was from the same actual mould.

I remember that Hobbycraft kits varied quite a lot in quality, so while some were definitely from someone with good technology (like the ones reissued by Academy), others may have well been moulded by "less capable" companies, like Kitech. The Sabres compared well with Japanese kits from the day while the Arrow sure wasn't at that level and the Skyraider was very rough. Never built the Caribou so I wonder in which cathegory this fits

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You could always keep your hand in with the A-Model 144th kit.  Generally I stick to the one true scale but sometimes, with larger aircraft and airliners, I can be tempted in to 144th.  

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I have got  the A Model 1/144 built one in my collection  As mentioned for types that size I go 1/144 when poss.

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On 5/20/2019 at 9:15 AM, Giorgio N said:

If I remember right all Hobbycraft moulds were made by others, mostly in Korea, so the mould for the Caribou may still be somewhere.

What remains to be seen is if any company may be interested in reissuing this kit. The market for a kit of the type is somewhat limited, the presence of an existing mould sure brings the cost down by a big margin, but it may still be a commercially dangerous bet for a company

 

 

I agree reissuing a kit would bring costs and risks, but looking at the current market you see several companies bringing out much more obscure subjects -  if the current trend of appearance after appearance of types which have until now been forgotten holds up long enough, we might even see complete coverage of ALL aircraft types in 1/72.  🙂  In the 1/72 Transport aviation genre: Special Hobby brought out the C-212 Aviocar a couple of years ago and upon hearing that news I didn't think there would be a big appetite for that. But apparently it is good enough. And yes: different versions, different paint schemes, mean different markets.

 

Oh and look, talking about the Caribou and Aviocar... imagine this scene of them together in 1/72:

 

 

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14 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

Academy makes sense, as they made the moulds for several of the kits issued by Hobbycraft and a few of these are now in the catalogue of the Korean company.

Was the Kitech kit the same as the original HC in terms of quality ? All the Kitech kits I've seen were lower quality copies of other kits (mostly Academy), so I wonder if in this case too their kit was a clone or if this was from the same actual mould.

I remember that Hobbycraft kits varied quite a lot in quality, so while some were definitely from someone with good technology (like the ones reissued by Academy), others may have well been moulded by "less capable" companies, like Kitech. The Sabres compared well with Japanese kits from the day while the Arrow sure wasn't at that level and the Skyraider was very rough. Never built the Caribou so I wonder in which cathegory this fits

Kitech ( and Idea) used the same HC moulds without permission apparently. That made HC very unhappy and I believe that led to them withdrawing the moulds from use. I have seen all 4 issues of the kit and that are the same quality. Decals vary from kit to kit in most cases.

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I bought a 1/72 Bou some years ago but due to size restraints an seriously thinking of going for an A-models one & moving the 1/72 one on. Like @@Meatbox8 & @Paul J it makes sense size wise & for postwar military & airliners I'm increasingly thinking this way.

Steve.

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7 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I bought a 1/72 Bou some years ago but due to size restraints an seriously thinking of going for an A-models one & moving the 1/72 one on. Like @@Meatbox8 & @Paul J it makes sense size wise & for postwar military & airliners I'm increasingly thinking this way.

Steve.

Know the feeling.  I've got a 1/72 Nimrod and Shackleton awaiting their turn patiently (very patiently) in the 'paint shop'.  No idea where I'm going to put them once they're done. 

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Having flown in a 'Bou several times when I was in the Australian Army, it's STOL performance is quite incredible.   I have seen pictures of one taking off from a parade ground!  Lightly loaded it needed basically about 10 feet run up before it lifted off the ground.  I remember the second time I flew in one, coming back from an exercise.  The plane was painted white and had big UN titles on it's side - it had just returned from Kashmir where it had been part of the UN monitoring team.   The pilot flew the way he'd learnt to fly it there.  He started off down the runway and then bounced the plane into the air.  He took it up about 10-15 feet and slammed it down on the runway and away we went!  We left our stomachs behind up when the plane and away we went.

 

I have one HC 'Bou in my stash.  The prices are now ridiculous on EvilBay.  I suspect there would be a fairly large market for a reissued model.

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