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Frank Cronin
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Convair 240, 1/72 Mach II kit. United Air Lines

July 30, 2013 · in Aviation · · 14 · 3.5K

A few articles back I responded to a contributor that I am of the "I know where the mistakes are and I am not going to tell you" philosophy.

Well, here is an example...

This is the kit of the Convair C-131. First let me say that I admire Mach II for bringing us kits of aircraft that have not been done by another manufacture. That being said, these kits are not for the feint of heart. Break out the sanding sticks and the fillers, peruse the minimal instruction sheet, and begin.

I have done a number of Mach II kit for a very close friend and although they are not of Tamiya quality they can be made to look OK.

Per my friends request I built this as a civilian Convair in United Air Lines livery. The decals I used were from vintageflyerdecals.com by Michael Vykukal. These decals are excellent. This company produces decals of cilil liveries of many airlines. I did not do this but I would recommend to anyone building this kit to fill the windows and sand them flush then use the decals for the windows all around.

This model was done very quickly to meet a time line of my friend. Should anyone desire to take the time and do a lot of extra work and scratch building this would make into a very nice model

Reader reactions:
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4 additional images. Click to enlarge.


14 responses

  1. If there are any mistakes, they ARE well hidden. Great job, Frank (as usual)

  2. that is just gorgeous frank

  3. That makes this 1/72 vac-resin kit I have of the 240 look easy.
    Anyone who completes a Mach 2 kit and remains sane is an amazing individual, Frank. You do reside outside a rubber room, yes?

  4. A very nice build, Frank...well done.

  5. Being partial to airliners I appreciate one that has been well done especially with the decal work. How much of the nose area is actually decal?
    Good build.

    • Al,
      The entire nose area and the area above the windscreen is decal. It fit very well and laid down well with Micro Set. I touched it up a very little bit with matched color. I thoroughly recommend these decals.

  6. That looks like a tricky build to get it right, but you've done it (yet again).

  7. Good looking airplane, Frank.

    Do you happen to know if anyone does a Convair 580 kit or a conversion? I worked on the 580 as a flight mechanic late last century.

    • Jamie,
      At this point, no. but it would not surprise me if a conversion kit comes out from someone. I would suspect that at some point there will be an injection kit of the Convair may come out. Perhaps in many formats. Just a guess and a hope.

  8. I have felt the pain of the reached kit. An Amodel Piasecki HUP comes to mind---

  9. Frank, I now my head in admiration...

    Philip : I have the Piasecki and I have started it. It might be the best of the lot since I don't think it is THAT bad. It's the clear parts in the Mach 2 kits that scares me the most, they border on the unfixable. Too bad since all of their subjects are most interesting no matter which way you look at them. I have been close to buying the Leducs several times but I realise that I never will muster the courage to build them...

    Regards Magnus

  10. You have my respect for finishing this kit with gear down. It's a very basic kit as you know and the landing gear was too much of a challenge for me. An interesting subject and well done for such a great model.

  11. You have my respect for finishing this kit with gear down. It's a very basic kit as you know and the landing gear was too much of a challenge for me. An interesting subject and well done for such a great model. I also used Vintage Flyer decals and they are excellent. I agree that you will get a much better finish by filling in the windows and using the decals.

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