TWA Douglas DC-3 LINER

Unassembled plastic model kit in 1/72 scale of a U.S. Douglas DC-3 airliner and transport aircraft introduced in 1936, or a Douglas C-47 Skytrain, introduced in 1941, the military version of the DC-3. All the variants together, over 15.000 units were produced, lasting in the airs for decades, some remaining operational after over 80 years since the introduction of the type. After WWII many C-47 were converted back to civilian service.

In 1981 ESCI tooled their DC-3 line, at the time, the main kit was the Italaerei kit tooled in 1979 and later kept under Italeri since 1980. Prior to this two kits, Airfix had its own DC-3 tooled in 1960 so both Italaerei/Italeri and ESCI improved by far the subject and had a good battle between them, that sighly balanced into the ESCI kit considered as bit better than the Italeri ones.

The same year, 1981, ESCI released six more references bases in this moulds, four of them just changing decals and two adding different parts. The main sprue with fuselage parts also had the cargo door part, in the small sprue used on the Liners kits there was a piece also for the passengers type door, and kit provided more different parts for the different versions it depicted through the years.

The situation of the market mostly would remain the same till Airfix tooled a new C-47 kit in 2014, that by far is better considered than previous kits, but that exactly doesn’t cover the same version of this prolific aircraft that ESCI kits covers, making the ESCI kit still a desirable kit to build after over 40 years since it’s release.

By code number, the ESCI 9012 AC-47 GUNSHIP “SPOOKY” should had been our first kit to add, but while the ESCI Airliner kit was very good, the AC-47 variant kit was not so accurate and not the source of the many other releases that mainly were for the civilian use of the DC-3.

The original box of 1981 did not include the “Sabena” marking in the title, just the TWA ones, but the Sabena aircraft was in the background in an equal box art to the one shown here, Sabena was added to the title in the 1983 release. Strangely, the ESCI-Ertl period did not reissued the airliners but just the military variants. Eventually Revell used ESCI kits for the DC-3 in the 80s and later switched to use the Italeri ones, but Italeri itself used the ESCI kit in the 2013 release Italeri – 1338 – Dakota Mk.III.

TWA is a well known airline which ended activity as TWA in 2001, Sabena, probably less known for many, is the national Belgium airline, which curiously, also ceased activity as Sabena in 2001. Interesting than the TWA marking is depicting a military plane DC-3A back to civil service, preserving the astrodome in the cabin roof, and so it’s stated in the instructions.

As said above, the ESCI kit remains under a good consideration between the modellers community, and it’s even considered as a more accurate true DC-3 than the new 2014 Airfix C-47, which is considered by far a better kit in general, but a better C-47, but is not an original pre-war DC-3. The Amodel Showa/Nakajima L2D and the Lisunov Li-2 are also considered remarkable sets for their respective specific variants.