ESCI – 9012 – AC-47 GUNSHIP “SPOOKY”

Description:

AC-47 GUNSHIP “SPOOKY”

Unassembled plastic model kit in 1/72 scale of a U.S. Douglas C-47 Skytrain military transport aircraft developed from the civilian transport and airliner aircraft Douglas DC-3.

Just by the order we choose to add the ESCI DC-3 kits, this kit is a variant of kit ESCI – 9014 – TWA Douglas DC-3 LINER, it replaces that small sprue which contained the passengers seats and interior screens and the passengers door, by a new sprue with the three machine guns (7.62 mm General Electric miniguns) placed in the two rear windows, in the left (pilot) side, and one in the cargo door (placed in same side of the aircraft). Note that be box art shows the 3 miniguns in the three rear windows, which maybe not “standard” but looks like a plausible configuration, some restored aircrafts shows this configuration, others use two of the rear windows but not the last one and the cargo door. We quoted “standard” because there was no initial regulation about the AC-47 GUNSHIP, an interim solution during Vietnam War to provide close air support. The kit seems to depict also an early mount for the guns, using gun pods fitted with the GAU-2/A/M134 7.62 mm machine, before the MXU-470/A minigun and modules for their operation on the AC-47 and later gunships were developed.

There are several differences between a commercial DC-3 and a military C-47, leaving apart the inner configuration of the cargo area, or the military VIP transport variants, externally the C-47 differs of the DC-3 mainly in the astrodome in the cabin roof, that the kit depicts providing a clear part for it, but the fuselage is not open in that point, the cargo door, and a shortened tail cone, the tail of the kit is clearly of a DC-3, though you can attempt to cut yourself.

By now, this kit after 40 years only has to face the competence of the Italeri kit for the same topic, Italeri 1167. Airfix also tooled this variant, but when using the 60s moulds, not in the 2014 newer kit.