Glencoe 1/126
Convair 880

Background

The Convair 880 was designed as a medium range airliner to handle the routes shorter than practical for the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, yet providing the same level of comfort as its larger brothers. While the aircraft was a well-handling and safe design, the market for the medium-range jet airliner hadn't materialized and production was halted after 65 aircraft.

The Convair 880 did serve Trans World Airways (TWA), Northeast, Japan Air Lines, and SwissAir (among others). Even Elvis Presley had his own personal Convair 880.

The aircraft first flew in early 1959, and was finally retired in the mid-1970s with the escalating price of fuel made the four-engine aircraft too expensive to operate.

The Kit

The Glencoe 1/126 Convair 880 kit has been around for a while, originally released by Hawk. I can remember making this kit when I was growing up.

While 1/126 scale may seem odd, kit manufacturers back in those days tended to scale the model to fit a standard box size rather than developing kits in standard scales. The latter concept came along some years later.

Molded in silver styrene, the Glencoe re-release of this kit is just as nice as I remember it. Nicer actually as there are no remnants of molded-on markings left on the surfaces, yet the details have been preserved.

You can see from these photos that the kit is a simple build - wings, fuselage, tail. Hang the engines and add landing gear. You do have options for the front and rear passenger doors to be positioned open. I'm sure that there will be a little fitting and filling required to get everything together nice and snug.

Markings are included for a TWA and a SwissAir example. I'm told that this kit was the first model to ever receive the Invisiclear type of decals.

Conclusion

With a street price of around $8.00 USD, the Glencoe kit is an easy build for modelers out to have a little fun and even as a project for younger modelers. This kit is recommended!

My sincere thanks to Glencoe Models for this review sample!