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R3Y-2 Tradewind

Background

It is a bit scary to realize that Revell is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Those of us who grew up on these fantastic kits were forever smitten with the modeling bug. I couldn't wait to get my allowance or earn some money cutting grass so I could venture down to the store and pick up a new subject.

In these early days of Revell, many of their kits were 'box scale' meaning that the kit was scaled to fit inside a standard sized retail box that was retailer friendly. Consequently, you'll see some really odd scales for these subjects, but in many cases, these are still the only kits available of these aircraft.

As part of the 50th anniversary celebration, Revell released ten classic kits from its vast archives. This is one of those ten.

The Kit

This is Revell's classic R3Y-2 Tradewind - with the exception of a 1/72 vacuformed offering from Combat Models, this still is the only game in town.

The kit itself is a classic. Produced in 1956, it features raised and a bit exaggerated surface details. Molded in blue styrene, the kit is presented on three parts trees plus the two fuselage halves.

There were no interiors in this scale. Nevertheless, the nose was hinged so that it could be raised and the optional loading ramp can be installed.

The wings are equally simple upper and lower halves, and each of the eight three-bladed counter-rotating propellers are pinned to each nacelle by the prop spinner/prop shaft.

The assembled model can be mounted to a stand (also included) as the aircraft doesn't have landing gear and the kit doesn't have beaching gear to rest the aircraft upon.

Conclusions

I had heard that Revell was releasing some of its classics and the teasers in their 2006 catalog confirmed their upcoming release. On a recent trip on Hannant's website, I spotted that these kits were now available in the UK. Since these were coming out of Revell/Germany, I wondered if the number of these kits available would dwindle by the time they reached North America. According to my local hobby retailer, precious few of these kits did in fact make it across the pond, so if you see one on the shelf of your local shop, you might want to snag it before you see these join the ranks of the collectables on eBay.