I need help selecting a 1/72 DC-3 kit. My plan is to build the kit by my father's birthday in March as a present. His father was a DC-3 pilot for a oil company and often flew United States Presidents around. It's important the kit be of high quality and accurate as it will be a out of the box build. Has anyone had experience building such a kit? Any recommendations? Many thanks in advance.

None of the 1/72 kits is completely accurate. The most widely available is the Italeri which really isn't too bad (it was also reboxed by Revell and Airfix in recent years). If you can find one, the Esci kit has slightly better shape, except for a too narrow windscreen from top to botom. Avoid the ancient 1960s Airfix kit, the shapes were terrible and Airfix' Mad Riveter was allowed to play with the moulds.

Also, all current DC-3 kits are really C-47s with a door insert to give them their passenger door. You'll have to know which other details need to be altered to make it the DC-3 you want to build.

I was thinking 1/72nd scale but if the quality and availability of kits get better for the DC-3 at 1/48 I’m not opposed to going that route. Minor shape issues, etc. aren’t too much a concern for me, I haven’t seen a shape issue make or break a model for me. I have hardly any experience in reshaping/modifying parts and this wouldn’t be a good build to start learning on due to time constraints and my other projects/campaigns. So of the 1/72 and 1/48 scale kits which kit in your opinion has the best OOB representation of the DC-3?

In 1/48 the Revellogram kit is quite nice. They even did a dedicated DC-3 with full interior and passenger door if you can find it. Trumpeter's 1/48 is a C-47 with no DC-3 parts. If you're not worried about minor shape errors the Italeri kit will suit you just fine. It's a straightforward kit with no surprises and decent fit. Since it's also the easiest to find these days I'd say go with it.

Go with the Italeri kit Charles. I built one many moons ago and it looks just like a DC-3 when it is completed.

Was it a DC-3 he flew or a C-47 just out of interest?

He flew primarily the DC-3 and some other small single engine aircraft. I'm not a hundred percent sure on if he flew during the war. I need to pry some more info from my Dad. I'm leaning towards the Italeri 1/72 kit.

I concur. I have 600 hours freightdoggin' in DC-3/C-47s; aside from the tail cone missing on C-47s and the cargo door / passenger door issue, I can't think of any immediately noticeable difference between the airframes in 1/72.

Your dad might notice if the model has Wights or Pratt & Whitneys -- which did he fly? And whether his had the fairing over the flanged row of bolts connecting the inner and outer wing sections; I was only acquainted with less than a dozen Goonies at a time approximately 1,000 were flying, but I don't recall any having the fairing attached.

That 1/48 Monogram / Revell DC-3 is a nice model.

Some good questions JPTRR, unfortunately I don’t know. It was my Grandpa who flew the DC-3. He died when my Dad was young, so pre-1955. I'm trying to get details from my Dad about the whole situation without tipping him off.

Just to make certain this is the kit that’s been recommended, right?

Trying to find photos of the parts layout out of the box has been difficult, from what I can tell the passenger area in this kit is set up C-47 style with "soldier" type seating along the walls of the airframe. The DC-3 should have seating more like a traditional airliner. That is a feature I would have to fix.

That's it. Unless you leave the door open, you can't see much of the inside at all, so anything more than a suggestion of seatbacks would be wasted work.

Here's a link to the Trumpeter 1/48 kit which includes Sprue shots and the instructions

1/48 Trumpeter C-47

Here's an Italeri kit I built 6 years or so ago. You can see that there's not much to be seen inside the windows. I used a brown paper bag to make 'curtains' inside the windows, so all that's easilly visible are the curtains and a suggestion of depth behind them.

Thanks for all your help Jessica. You are right about the windows; with the door closed there isn’t any reason to worry about the seating arrangements at 1/72nd. Nice looking bird by the way.