Just wondering if anyone has any experience with the Doyusha C-47 or DC-3? I know its a reboxed kit some 30 years old or so. Google failed to turn up any build articles.

I have a chance to purchase one, if its worthwhile.

Have you built the Minicraft 1/144 DC-3 kit? It's pretty much identical to that, but larger. There are a few shape issues, most importantly being the dihedral is missing, the nose is off and the wheels are much too large in proportion to the tires. Buildability is good, and you won't need all that much filler. By itself it looks like a Dak, but once you put it beside a picture the errors jump right out at you.

Thanks for the quick answer, Jessica. I've not built the MiniCraft kit, but own 2x of them. Saving these for the Douglas Campaign.

Guess I'll forget about the Doyshua kit, if its fairly equal to the Minicraft. With shipping, it will total near $34.00. This can be used for more important items

Here's my poor beaten up model. This one was the Modelcraft rebagging from the mid '90s. Neither the kit nor the decals warranted much work, so I just slapped it together for fun on weekend. Note the too-large cockpit windows, wrong cockpit roof shape and subtly too pointy engine nacelles.

The complete lack of dihedral

And the overly large wheel hub

Hi Ben,

I knew I should have reviewed mine!

My Doyusha C-47/DC-3 is a nice kit: recessed panel lines and very impressive surface detail for a 30-year-old model. It is actually a re-boxed Entex model. IIRC it was also boxed by Nitto and another company.

I never measured it but the advertised dimensions put it very close to scale. If I recall, the top of the tail is too round.

The landing gear are impressively detailed and I think the kit also has skis.

Inside it is plain-jane. I think it has a rudimentary cockpit and a bulkhead but you won't be able to see anything anyway. I recall the front of the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasps have token detail, kinda like Hasegawa 1/72 radials from the 1970s -- looks like a radial but you just can't match it to a prototype.

I have no experience with the decals.

It can build into a nice looking model. If you need a 1/100 Doug then it is virtually the only styrene one in town (I recall a resin one being cast recently) regardless if the box states Entex, Doyusha, or Nitto. I do recall seeing one by Dahlmann; Dahlmann took over the old Faller molds but I never saw Faller release a Douglas.

See above for what it looks like when it's put together. In the box it's nice, but put together it's...not so nice

Faller or someone did one in 1/96 or 1/100. I had it in a Sabena box way back in the mid '70s. Then there was always the Monogram box scale kit which was pretty close to 1/100, and if one removed the hideously overscale rivets and ignored the telepohne pole gear legs it had about the best DC-3 shape of them all.