I love car and bike but there is a part of me that goes crazy for anything flying! I had a r/c helicopter which I crashed onto my ceiling fan! I an a bike fighter planes/helicopter aficionado and I love to photograph them… I am a regular visitor to those Aero shows and also love being in airports just for the seer pleasure of being around those flying machines! I do have a collection of small scale fighter jet made by Maisto and Matchbox… And my holygrail jet is the 1:18 scale diecast F16 made by BBI!
- Coming back to this unboxing, I expected a massive Lockheed C-130 Hercules USCG because the vendor had mentioned the scale is 1/60! But when I received the package was too small to hold such a scale version!! Also the weight is not impressive, even my 1/60 Sikorsky HH60J Jayhawk weighs more than double that of this! And please note the Heli is far more smaller than this C-130 Hercules in real as well! When I purchased this model I was not aware that this model has to come from United States! But later after purchase I got a email from the seller stating the shipping policy, so no tracking till the model reaches our country soil! Though the product did not reach me on time (i.e.10th June, 2016) but 8 days delay is acceptable. By far the fastest in my experience for an abroad package! Bravo BooyahChicago! The product was delivered to me by a local courier operator on my doorsteps! The package had a nasty bump on to a side but the content of package was not damaged in any form. I also felt adding a bit of bubble wrap would have been advised taking into consideration the distance and country hops!
Wing span – 31.5cms, 23.5 is its length – Orginal – 132’7″ wing span, 97’9″ length, which gives a approx scale of 1/125
The courier package did not affected the NewRay box in anyway, I don’t see much scratches even I only have to say this package was lucky to have such an experience with almost no protection against bumps and handling abuse! The disappointment continues as I unbox this C-130 Hercules USCG!! Why? Firstly the I could feel some dangling inside the package and my first response is that some part is broken! But that was not the case to my surprise. This is indeed a snap-on assembly kit and purely made of plastic parts! So this will not the deemed as a diecast model but just a scale model sporting some keen details!
This is indeed a snap-on pre-assembled scale model made of plastic. Unlike Tamiya kits this is kits is pre-painted, pre-decaled, partially assembled (like the roto blades, drop fuel tank etc.) and tools free design to assemble! This kit consist of 12 body parts, 2 desk stand pieces and a instruction leaflet There are total of 15 pieces (i.e. 2 fuselage pieces, 2 wing pieces, 2 tail flaps, 4 roto blades along with engine heads, 2 piece desk stand, 3 metal pins to hold the fuselage in place, one square base plate for the desk stand mount and a assembly instruction sheet.) all tightly packaged inside this small box! Watch out for those small metal pins that could slip out of your hands quite easily! So I would recommend not opening the sealed package till you find some time put it together! One other piece that goes missing all the time that small square deskstand mount! Beware!
- The fuselage and rotor blades are attached to this plastic structure and the wings are secured by a transparent tape! These are the only two parts that are not dangling inside the box of this Lockheed C-130 Hercules USCG!
- The wing and the tail bits comes in a plastic packet with absolutely no protection but being a plastic model these sort of damages very limited! The desk stand and the instruction sheet comes in an other packet.
- The assembly instruction is pictorial and very easy to understand. Spending time with it will save a lot time on assembly phase!
If you follow the instruction in the given leaflet the assembly is repetitively simple! But as with most other snap-on model kit the plastic smudges and overflow will cause you to slow down drastically! I initially thought the entire assembly will take less than 15 mins taking into consideration the photographing effort(assembly process for this post) as well. But surprising the process pushed me to spend around a hour! Why you may ask! Being a snap-on no tools design, all the parts are designed to fit snug, which has no margin for error! But here there are some pieces that have smashed/crushed parts that will not fit in at all! The square mounting pad took almost 20mins for me to get into place… I have to use a scissors, small knife, screwdriver and similar tools to get over it and get to fit the other piece! Check the pic and judge the intensity! Note: Be very very gentle and spent enough time… because if you rush things the parts may break or snap then you are in deep $hit!
Crushed mounting point, which is one of those many inconsistency that may consume time.
- The fuselage is the most tricky bit in the entire assembly process… because once you get passed this phase other bits just falls into place! The wing was a piece of cake but the tail flaps created some issue but nothing major or time consuming as the fuselage!
With the assembly fully done it has turned out to be a beauty! From most of the angles this looks premium and wort all the money spent! What lets it down is its weight! I understand its a plastic model but if peged next to a diecast model this feels like a toy!
- This Lockheed C130 Hercules USCG weight only 89gms, which is a disappointment because the other 1:200 scale aircraft model (Indigo airlines A320) is about 63gms! The C130 Hercules is a accurate scale model (I think) because there is no mentioning in the box but I got this guy thinking that it will complement my Sikorsky HH 60J Jayhawk This indeed a good looking model but the feel is not good!
With this model I could conclude one thing! The readymade diecast model are better than the assembly kit from any brand! Though the details are good the gaps and inconsistencies are the bummers. Lets see if this attitude changes when I spend some time along!
