Having built three of Minicraft's outstanding DC-8s, I have been looking forward to its newly tooled KC-135E — and now I can say Minicraft did not disappoint. Quality and finesse really set this kit apart.
It’s a fairly simple build. Parts are molded in light gray plastic with finely engraved panel lines that look really nice for a 1/144 scale model.
Same holds true for the landing gear and tires, and the wings’ trailing edges are razor thin.
The decal sheet, printed by Cartograf, has markings for two aircraft, either the Kansas Air National Guard from 2004 or a New Jersey Air National Guard plane with flamboyant “Tiger Meet” markings. The decals were in perfect register, as one expects from Cartograf.
Other than the two sets of decals, the only other option in the kit is whether to build the landing gear up or down. However, no stand is provided; if you want an in-flight pose, you’re on your own to come up with a display.
Construction was straightforward and easy thanks to the precision engineering and fit. I started off with the fuselage halves — don’t forget to add some nose weight to keep the model from being a tail-sitter (even though the model does come with a tail stand, just like the real thing). The fuselage halves fit pretty well, but I did have to be careful cleaning up the seam around the raised ribs that encircle the very aft fuselage. I used a small jeweler’s file to get between the ribs without messing them up.
Next came the clear windscreen section and the wings. Once again, the fits were almost perfect. A few passes with a sanding stick on the rest of the seams and it was time to paint.
I used Tamiya light gray primer out of the aerosol can for my Air Mobility Command Gray. It was a little lighter than the actual color, but in this scale it looks right to me.
With the wings and fuselage painted, it was time to assemble the engines. I really like how Minicraft molded the front of each engine in one piece — no worrying about sanding those pesky intake seams. The front engine fan section gets added from the back side of the front duct. I decided to assemble and paint the engines before attaching them to the wing. Test-fitting them proved my plan.
My only minor complaint was with the engines: I felt the exhaust was a little thick around its circumference. I ended up using a fine circular cutter in a motor tool that matched the radius of the exhaust opening and thinned the plastic edge to look more to scale.
The Cartograf decals went on with no problems, performing flawlessly as they settled into all the recessed panel lines with no silvering. I did use a little bit of Micro Sol here and there where they needed a little prodding.
The main landing gear and gear doors were the final pieces. They, too, fit perfectly and looked convincing.
I found Minicraft’s KC-135E a really easy kit to assemble. Sharp engineering with razor crisp parts and a simple monochromatic paint scheme made this almost a weekend build — and the finished model looks like a KC-135E.
Note: A version of this review appeared in the May 2014 FineScale Modeler.