The X-Scale 1/144 scale Douglas DC-8-32 Swissair plastic model kit provides a sorely needed version of the DC-8 that has been missing from the market for some time. In the process, X-Scale has given airliner enthusiasts a base kit which, I believe, will be issued as other variants due to its adaptive pylon-to-wing inserts.
The detail on the dark gray molded plastic parts is excellent, with recessed panel lines and fine, scale landing gear and struts. A well-molded but basic flight deck comes with seats, consoles, and panels for the forward instrument panel and the flight engineer’s station.
I found the instructions confusing in a few places, including reversed part numbers and vague illustrations. Where some parts fit together nicely, a little refining was needed on others to achieve a good match. There are no locating pins for the fuselage halves.
I ran into an issue when I got to the lower wing and lower horizontal stabilizer sections; their mating lines crossed over the flap, aileron, and elevator hinge lines. That was hard to fill in and re-scribe detail.
The JT4 engines are excellently rendered, and the kit supplies alternate parts to allow the option of positioning the thrust reversers deployed or stowed. I also made a third option of my own: I set the ejectors in the deployed position but omitted the provided closed clamshell reverser deflectors that fit inside them. On the ground, the clamshells are normally open. 3D-printed resin “daisy” or “Buck Rogers” exhausts are supplied.
Because of the scale model’s landing gear and engine/reverser components, the purchase area for attaching them is minimal in several places. Joining such parts together can be a good time to use a viscous gap-filling glue, like Faller Super Expert. I attached the ejectors to the engine pylons with 5-minute epoxy to make sure they held.
Two versions of Swissair’s livery are provided: the early, all-natural metal version and the later scheme with a white fuselage crown and vertical fin. The instructions call out colors for Mr. Hobby, Tamiya, ICM, and Hataka. The Tamiya gray specified for the radome is slightly too dark, but the Mr. Hobby specs are correct.
The decals are numbered and are meant to be applied in numerical order; each cheat line consists of six pieces, including the cabin doors. The markings guide could be clearer, but all the decals fit the model and settled well. Whichever markings version you select, the four unused cabin door decals provide some extra red decal film to augment the overlapping areas at the nose and the tail if needed.
The flight deck enclosure is optically clear, but, if you don’t want to bother with the interior, optional black decal windows are provided. I had to give the black windows a try. With good light, the interior is visible, but not much. The kit includes a set of masks for the wheel hubs and the cockpit windows. I found the wheel masks slightly too small for the main wheels but just right for the nose wheels.
X-Scale’s 1/144 scale DC-8-32 Swissair kit took me 40 hours to complete — longer than I’d anticipated. I recommend it for modelers who have some experience with adjusting or refining parts. How the model sits duplicates the DC-8’s nose-down rake, which gave rise to the “Anteater” nickname for an aesthetically beautiful aircraft. X-Scale’s kit does it proud.