Back in the mid-1970s, there was seen a need for additional tanker aircraft in the USAF. The KC-135s had been out of production for over 15 years and there was little likelihood of the production line being reopened. Searching around for another aircraft that could combine cargo and tanking missions, proposals were requested and the winning design was a modification of the civil DC-10.  

First entering service in 1980 or so, the KC-10 fleet has been a real workhorse for the Air Force. In addition to being able to hold prodigious amounts of fuel, it also has a very large cargo-carrying capability. So far, of all the KC-10s delivered, only one has been lost, and that was due to a ground fire in 1986. When the first aircraft entered service, they were all assigned to SAC and painted in a very attractive scheme of white upper, grey lower with a large blue cheatline that wrapped over the cockpit section. This eventually gave way to the upper color being camouflaged in a dark grey that not only looked ugly, but faded rapidly and was a pain to maintain. This is the 'shamu' scheme shown on the box art. The current scheme is an overall AMC grey which will not as dark, still fades rapidly and is difficult to keep clean

During the Air Force reorganization of the mid-late 1980's, SAC and TAC were disbanded and combined into the new ACC. Overnight, tail codes sprouted on a number of former SAC assets such as B-1s, B-52s, and the tanker fleet. A huge number of C-130s were also transferred from AMC to ACC and began sprouting codes as well. After years of juggling these assets, all the tankers and most of the cargo birds were retransferred to AMC. Tail codes have left all the non-combat big aircraft, to be replaced by rather boring tail stripes.

If you have built any of the DC-10 1/200 airliners, then this will look quite familiar. All the panel lines are raised with only hatches, doors and control surface hinges engraved. Different from the airliner kit are new fuselage halves and the tail boom assembly. All other bits and pieces are straight from the airliner kit. The only transparency is the cockpit window. There is no interior as none is really needed in this scale.

The decal sheet is new giving two aircraft from the 4th Wing with SJ tailcodes and a red fin tip as on the box art. The sheet is quite complete and while not having the color of the airliners, is well done.  The instruction sheet is from the initial release of this kit back in 1987. It is typical Hasegawa being quite complete and giving good detail to the assembly sequence. Unlike most kits nowadays, a display stand is included, but it does not have the nice, big nameplate decal to go on it that the original issue did.

Having built several of the airliner DC-10s, I can tell you that fit is very good and assembly should move quite quickly once you get underway.   

Review copy courtesy of Marco Polo Importers.

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