As the box says:

The heavy transport-plane Fairchild C-119 boxcar served the USAF as a basis for a conversion to a “flying gunship”. This special construction was especially used in Vietnam for night missions against Vietcong supply lines and troop concentrations. The version AC_119 K was especially effective against trucks due to its two 20mm guns and four 7,62mm miniguns. A further version, the AC-119 G, had lighter armament. Two additional jet engines were mounted to enable the plane to take off from short runways fully loaded with ammunition.

THE KIT

This big, new (2001), Italeri kit is a special limited edition, of the gunship variant of their C-119. (Editor's note: It is actually a reissue as I've seen Testors boxings of this kit from the mid/late 1980s)

This was the missing link in the 1/72 AC- family. Italeri has the AC-47 and the AC-130A, AMT made the AC-130U, Airfix recently released the AC-130H, Mach 2 offers the AC-123 for a lot of $$$$ and with the Falcon Industries Triple Conversion Set you can convert the P-2H into a AP-2H Neptune.

 When you open the box you will find a lot of plastic, four sprues (95 parts)and one clear(29 parts) for the C-119, one small sprue pot the AC- (48 parts). That makes 172 parts of black hard flash free plastic with nicely raised panel lines. Whow this is one of the most detailed big 1/72 kits I have ever seen. The fit is great for a kit this big, about 37 cm, 15 inch long and 49cm, 18.5 inch in wide.

The interior is beautiful with boxes on the walls and raised detail, in the cargo bay, next to the detailed sidewalls and floor a ceiling is included.  The two big cargo doors can be opened as a option. The only place where the detail is shortcoming is in the weal bays, but this area isn’t very visible.

The AC- sprue brings next to the four mini-guns and two gatling guns, measuring equipment and ammunition racks into the cargo bay.

The exterior AC- parts are a sharper nose, two kinds of radar cones, a lot of lumps, bumps and antennas and the two jet engines.

 The decal sheet is very small, only 14 decals with two versions, one from the 18^th Special operations Squadron at Pran Rang in Vietnam 1968, the other is also from the 18^th squadron but stationed in Nha Trang 1968.

Because the references on AC-119s are 0,0 Italeri should include a detailed paint scheme and other colour indications. But they didn’t. No problemo! We just buy an aftermarket AC-119 sheet with all the correct colours. But their isn’t one available. So we have to guess the rest that isn’t indicated on the Italeri sheet? Yes, that’s the risk when buying a rare Italeri kit. (Editor's note: There is a fairly good reference from Squadron/Signal called 'Gunships: the story of Spooky' that has a pretty good section on the AC-119K. It also includes a drawing of the upper camo scheme)

CONCLUSIONS

This is a great kit, it fits good, is accurate and will be impressing with al those guns. The only minor points are the paint scheme and some sink marks that are difficult to remove, this kit is something to get your hands on.