Roden has, in the last several years, provided 1/144 modelers with kits that have been on want lists for quite some time. This latest kit follows in that philosophy and will undoubtedly be boxed in several liveries. This should be a major money maker for the company as the number of liveries available for this aircraft are considerable.

Roden has chosen to go the 'clear windows' route with this kit. This will please a segment of the airliner hobby who likes this method and cause additional work for those who prefer a smooth fuselage with decals for the windows. The latter method allows for a variety of window patterns while the initial method requires either filling or additional windows being cut. I prefer the decal method.

Some 1/144 aircraft model companies provide a rudimentary cockpit. Roden does not, having only a nose gear well floor. It would probably be useful to put in a bulkhead if for no other reason, to keep weight in place. The instructions recommend 5 grams to keep from tail sitting. The instructions also recommend gluing the two piece horizontal stabs to each fuselage half as well as the windows prior to cementing the fuselage together.

Nose gear is fairly complex consisting of seven pieces if one includes the wheels and floor. Main gear are simply a strut, oleo scissors and two wheels. The kit provides two noses, one is a longer radar nose for a future boxing. Wings are a single lower piece with upper halves. The engine cowlings are a single piece into which one puts the engine face. If you want the prop to spin, that has to be installed prior to cementing to the wings.

Once the wings are assembled, it is attached to the fuselage and the gear doors installed. There are no antennas included so you will need to add whatever may be needed.

Instructions are well drawn and you are provided livery for one aircraft, that being a Hawaiian Airlines plane from 1956. A full color exterior painting and markings sheet is provided. The decals are a little thick and very glossy. Entry doors and an anti-glare panel are included on the sheet. Using this livery will require some careful masking. Fortunately the majority of the area that gets decals is white. The decals are on a blue background and this shows that the red will be somewhat transparent (as in it is not backed by white as you find on quality decals). Roden decals have a less than stellar reputation so unless something has changed, you may wish to consider aftermarket.

I am pleased to see this aircraft released. It provides a basis for a fairly large number of civilian and military liveries. Despite Roden having been around for a fairly long time, it is best to treat their kits like short run. Many of the smaller parts have some flash and others have the usual mold seams that will have to be dealt with. This kit seems to be selling fairly well as there are retailers who have sold out. We can expect a military C-131 in the near future and possibly Roden will kit the turboprop versions, like the CV-580 with the larger fin/rudder and modified horizontal stabs.