I am very grateful there is even a kit of the Kangaroo but...
Many moons ago Contrail released this now somewhat outdated
vacuum-formed hefty kit. It is surely not state of the art, and has many
inaccuracies, but it is nevertheless a starting point, if you are willing to
spend time and effort. Many of its shortcomings, some subtle and some not, are
spotted and corrected in the step-by-step building article:
No little time was spent on this one. Uncountable hours of
research and building and no little grief has been endured in correcting
the various kit's faults, let alone the complicated building and subject to
start with.
This rather basic kit was given a full interior and a very
high number of details not present in the molds.
Needless to say the almost inexhaustible jungle of struts
and rigging was the happy occasion of many a well-deserved Martini.
There are myriads of pieces of advise I could list regarding
this kit. Look at the notes on the building process. The kit has some obvious
but fixable mistakes.
Retrospectively there are two things you shouldn't do: do
not follow the kit's pre-marked locations for any of the struts, they are
misaligned and will cause frustration. Measure and drill your own strut
locations, and try to be as accurate as you can.
And do not use the white metal exhausts, radiators and props
(I used the radiators and props). They are way too heavy and will give the
engine gondola too much weight and mass, making it prone to detachment at the
least provocation and almost surely during transport or handling, since its
securing frame is too fragile. The radiators are easily scratchbuilt, the props
may need plastic or resin substitutes. Able modelers may cast the kit's metal
props into resin ones.
The Arctic Decals set fortunately facilitated an accurate
and pleasant decoration providing its usual well-researched, easy-to-handle, well printed
graphics.
There were many civil Kangaroos, each one with its own
quirks. Fun is to be had by those wiling to take the bold step.
The British did actually design very beautiful planes, but
this one is more, er, sculptural one may say...looking for some redeeming
adjective, and that's precisely why we love it so much.
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