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All in all, the Airfix Caravelle kit is very good even though it was designed,
I believe, in 1960. It depicts a Caravelle I - visually identical to the IA, and almost identical to a III, 6N and 6R - to make those, install F-RSIN engines (
www.f-rsin.com), and for the 6R delete the dorsal fin and install the new style cockpit windows. Refer to the conversion article in this folder.
The kit has very few flaws and they're easy to correct:
- All the panel lines are raised and should be sanded flush.
- the left passenger door is too small, it has the dimensions of the right one. Nothing a good door decal can't correct! If you intend to represent it open, be aware that Caravelle doors slide inwards (at least the left one; the right one is hinged), so to the modeller an open Caravelle door is simply a rectangular hole with a floorpan inside. Good news!
- the engine pylons are too wide and set the engines too far apart from the fuselage. Cut the engine pylons from the fuselage and only use what remains on the engine halves - you'll have to adjust them to the fuselage curvature.
- the wing fences are correctly located but grossly shaped, they deserve improvement!
There is a photoetched detailing kit made by Airways but it is not very good. First they suggest to make hinged doors - as seen above, they slide inwards; then they have fan blades for the engine, which in reality are not visible, so use the far more accurate Airfix or F-RSIN parts. However, the landing gear doors are really good and very thin and will defilitely improve the appearance of your Caravelle. They can be used on the Welsh Caravelle 10B and 12, too.