Anyone ever built the little Minicraft Cessna kits?

There are several Cessna kits from Minicraft.  Minicraft kits several versioins of both the 150 and the 172.  The 150s are older kits, not quite as much and as sharp detail.  The 172 kits are newer, with more detail and sharper molding. I have kits of both in my queue, but have not started construction on either.  The 172 looks particularly nice.

I built the companion Piper Cherokee kit.  It was OK, but nothing to rave about.  The interior is there, but very basic- just seats and a yoke and a sparse instrument panel, as I recall.  It has an engine, but I had trouble fitting it in, so I just left it out. It's small which makes it tough to work on, but with a little patience you can end up with a very nice model.  You'll need to put some weight in the nose, or you'll have a tail sitter.  About a year or more ago there was a thread on here showing the Cherokee (I think)  made by a young lady who did an excellent job, maybe it could be searched up.

I have seen couple completed builds of the 172 and it looks good, and I too have one in the line-up to build and am pleased with what is in the box as far as detail goes.

Cadet Chuck

I built the companion Piper Cherokee kit.  It was OK, but nothing to rave about.  The interior is there, but very basic- just seats and a yoke and a sparse instrument panel, as I recall.  It has an engine, but I had trouble fitting it in, so I just left it out. It's small which makes it tough to work on, but with a little patience you can end up with a very nice model.  You'll need to put some weight in the nose, or you'll have a tail sitter.  About a year or more ago there was a thread on here showing the Cherokee (I think)  made by a young lady who did an excellent job, maybe it could be searched up.

Hey fantacmet, I did the Piper Cherokee 140 (kit #11610) also.  Like Cadet Chuck said, nothing to rave about.  I did the exact same thing with the engine....left it out!  The instructions were a little weird for the engine part anyway, and it was small!  Hard to get much detail.  Fit was o.k., I had to do a little work with the cowlings/nose part, but overall an o.k. kit.  

Eagle90

I've done the 172 floatplane, and found it to be very nice.  I has decent detail, and I see plenty of opportunity to add more.  The little engine is very nice, even if it is small.  I just painted it, and 'detailed' it with paint effects, but left the cowling loose so I can lift it off to display.  I should have added the support rods in the front windshield area, as well as stabilizing wires for the floats, but didn't.  

Gene Beaird,

Pearland, Texas

The missing engine detail is the cooling baffle which would hide many of the other details. Interiors could be improved with seat belts and a headset hanging on the yoke.

The float struts are a bit clunky and the attachment points look a little odd.

Maybe, but it's a fun, quick (by my standards :-) ) build.

Gene Beaird,

Pearland, Texas

Almost any civil, light aircraft kit is a good thing!!

I agree, I wish they'd make some in 1:32 scale.  I would love to do some up in the local schemes.  Gonna have to find a list of the differnt small civil aircraft models that are out there.

fantacmet

I agree, I wish they'd make some in 1:32 scale.  I would love to do some up in the local schemes.  Gonna have to find a list of the differnt small civil aircraft models that are out there.

Revell of Germany has a kit of the Super Cub.  It is a delightful kit.  Haven't built it yet, but it is in the queue to my bench and will go on the bench this summer. There are two versions - one with European markings, the other with US markings.