Revell 1/48 Falcon 10 Kit First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

It all starts with the wing. The North American Sabreliner was based on the F-100 Super Sabre wing. The Learjet was based upon the aborted Swiss P-16 fighter. In the case of the Falcon, it was the wing from its Mystere IV fighter. Go back a little further and the Boeing Model 337 was based on the B-17 wing while the Boeing 377 was based on the B-29's wing.

The first Falcon from Dassault was the Falcon 20, first developed in the 1950s. The Falcon 10 was a later development from the early 1970s for a smaller class of business jet to compete against the Learjet and Cessna Citation.

The Falcon 10 can accommodate up to eight passengers plus two flightcrew. The Falcon 10 is powered by two Garrett TFE731 engines and is over nine feet shorter than the Model 20.

If this kit looks a little familiar, it should. Revell/Germany reissued the Hasegawa 1/48 Falcon 10 along with the Cessna Citation I and Learjet 35A. As with the other Hasegawa kits, this one is produced on four parts trees molded in white styrene plus a single tree of clear parts. Actually the clear parts are tinted.

The kit is of the older generation of Hasegawa tooling - raised surface details. Nevertheless, the detailing is fine and nicely done. And as with the other business jets in this series, this kit has a nice interior to see through that open cabin door.

While the kit provides color recommendations for the interior, note that interiors varied significantly as commercial and privately-owned business jets tended to have the look of the owner inside and out. While you could do research on the appearance of these aircraft interiors, you would be just as correct to color coordinate the interior as if you were about to spend several million dollars on your own jet.

The interior provides a nice flight deck and seating for six in the main cabin. One interesting error in the instruction booklet has you install cabin bulkhead A6 at the front of the main cabin. In the next step, they have you putting bulkhead A7 into the same spot. Bulkhead A6 should actually be the rear cockpit bulkhead.

The exterior is also nicely detailed with the only option available being the main cabin door positionable open or closed.

As with any commercial aircraft, there are a wide range of color schemes you could apply to this model. The kit provides two interesting examples:

• Falcon 10, N59CC, Dallas TX, Dec 2003 (the subject of the box art)
• Falcon 10 MER, #129, French Navy, Landivisiau, 2003

What I especially like about Revell/Germany releases is their decal sheets. These tend to have more options and more interesting subjects than their US counterparts. This is especially true in this case as these decals were done by DACO Products. Very nice indeed!

This kit was released in 2003 by Revell/Germany but it is still readily available. I found this one on the sale rack of my local hobby shop recently. Hasegawa continues to reissue this kit with different decals, so finding the Falcon 10 in one form or another should not be a problem.

If you're looking for a nice aircraft subject that will actually test your scale automotive painting skills (gloss colors), and look really nice in one of those contest categories that see few entries, here is an excellent opportunity!