Liveries Unlimited 1/72 United DC-6A/B

Reviewed by Tom Cleaver

Back in the more simple days of the mid-Fifties, when I was old enough to be a young Boy Scout, we had the good fortune that one member of the troop had a father who was a senior pilot for United Air Lines, which was in those days based at Stapleton Field in Denver, Colorado. We got to take a field trip to the UAL hangars, which included the chance to take a flight in a DC-6B "Mainliner," over Denver and the Front Range of the Rockies. I have flown in many airplanes since, but that was my first flight in an airplane I was old enough to remember (I'm told there were two before that at a very early age.), and I have always had a soft spot in my heart for those UAL Mainliners. There was an old Revell release of the DC-6 in UAL markings, which I built as a kid, but other than that, there has been no chance to ever do one of these airplanes otherwise. In the years since Heller released their 1/72 DC-6B, I have often remarked how nice it would be if those markings were available.

Evidently, Jennings Heilig, who owns "Liveries Unlimited," agrees with me, since he has just brought out a this sheet of markings for the UAL Mainliners of the 1950s. In fact, if you want to do any specific aircraft in the fleet, you can do so with these sheets. As always with "Liveries Unlimited," the artwork is excellent and so is the printing quality. The instruction sheet provided has all the information a modeler needs.

That Heller kit is now a future project and I am looking forward to adding this airplane of my childhood memories to the collection.