August 10th 2019 Update:
A few kits are trickling in from eastern Europe, and it can now be confirmed that the kit is, in fact, a Convair 440. It has square exhausts where the 340 had round exhausts. Whether the engine cowls are “more streamlined” than those on the 340 remains open to debate. Most other differences are internal, but one fairly significant difference is that the 440 had re-arranged cabin baggage storage that allowed 2 extra rows of seats increasing capacity to 52 passengers, and with an extra cabin window both sides to give them a view.
Original Post Follows:
The long awaited Roden Convair 340 (ROD334) has just passed the outer marker! A quick look at the sprues suggests that two nose cones are included, the original blunt nose and later longer nose cone that housed the weather radar.
The decal provided is for N5506K as delivered to Hawaiian Airlines in 1952.
This airframe still exists, and has an interesting history. It was converted to a series 580 with Allison turboprop engines in 1967 and delivered to Allegeny Airlines as N5834. I saw it as such at Toronto International in June 1970. I logged it again as F-FAUF with Soundair, again at Toronto in July 1988, then with Canair Cargo (see AHS4037) also as C-FAUF in September 1991. It is still flying as XA-UPL with Air Tribe, operating fairly regularly into Phoenix, where I saw it in April 2019. It’s older than me, and still earning its keep!
ETA in stock is mid to late August 2019. Please click ROD334 to pre-order for first delivery.
