Texaco Wings of Texaco "The Duck" 1936 Keystone-Loening Commuter

It's real, it's sturdy, my husband loved it. Great price, too!

Product was in excellent shape.

The review option brought this up as a toy. It is marketed as an Adult Collectable. It would be pretty expensive and too fragile as a toy. This is one of Ertl's best made aircraft. Released first as a Wings Of Texaco Model in 2000, then as a Chevron Airplane Series in 2007. This is a great looking model. More detail than most Ertls. Panel lines, which in the case of this aircraft would have screw heads instead of rivets, are cast in this model. Hatches and access panels are detailed. Colors are mostly red, with a white vertcal stabiliser and struts. The engine nacelle and propeller are white. The "windows" are cast-in, and painted black. The underside of the hull is red plastic that matches the painted metal well. The landing gear is made of red plastic, a little darker than the rest of the plane. Better detailed than average, with correct balloon tires and even the swivel joints molded into the axles. The tail wheel, while represented, is all red. On the later Chevron version, it is painted black with a silver hub. Markings are all pad printed (a paint process), clear and sharp. The Texaco logos on both sides of the tail are mismatched in their orientation to the rest of the plane. Don't know if that is correct or not. Two other examples of this model at the store had them mismatched as well. I find four flaws in the model's design - One: The crankcase, exhaust, and propeller are white. I doubt these parts would be white on the actual plane, but they look good as a desktop model. Two: The actual engines used on the Keystone-Loening Commuter had nine cylinders. On this model, there is the appearance of eight cylinder heads without the cylinders. They don't stick out enough, the engine should be half again larger in diameter. It is really not as noticeable as it sounds, but I'm a former airplane mechanic. Three: The left wing strut does not set down into the lower wing as far as the right strut does. I found the same difference on the other two examples the store had. By what photos I could find online, this appears to be true of all the Texaco Keystone Loening models. At any rate, it is a small difference. Either the base of the strut is thicker, or the recess in the wing is less deep. I have two of the Chevron Keystone Loenings, and neither of them has this difference, so it must have been corrected by the time of their production. Four: The rudder hinge is too far forward, ahead of the elevator hinges. If actual, the rudder couldn't move. Another very small nitpick: The horizontal stabiliser is slightly loose. This is common on diecast models where it is just "trapped" between two other parts; no big deal if only slight. One of the other two examples I examined had this loose also. I really like the looks of this model. I rate it slightly below the Chevron version, on both accuracy of detail and build quality, but still nice. It outdoes the Chevron on one count. The cast-in "window" over the passenger cabin is painted black to represent a window. On the Chevron version it is left the same color as the lower wing, orange. This Texaco model does not come with a metal display stand, while the Chevron version does, but just as well. I never could get the stand in a secure position under the model, anyway! One reason I stick to display cases over stands. I am a very hard reviewer on these models, and this one is well ahead of most diecast aircraft in this price range. I enjoy it very much. I was also amazed at the number of photos and amount of information I found online about the actual Keystone-Loening Commuter. This was a very significant aircraft.