Styrene

Styrene

Sunday, July 20, 2014

1/72 Williams Brothers Northrop Gamma

From the archives (2006):
 

If you would like to see other, newer builds of this kit that involve also involve conversions, you can find them here in this blog:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2017/07/modified-northrop-gamma-experimental.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2017/05/conqueror-gamma-conversion-completed.html

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/07/twin-wasp-northrop-gamma-jackie-cochran.html


This is a very appealing plane that shows all the glamour of the golden era of aviation. Northrop talent for design shines from every angle. Radial engine, cowl, spats, wing fillets, back position of the canopy, the way the lines blend, all these features rendering what we usually call a "classic".

The Williams Brothers kit allows you to represent four variants of the plane in different stages of its career. The white injected plastic, at least in my case, made it difficult to visually "grab" the pieces. I would rather prefer light grey plastic.
The material is also soft, and when sanded, peels in a somewhat strange way. Paints don't adhere very well either. May be this was just a particular production batch. Some flash is also present. The fit is mostly OK and construction is simple. An excellent Scale-Master decal set is included.
The model was given a coat of grey primer, which I found has a coarser grain than white primers, This resulted in a not very smooth metal finish. I usually work some panels in a slightly different hue, but this time, to avoid masking, I used shades of the same paint (Testors enamel) with small amounts of black and blue to produce some variations. Canopy frames are strips of painted decal, thus avoiding again the chore of masking.







UPDATE

Hello everybody
I have been uploading dozens of builds that were posted in many sites over the time, in an attempt to consolidate all the models in the same place. Actually I have about 30 or 40 more that I did not upload here for several reasons.
As it is now, it took the form of a racconto of my modeling endeavors over a period of about 8 years, starting in 2006.
It encompasses many scratchbuilding projects -from the very first of them, the Stipa/Caproni- as well as models made of vacuformed, resin and  short and long run injected "normal" kits, plus conversions, adaptations, etc.
I hope these models -and especially the photographic chronicles of their building process- will inspire other modelers to venture beyond the standard subjects and techniques. If they do, they may find the experience highly rewarding, as I certainly do.
The last postings of this blog before uploading the archives correspond to the Potes 62.1 airliner and the Stinson "A", those two are the last models I have built so far.
From the archives I posted models that were as diverse as I could, some are simple, others more complex, some came out ok enough, some a little better. The idea is to offer as much as possible a broad view of with what and how can models be built -and sometimes even why- in all the available media and particularly scratchbuilding, from the more simple first steps to more elaborate projects.
Whenever possible, I added relevant -or better- pictures or text -not present in the original articles- and corrected some mistakes.
In these 8 years I have built more than 250 models, not all here, but a large number of them are posted and you can browse the blog to your heart's content.
I would also like to take a moment to express my gratitude to my fellow modelers and friends, aviation historians, publishers, kit makers (but not all of them :-) and all people to whom we are directly or indirectly indebted.  A special wink to my two sons: I share with them different aspects of the hobby, and also to the members of the secret society known as Ornithopters.
I am no expert, and many, many, many modelers build incredible pieces that make me gasp in awe.
I am just an enthusiast, but I do have an agenda. I would like the modeling world to open up more to new types of models, from the Pioneer Era to the Golden Age, which convey a very different message and intentionality than killing machines, and I believe the glamor, adventure, creativity and strong will of those pioneers can touch the heart and mind -especially of a kid- in a very different way than a plane that carries loads of bombs and armament and was used to kill people, whichever the reasons. That means no disrespect for any model or modeler, just a personal choice and a personal call. If you hear the same voice, even if very faintly, I invite you to have a look at another region of the Modeling Universe. One you can share more constructively with sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, any little people, and many adults.

Welcome

Scratch-built 1/72 Johnson Uni-plane 1934

From the archive (2007):

To say that the Johnson’s Uni-plane of 1934 was once offered by his builder to a hamburger company to make flying advertisement will completely make the case. The builder, though, couldn’t: due to an unfortunate crash upon take off -one in a series of them, if I may add- sponsorship was unplugged.
At a mere 14 feet span (about 4.27 meters) massive it is not, but oozes charm. A Church Marathon of 42 hp took the plane to the air, but since in its first incarnation it had only control in two axis (no ailerons), it was extremely difficult to make it stay there. Further development included a single vertical tail and the missing ailerons, but this lovely machine stubbornly refused to stay aloft. It made, though, a series of straight-line long hops and eventually –err, after some crashes- reached plane’s heaven, wherever that may be.
Some info can be consulted at http://aerofiles.com/_j.html looking under the plane’s name.
Oh, behold the strange shape of the Uni-plane! Any resemblance with the “Voyager” of “Star Trek” or the nose of the “Seaview” from “Voyage to the bottom of the sea” is a mere coincidence.
The (not-to-be) flying hamburger is another proud member of a long lineage of airborne food items like the Lee-Richards annular wing –AKA flying doughnut-, Charles Zimmerman’s “flying pancakes”, B. I. Cheranovsky’s “flying croissants” and so forth.

With this one, the expression “piece o’cake” reaches new heights.

Enjoy!










TEMA 1/72 KHAI-1

From the archive (2009):

The KHAI-1 was the first Russian passenger plane to operate with a retractable landing gear. It was fast for the time and had some degree of comfort, including a restroom. Its design premises were advanced, although did not include extensive metal construction for the airframe. They aimed to streamlining and to an easy and affordable construction, a must at that time for Russian aeronautic endeavors. The plane was mostly made of wood and covered in plywood and received treated fabric on top of the wood skin, creating a smooth surface.

   The KHAI-1 was designed as a supervised student project at the Kharkov Aviation Institute. After approval one prototype was built and was found to meet and exceed expectations. 43 of these 6-seat wooden wonders were built in total with some modifications and used in regular passenger services.
   Later modifications of the type included –among others- a change in engine (M-22 for the production versions), repositioning of the access door, different location and number of windows, revision of the rudder/fin shape, addition of one more piece to the wheel covers in order to completely hide the gear in the retracted position, moving forward the tail skid, extension of the cockpit turtledeck and the deletion of one seat to make up for the increase in weight due to structure strengthening. I am pretty sure these other versions could be done with some mods. The first two configurations of the plane are what can be built with the kit. The initial one had no Townend ring and a wood prop; the second is depicted on the box with Townend ring and variable-pitch prop
   TEMA’s 1/72 rendition of the Neman KHAI-1 contributed to reveal to the modeling world the beauty of a Russian plane which not many modelers were aware of.
   If you never heard before of TEMA, do not panic. Now we have also in the market AModel’s release (marketed as HAI-1, not quite the Russian pronunciation), which seems to have used basically the same mold and add an extra, much more complete sprue for the engine. The parts look cleaner in this Amodel release too.  
   Construction started by cleaning up some rough spots and flash present in some of the parts, as per photos, but that was accomplished without trouble. Otherwise the molds have a reasonable quality and even some subtle details on the parts, like the ribbing on the control surfaces. Unlike other short-run kits, most of parts are keyed and not just butt-joined. The fit wasn’t perfect, and needed some work. Areas to be careful (meaning you will have to sand and check for the fit a few times) are the cabin floor (as it is, it doesn’t fit inside the fuselage comfortably –surprise!) and the dreaded wing to fuselage joint. The latter being the worst on my kit.
   I found some references on the Net, among them a detailed plan, but photos were not of a good quality in general. Nevertheless enough was gathered to proceed.
   Part #16 on the sprues –the instrument panel- is not present in the building sequence instructions.      
   The kit could be assembled “as is” after some minor refinement but also more could be done if so you wish. An aft bulkhead could be added, perhaps a few details in the cockpit like rudder pedals, may be the landing gear doors could be refined a tad. Perhaps the decals’ carrier could be trimmed closer to the images. The real plane had a simple toilet located opposite the access door, on the right hand side of the fuselage. Transparencies are good enough and have a reasonable fit. Beware that the fuselage door is included in the transparencies’ sprue, so you have to mask the door window and paint the part with the rest of the fuselage. White styrene sometimes fools you because it makes it difficult to catch mistakes and gaps. So, in spite of the above-mentioned reasonable fit of the transparencies, I managed to glue them too far “inland”, and not flush with the fuselage exterior. By the time I realized it, they were fantastically glued. That no doubt should be attributed to the fact that they were in the wrong position. Then I put too much Future in a hopeless intent to gain some thickness but instead I achieved a sticky cake of dubious transparency. That, also, should be attributed to the fact that I spent a lot of time detailing the interior, now barely visible.
   Some small additions were made on the engine area to make it a bit more detailed, like pushrods, modification of the front “shield” and exhaust tubes (18!) that had very personal ideas regarding which way they should go. Cockpit and cabin received uplifting home-made addendums –toilet included- as per images in this article. A toilet paper roll –made of real tissue paper- was also added. I always wanted to do that.
   The vertical stabilizer is molded complete on one fuselage side, not exactly in the middle which is correct, as the real plane had it so to compensate for engine torque.
What is not correct is the building sequence diagram (by the way, not the most brilliant I have seen) which shows the fork of the landing gear going along the short leg of the cover. It goes along the long leg of the cover. If this is true for the real plane too, I can’t tell from the photos I have, but if assembled as per instructions, you will be in trouble.
Parts that were metal in the original were given a gloss black base and painted with Alclad II. The rest was model railroad acrylic alu paint over a white primer. Color trim was also acrylic. The kit box shows the painting scheme on the back..
   The decals’s carrier was trimmed a bit closer to the images, but in applying them (fortunately under the wing) I discovered that the carrier was way too much evident. The usual tricks didn’t render an acceptable result, so I scanned the decal sheet and printed it on a laser printer on a decent decal paper. I have no idea how good the decals are on the Amodel release, but I hope they are better.
    Now, we have here a situation that is common in the hobby: I very nice subject that the mainstream manufacturers are very unlikely to touch and the limitations of a given media (whatever that happen to be, short run, vac, etc). So yes, you have to exercise those modeling skills and learn new ones. Hey, isn’t that remarkable similar to life itself?



























1/72 Wiley Post's Orion/Explorer Hybrid (Special Hobby modified kit with Khee-Kha floats)


From the archive (2010):

The year is 1935. Wiley Post, renowned pilot, is putting together a hybrid plane made of a Lockheed Orion fuselage and the wing of a lesser known Lockheed type, the Explorer.

The wing of the Explorer is about six feet longer in span than the original wing, and to add to that Wiley wants his plane to be able to land on water, so he attaches two EDO floats. To compensate for the increase in weight, a beefed-up power plant replaces the original one. People at Lockheed apparently weren’t exactly thrilled about those modifications at the time.
Companion in his adventure is the no less renowned Will Rogers, comedian, humorist, writer and actor.
The flight, thought as a way to explore possible routes to Russia and to provide writing material for Rogers, unfortunately ends in disaster in Alaska with the loss of the two lives.
The graceful lines of the Orion are indeed pleasant enough, but with the longer wing and the floats, the total becomes more than the sum of its parts, if you allow me this Gestaltean digression.
I got the Special Hobby Orion release as a starting point. I am glad manufacturers are venturing with iconic civilian releases, and I hope it is a trend that will continue. This kit has been in the market for a while and has been reviewed plentifully, so I won’t abound in details. Suffice to say that it is a short-run release with a large number of resin bits and vac canopy included, good cockpit detail, no cabin detail, butt joints and exuberant panel lines. A nice set of decals (that went unused for this model) completes the package. For a moment I considered using the kit’s wing, splicing it and adding a center section, but the work surely would have been long and tiring, and the wheel area had to be deleted anyway, so I opted instead for scratching a new wing.
The floats were no problem, since Khee-Kha Art Products from Alaska -besides its range of bushplane vacuformed kits- has a wonderful, well made and well detailed range of resin EDO floats. I ordered the J-5300 (based on masters produced originally by Jim Schubert) from them. They came with the water rudders, control arms and cleats, all well detailed and flawlessly cast.
I have used Khee-Kha’s products before and was extremely pleased with them and their customer service.
So I had the Orion’s kit fuselage, Khee-Kha’s floats and the scratch-built wing.
Some reports state the interior of the plane lodged quite a bit of cargo; in order to do that it is probable that some seats were removed, but lacking references on the matter I opted to paint the cabin matt black. The resin engine that comes with the kit is very nice, and given the fact that in this particular machine the engine is covered by a frontal plate used to reduce airflow in winter or cold climates, I decided to save the resin engine and swap it for a good white metal one that had a little less detail. You get a spare cylinder for the resin engine, but you get exactly the number of injected clear windows you need for the cabin, in spite of the fact that they were molded longer than necessary and that you have to tailor them to fit –as indicated in the instructions-. Guess who lost a window to the “twing” dimension and ended up making one from a cd cover?
It would be nice if the manufacturers would add a spare part when you have multiples, like in struts, seats, etc. I am sure the cost should not be impacted too much, and will give the modeler a second chance when minute parts jump into the “twing” and “twang” dimensions.
As it is almost invariably the case with resin interiors you have to spend a couple hours trying to make two objects occupy the same space at the same time, which, as anybody knows, is a physics’ impossibility (although apparently not for some manufacturers).
Once the fuselage was closed a missing luggage hatch was added, and an air intake was glued to the right-hand side of the cowl. The fit of the scratch wing was adjusted and before gluing it the wing was given some cautious surface detail. The locations for the float struts, Pitot, landing lights and nav lights were prepared. Some  hoisting lugs and bumps underneath were added at this point too.
Floats were given the right track (as per Khee-Kha instructions), bridged with two brass airfoiled struts (from “Strutz”), and the inverted “V” upright struts were also fixed to facilitate ulterior joining with the wing (after painting, since they were different colors).
Once the main parts were put together the puttying and sanding cycle ensued, the task I unfortunately enjoy the least. Well, it is not that “I enjoy it the least”, actually I really don’t like it. More so, I blatantly hate it.
Once the primer stage arrived I coated lightly some areas of the model and heavily some others (on the fuselage) in an attempt to subdue the too prominent panel lines.
Now, I must warn you here about a little known law of physics, the infamous Pugetian Principle. It states that when you don’t want to cover your beautiful panel lines, they will be utterly obliterated at the slightest pass of the primer, but when you want them to be less obvious or at least fade a bit they will resist any kind of overcoat you can throw at them, no matter how thick.
The Orion/Explorer hybrid was overall red with silver/aluminum floats, registrations, trim and tail marks. I painted the silver/aluminum color with a lacquer and coated it with Future in preparation for the subsequent actions. My plan was to cut masks for the registrations, and they came up so so. Then again to the rescue came Christos of Alabama with the silver decals. He saved my two last projects with his kind generosity.
Again, as with the Clark GA-43, I used some CMK navigation lights. They are good, although a tad expensive for my pocket. Some of them, usually the bigger ones, for some obscure reason, are mounted in flat, rectangular-section stalks, instead of the round thin stalks used for the smaller lights. This makes mounting them a pain in the neck. Why they are not all of them mounted in round-section stalks has no logic to me, since it would make installing them in a previously-drilled hole a breeze. Cutting them out of the useless stalks and then trying to glue them I lost four to the Twang dimension.
Once the main subassemblies were ready they were put together with a sigh of relief.
I added the home-made Venturis and then started to peel-off the window masks. Or try too. You see, I decided to use again the Mr. Masking Sol Neo, in spite of a not pleasant experience with the Vultee V-1. What I can say now is that my very short acquaintance –to call it friendship would be indeed excessive- with this product is hereby terminated. The mask became –because may be for the use of primers-  a sort of gooey ectoplasmatic blob that resisted removal and could make the delights of a class z science fiction producer. I was not completely successful in the removal what didn’t want to ruin the surroundings using a harsh product.
The canopy was added and its frames were represented by painted decals. Then the Pitot and the walkway were positioned and it was time to seat back after the intensive ride.
All in all not a pharaonic enterprise thanks to the readily available Khee-Kha floats and Orion kit. You only need to add that wing. And a few hours work J
 I hope Wiley is smiling somewhere.

I would like to thank Jim Schubert, Lars Opland and Christos Psarras for their generous help.

Khee-Kha (the manufacturer of the resin floats that also has a range of vacuformed bushplanes) can be reached here: