Lockheed Vega 1 Antarctic Expedition - modified Special Hobby 1/72nd scale injected kit

 

Antarctic Vegas

A short while ago modeler extraordinaire Tim Nelson presented his beautiful and very well researched model of the Detroit News-Wilkins Arctic Expedition (1928). As he relates, the model partially stemmed from a conversation that took place long ago on the Wings of Peace forum about the Lockheed Vega planes used by Wilkins for his Arctic and Antarctic expeditions. Participating in the discussion then was another modeler extraordinaire, gentleman and Pugetian: the late Jim Schubert, who shared his vast wisdom. Tim continued to work gathering and refining references for years and finally produced his superb model:

https://hyperscale.com/2026/features/vega72tn_1.htm 

Inspired by his creation, I thought of venturing into modeling the other Vega (X7439) that went together with the one he recreated (X3903) on the expeditions to the other Pole.

This is what I have found so far on that Antarctic endeavor:

After the Arctic expedition Wilkins tackled Antarctica, in his Wikins-Hearst Antarctic Expeditions (1928/29) and (1929/30). The first of those two used the same Lockheed Vega that flew on the Arctic (X3903) plus a second Vega (X7439), both transported aboard the Hektoria

 

 

a whaler that doubled as the expedition base. The second expedition to Antarctica used only one Vega (again the veteran from the Arctic) aboard the William Scoresby 

(the other Vega was left on Antarctica between expeditions, as far I understand, to be later retrieved and send together with the veteran to Argentina at the end of the expeditions). Both planes on these Antarctic Expeditions alternatively used floats (the first to be used on a Vega):

 wheels (both balloon “tundra” tires and regular ones are seen in photos):

 

and skis:

 The two Antarctic Vegas had a very different float setup, though. Curiously, the most significant and longer flight (Dec 1928) :

It was made with X7439, the more “normal looking” Vega on “normal” wheels (i.e. not the tundra ones that were also available) from a prepared tuff and lava field, as the snow had unusually melted earlier that year (remember the Southern Hemisphere has the seasons reversed, so December is Summer). The Lockheed Vega was therefore the first whole plane to be downloaded on Antarctic sole (a fuselage had been before disembarked there some years before), and the first to fly in the continent.

The two Vegas used in Antarctica differed greatly from one another. The first one, heavily modified, remained more or less unchanged from the Arctic Expedition with its particular features: no cabin door, circular opening behind the wing on the fuselage, deletion of some windows and addition of two ventral windows, the window frames, painted in a dark color, look black. Many other details apply. The second Vega used in the Antarctic was more like a stock Vega, with all the windows (in this plane frames were f a light color, not black) and the upward-opening door of the early Vegas. Both had modified interiors with long-range tanks and other equipment. These Vegas had Wright J-5s, the later Vega 5 had Pratt & Whitney Wasps. They didn’t have the aileron balances seen in later ones (which had many other changes as the type evolved). These two Vegas had different canopies, the veteran one had a continuous side canopy panel and reinforced frames painted black:

whilst the second one had the more common two-pane side canopy panel and the metal was left unpainted:

 

Whilst the first Vega had “Vega” on the fin star logo

 the second one had the generic Lockheed star logo, with the lettering “Vega” on top of the star, Lockheed Aircraft inside the star, “Los Angeles” below the star, and the iconic schematic plane, plus again “Lockheed Aircraft Co/ Los Angeles U.S.A.” spanning the vertical tail

Photos captioned at the time as being previous to the most important flight done in Antarctica show the more conventional Vega, on wheels, being loaded and the explorers ready with their backpacks 

This footage shows exactly the same, the more conventional Vega before its momentous Antarctic flight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYyk-NrznCk&t=2s

Curiously, photos of the Arctic Vega on early trials in Los Angeles show a heavily-louvered nose, later changed to a much smoother one for the Arctic flights (the likely reason being that the engine didn’t need as much refrigeration). 

Some of Wilkins’ observations understandably did not pass the test of time, not to mention the sovereignty claims. Still his exploration enterprises have an epic character, and much knowledge was gleaned from them. His expeditions are one more example of how the use of airplanes helped discovery at the time (and still does).

Both Vegas ended up in Argentina, apparently bought for a low price (Uruguay, to whom they were first offered gave them a pass), although some sources speak of a donation. In any case One was deemed not to be in flying condition (reputedly X7439, the less modified that was left on ice) and again according to sources some elements of it were transferred to X3903. Restored more or less to factory standards it saw some useful service, but ended up crashing and being deleted from the register. Nobody apparently realized the significance and importance of these two machines, the first to fly on Antarctica. Shame on the Argentinian authorities of the time. The plane, re-registered as R48 is seen in two schemes. One more modeling possibility!

A myriad of details have to be considered in modeling any of these two polar fliers. Very careful study of photos and a clear idea of the chronology are indispensable. Still, beware of the miscaptioned photos, the confusion of some reporters and publications, and so on.

Several models of the Arctic Vega can be seen online (the one presented here I think would be the first Antarctic Vega), all have great merit and surely deserved hats off, but modelers looking to build these planes should bear in mind that the “Lockheed” legend was only under the right wing, not on top, and in the case of (X3903) the two top windows were higher than in the kit and should be relocated. The planes did not have wingtip nav lights, but little holes presumably for tying down. Other many details apply.

I have previously built two models of the Vega:

The first Vega, Golden Eagle (built using a vacuformed Rareplane vintage kit as a base):

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/11/lockheed-vega-golden-eagle-dole-racer.html

The second model was Mattern’s Vega (built from an MPM kit):

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2012/10/matterns-vega-finished.html

As more information becomes available (mainly photos and newsreels) and our observation powers increase -hopefully in parallel with our modeling skills- better, more accurate models can be produced.

The build will reproduce Vega X7439 -the one that didn’t have the more drastic modifications- on wheels, to represent as explained above the most significant flight of that campaign. 

Perhaps later on X3903 (the highly modified plane) may be represented on floats, again the first Vega to ever use them, but that’s another story.

Many long hours were spent by many modelers trying to establish the colors of the marks used by these planes. As it is the case with B&W photos, at the end it’s a matter of interpretation when written references don’t exist (and those have sometimes found to be inaccurate too). It’s my personal belief that these planes had blue registrations like the first Vega, Golden Eagle, that the Vega logo star was red, and that other lettering may be blue, gold or another color. All of them compared to other known black details look lighter in many photos (not all, though). And much changes depending on light angle, type of film, quality of the photo, etc. So, nothing is written in stone so far and other modelers’ choices should be respected as equally possible.

As you can see, this second Vega is not nearly as challenging as the first one to modify representing the original plane, still, an amount of work is involved as deletions, mods and additions are needed, being the most important the particular nose (no cowl) that neither MPM nor Special Hobby ever included, for some reason (strangely no resin or 3Dprinting manufacturer came up with it either). This is no doubt the most challenging of parts to be fabricated, and Tim Nelson (see beginning of the post) made a very nice one to fit his model, if still needing some tweaking.

One of the many boxings of the Vega (as explained, needs many mods -not to mention special decals- to represent either of the planes described here)

This is a well-known kit, so I won't elaborate on it.

 Whilst I slowly work on the model I will be completing other projects that have priority. Progress will eventually be reported here as usual.

 

To be continued...

Gloster IIIA Schneider Cup - Karaya 1/72nd scale resin

 

                                                               (Photo from Wikipedia)

Oh! Racers! And not just that… Schneider racers! Very exciting always. A number of them are posted on this blog, and today we start the Gloster III from Karaya. This manufacturer should be congratulated for tackling a wonderful series of racers. I have built a few of their kits:

The Supermarine Sea Lion, a nice kit that needs nonetheless some help and corrections:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/07/supermarine-sea-lion-schneider-trophy.html

Their Savoia S.65 that has some visible inaccuracies that must be corrected, and its engineering could use some help:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2020/02/savoia-s65-schneider-cup-modified.html

And the Brown racer, a nice little kit, to which a couple minor details can be added:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/12/brown-b-2-racer-karaya-172nd-resin.html

They are resin kits, and as a media resin kits in general have come a long way. Personally, I think reaching their acme with the SBS releases. Karaya kits I would say are just behind, their subjects are great, and their casting is good.

My sample had a missing joystick (easily replaced) and a broken rudder pedal (again easy to replace) but otherwise all was good. They kindly provide a beaching trolley and a tail support structure, but the trolley doesn’t look like the one in photos (you can make it useful to space and rig the floats after some needed adjustments, though). Control horns are provided as resin parts and those will be replaced by photo-etched items. The exhausts on the original come out of the cowl visibly from the top bank of cylinders, but the kit just has recessed moldings on their position, flattened tube may do here. Other modelers have observed that the floats are somewhat apart of what they should be, they need to be closer (thus modifying the beaching trolley and associated struts). The plans point out to a small piece of film for the windshield that was absent from my box but any thin clear plastic bit will do. The alternate bigger fin doesn’t have a rudder, thus necessitating stealing the one from the early small vertical tail. Modelers have also rightly pointed out that the two halves of the rudder (upper and lower) need to be connected around the fuselage ending cone. 

Other than that, is up to the modeler, looking at photos readily available online, to add small details like the tiny radiator caps, a small L -shaped item after the cabane, a missing third airscoop on the fuselage frontal section, etc. The other small airscoops on the sides are not particularly well rendered -as photos show- because the holes are not on the fuselage skin, but part of the scoop body itself.The wing radiators are too big and need reducing in length and height.

Karaya missed the race numbers located under the wings as this photo shows:

 

WILLARD AUSTIN CARLE MEMORIAL COLLECTION
No. 11353. Gloster IIIA (N194) Royal Navy

Photographed ca. 1925, source unknown

https://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/CarleWillard/11353.htm

Scanning the decal sheet and printing the numbers on decal paper will solve this issue. The fuselage numbers have a thin white line, but because the wings are white -as the tail and struts- the printed black numbers under the wings will be fine (Karaya's box art depicts a scheme that I personally think is inaccurate but others think otherwise):

 The box:

The contents:

The parts:

After separation, cleanup and washing. No short pours and just two pinholes easily filled. Most parts are easy to separate from their casting blocks and easy to clean up, no problems occurred during those operations:

 Some reference material will be interspersed as the model is built:

 These photos and drawings show the engine as used for other racers, but the Gloster III had the top bank exhausts to the other side (the III had a VII and not VIIB):

Notice the airscoops, trolley, radiators, Pitot (see notes above):

Lower wings, fuselage and floats have locating devices. They work pretty well, only one float needed adjusting. Tail feathers and struts will need metal pins. The location of the struts is not marked on the wings and should be deduced from the 3-view in the instructions and photos. 

 Preparing some parts for priming and painting:

 

A coat of primer on some of the parts revealed a very good surface with little to touch up:

The plan to reduce the size of the radiators consists on shaving top and bottom for a flatter curve -thus reducing height- and cut an end section to be replaced by styrene sheet mimicking the other side's end plate -thus reducing length. The depth looks ok. The LE will need a small supplement to make up for the shorter length:

 The race positions:

The engine (Napier -Lion VII):

Trials (too little too late). Went to America with very few flights and basically no real training, still, no chances again the much speedier American winner. An honorable second plane, though. 

 The predecessor, Gloster II. Notice the position of the radiators (covered in the photo):

These small cleat/eyelets were not present in this plane wearing the number 5 (N-195), but they were on the other Gloster III (N-194). They need to be removed if doing "5":

 I decided to remove the pins, very lightly sand the contact areas flat to obtain a better edge at the bottom and less fuss wit the filler:

Pay attention at how the struts do not connect on the spine centerline of the floats, but a little inwards. Also notice the painted white metal sheet where the struts anchor on the floats. Very unfortunately Karaya did not indicate where the struts go either on fuselage or floats (the floats do have rectangular sections engraved in the general area). This added to the no location marks for the wing struts or even a line to indicate the position of the fins, I find it cheeky:

 The noses of the floats tended to weer apart a little, and I couldn't completely coerce them in, so a smidgen of putty needs to applied and sanded to shape:

As noted above, the kit's radiators are oversize, and need reducing in height and length. Once this was done the end that was sanded down is given an end plate back (that will be trimmed to match the resin part):

 

 

To be continued...