Lockheed L-12 Electra Junior - Special Hobby 1/72nd scale

 

Oh, the irresistible lure of classics!

Those who peruse these posts -or know me- know that I feel a sometimes uncontrollable attraction towards airplane oddballs. Many rara avis examples populate these virtual pages. But, as if yearning back to Apollonian archetypes, every now and again a classic would land on my building board.

Having built before the bigger version of the Electra, the L-10:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2018/07/lockheed-electra-10e-amelia-earhart.html

I felt it needed company, so this L-12 box was extricated from the deepest corners of the stash dungeons. In checking current availability, I found that I may be a millionaire, as this kit was sold on a virtual market for the absurd price of $140+*.   

For those unfamiliar with the kit, this is a review by the late Jim Schubert:

https://www.internetmodeler.com/2001/june/first-looks/specialhobby_lockheed12.htm

In addition of the kit’s resin perks, I gathered from the spares box pax seats (absent from the kit), an unrelated vertical tail that can be fashioned into a third middle one -sometimes wore by the L-12-, wheels with different hubs if so the choice of plane requires it, home-made landing light lenses (missing from the kit) and masks (the latter not at all my preferred type/brand, but that’s what’s available). The kit’s engines are not bad, but are bland and have a too prominent crankcase, as if it were the geared type (which was not the case for these planes). My boxing has clear plastic cabin windows (rattling unprotected inside the general bag) but a vacuformed canopy (I see this has yellowed in some kits, so not the best way to go I am afraid).

As I hardly ever use the decals in a kit, and almost invariably go for new ones, the exciting stage of choosing the specific planes comes. These airframes captured my attention: NACA 99 and 97 (both with the three vertical tails and additional equipment), Department of Commerce/Civil Aeronautics Authority NS-1, and California Central Airlines N71K.:

http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac3/Airline/California%20Central%20Airlines%20Lockheed%2012A.html 

As a sidenote there is a civil “Videroe” sheet made by Mika Jernfors (Arctic Decals) for Lima November Decals. Additionally Draw Decal offers a TWA sheet.

Other examples of L-12 schemes can be found here in this PDF, including “Gilmore” and Milo Bucham racer “20”.

https://www.simelas.com/images/pilot_secrets/LockheedL12a_LFLU-2007-08/L12a-sn1226.pdf

Special Hobby as we know has to be commended for releasing a number of civil planes. So, the kit was a success, as demonstrated by its total unavailability and bonkers re-sell price, then why the same -or other- manufacturer doesn’t release it again? What about the iconic L-14 Super Electra for which no civil kit exists? Same with the Lodestar. Ah… I see, the industry is too busy making the arch-known and overly common Nth version of a military kit. 

We are all familiar at this point with "short run" technology. No locating devices, a bit of flash, not particularly sharp molds and sometimes soft detail. The kit: 

Aftermarket parts and spare box items:

Home-made lenses (the kit has none):

Instructions are fair, mostly. The cockpit bulkhead was actually kinked (see the door edge in the photo below from the Net):

Major parts separated off the sprues. ALL parts require cleaning:

Several ejector tower need removal on various parts:

Cabin windows with the usual distortion:

Two canopies, unfortunately covering different types, so no spare:

Bland, too soft detail on the engines:

Not very sharp landing gear legs:

Ejector towers removed from the fuselage inner walls:

The resin parts removed from their pouring blocks, tedious, but not difficult...unless...Both the inst. panel and cockpit floor cracked while removing their too thick pouring blocks. The control wheels are unusable and new ones need to be fashioned:

 

 

To be continued...

RWD-8 DWL (civil) - PZW 1/72nd scale injected kit plus some aftermarket items

 

 Simple, elegant small civil planes have an irresistible charm. Usually building them is accomplished without much trouble, they do not take much time, and can be handled easily. A nice detail can be added here and there to spruce-up the final product. For me they are great "in between" projects when dealing with bigger, more complex models.

Some old kits tend to hold their own well thru time. This is one example of that. I have built it before (from a kit courtesy of Evil Genius Soenke S.) -with some necessary improvements- as the flying surfaces’ detail is overdone and the kit is missing the oil reservoir on the fuselage lower left, after the engine. Other small details can be added or modified too to improve the result:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2019/01/rwd-8-172-completed.html

There is a newer IBG kit, that for what I can see online is better in some respects, but seems to need help in others too.

For this build I will be using some aftermarket details in the form of Part P.E. details, an adapted Dekno Models 3D-printed engine, and Yahu instrument panels.  Sagittarius Polish decals should complete the package (remainder regs on the sheet that I used before). At some point there was on the market a replacement set of wings and other details (for the IBG kit, but perhaps adaptable), but I don’t see them offered anymore. A cloned iteration of this PZW-72 kit was released by ZTS Plastyk. Another release by Mistercraft seems to include the oil tank (omitted in the others) molded on the fuselage.

The areas not to be puttied are masked:

The intrados molded anchoring points for the struts are removed as they are out of scale. Locating holes are drilled instead:

Putty applied on the wings, sanded, and the masks removed. The elevator horns, again off scale, are removed:

In order to enhance the model, the fuselage sides need an intervention:

Work starts on the fuselage. The exit point of the external control cables is drilled. A luggage compartment is cut out, the front of the fuselage sides is cut and one "cheek" opened to eventually show the engine:

The oil tank space is cut, remaining plastic in some spots is removed to clear the way for the engine:

Part of what will be used to enhance the model. Only some of the P.E. parts will be added, and the engine needs a couple touches to better resemble the original Walter:

Flying surfaces ready to prime:

Diverse holes for control cables, rigging and horns are drilled:

The footholds are cut open (will be backed from inside with small pieces of styrene sheet). The air intake for the engine is slightly enlarged, and the walls thinned from inside the part:

Strangely, the kit is missing the anchoring points for the external cabane struts, perhaps the designer thought of just butt-joining them. These are drilled as I will be utilizing more to scale Strutz brass material (once again thanks to John Adams of Aeroclub fame and Andrew Nickeas of Fogland):

What's left of the Sagittarius decal sheet I used for the previous model will be utilized here:

 

HEY! IS NO KINGS DAY!

The other parts are separated from the sprues. Some will be substituted for better home-made items. The prop is cleaned up and thinned:

 

More from the NO KINGS really yesterday. A smart one: 

This one in Hawaiian pidgin is something like "Rotten loser mfkr":

The kit's seats, that are not bad, are substituted for the P.E. ones that are more accurate:

The elevator horns (pinched in the tweezers) are very small and will be used. The rudder horns and handles will be replaced, but good of the manufacturer to provide them:

The tailskid will also be replaced although again they are ok for a quick build:

The joysticks molding was slightly mismatched, new ones are made from micro tubes:

The replacement handles that go at the fuselage rear:

 The three partial bulkheads are removed and the fuselage walls in the area thinned down, as the aftermarket inst. panels need more clearance:

A bit of structure:

A wash and dry in preparation for priming and painting:

A new tail kid is fashioned from laminations of soda can aluminium, as I used the P.E. part from the fret in the previous model:

A firewall, bulkhead and luggage compartment are fashioned and glued before painting:

 Primer on flying surfaces and replacement strut material, black prop as per sources, and neutral color on fuselage:

 

 

To be continued...

Northrop Delta Ellsworth Antarctic Expedition - modified Special Hobby 1/72nd scale

This is a nice kit that can be built into an attractive model with just a smidgen of extra effort and in a reasonable time, but bear in mind that its short-run nature requires a modicum of experience.

The step-by-step building article can be consulted here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2026/02/northrop-delta-1d-ellsworth-antarctic.html

As I am a bit of a nitpicker I replaced a few components, besides of course adding or altering what was needed to obtain the Antarctic flier. For all the effort put into the real plane, it was only able to realize one flight inland taking Ellsworth and his pilot J.H. Lymburner. He dropped a cylinder from the plane with a territorial claim for the US… as you do. It reminds me of the brilliant comedian Eddie Izzard take on colonialism: “Do you have a flag?” (some cursing involved):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTduy7Qkvk8 

A nice aftermarket set from Arctic Decals completed the build. This set can be used even without the ski modifications made to this model, as it was transported first on wheels while already wearing the expedition scheme.

Besides a few images, not much was found in terms of references, and the interior remains mostly a guess. This was an executive plane that was modified to accompany the 4^th and last Ellsworth expedition to Antarctica in 1938/39, equipped with skis and long-range tanks. Other external changes can be spotted in photographs. These details were replicating by modifying the kit’s parts, adding others, and scratching a couple other things. The decal set as mentioned was produced by Arctic Decals (convenient for an antipodal Antarctic subject) to their usual high standards.

Some of the changes to the kit are listed below, but not all are a must, for example you could use the kit’s engine, which is ok to a degree, and you do not need to open the door.

-generic cabin interior fabricated (no photos found of it so far):

-door opened

-three windows blanked as per photos

-Pitot and Venturi replaced

-cabin windows replaced

-engine replaced

-prop replaced

-wing lights drilled and lenses added

-missing runners under the belly fabricated and added

-aileron linkages fabricated and added

-elevator counterweights fabricated and added

-pants modified

-skis fabricated

-nav lights added

-wire antenna added

My thanks to Lars Opland of Khee-Kha Art Products and Mika Jernfors at Arctic Decals.