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:

The cabin door will be removed:

As it often happens when you do this, the kit's floor rests too high, so it has to be lowered a little. For this the aft and front bulkheads are given "extensions" to cover the difference. Notice that cockpit bulkhead (absent in some Electra 12) has been given a kink to match photos. The kink needs to follow the pilots' seats recline below, and be vertical on top:

I am tempted to also open the luggage hatch. The installation of the loo is a sort of trade-mark on my models, so that's a given: 

The luggage hatch is opened, but leaving a sliver of material at the front, as the alignment with the bulkhead was not accurate as molded. Rails are glued to support the floor in its correct position:

The floor now rests aligned with the door:

 

 The aft bulkhead will be modified to allow access to the (to be fabricated) loo, and the luggage area will need boxing up. An extension of the floor will be needed to accompany that.

 The vertical tails come in upper and lower halves. Bear in mind the the rudder halves DO join at the very end after clearing the fixed portion of the horizontal tail (i.e. the rudder can move left and right over it:

Working on the added interior section. To the right in the photo the restroom, to the left the luggage compartment:

The two wing lights and the wing spar (all absent from the kit): are taken care of:

While some planes had one type of toilet, others had a somewhat more discrete arrangement. Both are made to choose later:

Dry run to verify the fit of the cabin:

It was stated above that the luggage hatch was slightly misaligned in regards to the door and aft bulkhead, and a certain amount of material was left uncarved as the hatch was removed. As it happens (and that's why is good to do dry runs) a little bit more of material was needed in addition to the one left. A small piece of styrene is glued, the area masked...

..and puttied. Later it will be sanded, the panel lines restored, and the added material carved to where it needs to be matching the general curves. Concurrently, a little bit of material will be removed from the other end to give the hatch its correct size:

 And just because I like to open stuff up, the nose is cut off and its halves re-glued:

The fuselage halves taped and the walls evenly thinned-down.

After a "corrugated" bulkhead is installed, the nose will be given its light and installed open in the completed model. Most Electra Junior I see online had that nose light tinted red. I have seen (and replicated on models) occasionally red lights described as "passing lights", so perhaps that's it, as the plane had two landing lights under the wings.

Instead of having to thin such small part, the nose is glued on a thick styerene base to be later trimmed to an angled contour (following the part's curvature) and used as a plug to vacuform a thin shell:

The nose is "extended" a little as explained above:

Door and hatch contours are traced on styene placed from the inside:

They are cut and adjusted to fit:

Special Hobby (and many other manufacturers) are known for the vagueness and imprecision of their instructions. You never know exactly where some parts go. This case is not the exception. The cockpit floor needs to be elevated a little...but not to be even with the bottom of the door, or the inst. pan. won't fit properly. Just a little bit up:

Vague, fuzzy instructions have ruined many a wonderful modeling day for me.

Making the thinner nose:

And a spare just in case:

Dry-run of the nose cargo area bulkhead:

Other parts are glued. Regarding the tail feathers, bear in mind that not all L-12 had the mass balance intruding from the rudder into the fin. I finally decanted on the TWA plane, that had them. Besides, as explained above, the rudders extend a little beyond the stab trailing edge, joining their upper and lower halves. The fins' and stab L.E.s are aligned. Be sure you visualize this or you will end up with inaccuracies (I have unfortunately seen that on the Net):

Be sure as well to match the correct halves for the lower engine nacelles. The exhaust location is the clue. 

Whilst the upper parts of the vertical tails are an acceptable fit that requires just minor adjustment, the lower pars are a bad fit, as the pattern maker confused the trailing edge with the leading edge (marked by a second engraved line. If you reverse the part the fit is fair, but you end up with the LE (again, engraved as such) as the TE. So you have to carefully carve the parts until you get a good fit with the LE where it should be, and the TE of the rudder joining its upper half already in place (see photo above). If you have any small gaps, ONLY fill the ones on the fin over the forward part of the stab, not the aft, as the rudder "slid" over it in its normal deflection. 

Now in position: 

 

 

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:

Seats and joysticks are added, as well as rudder bar straps: 

After adding inst.panels, seat belts, and throttle, the fuselage is closed:

Preparing the area for the aftermarket engine:

The oil tank, missing in the kit, is fashioned and added. There is some small plumbing that needs to be done:

A coat of primer revealed some minute mismatching that needed puttying and sanding:

 The tail feathers are added. The visible gaps should not be filled, as the original was like that:

 

 

 

To be continued...