RarePlanes 1/72 Vacuformed Bell Airacuda

I made this model of the RarePlanes kit a long time ago. Later on I was acquainted via email with its maker, the great and only late Gordon Stevens, a true pioneer of the model-making industry

Be this little article a homage to him and to the many lone wolves that have provided and still provide us (hi Lars Opland!) with wonderful things that usually are not found anywhere else.

Be this also a humble praise to the technique of vacuforming (or vacuum-forming) itself, a media as valid as any other.

It is not really necessary to elaborate on the Airacuda; it is a well known plane and information is readily available, so if it warms the cockles of your heart, exercise your fingers on the keyboard and go look around.

The only thing I will say is that it is unconventional, and even in spite of being out of my modeling ideological envelope, I felt like modeling it, since it looks mostly like a fantasy plane of some comic magazine from the 30’s.

Rare Plane vacuformed kits are well regarded among the secretive and dangerous underground vacuform modeling community. They are not longer in production, and were created decades ago. The surface detail is good, mainly of the raised variety. They were produced in female molds, thus retaining the surface detail of the original master. My kit came with a detailed plan and succinct building instructions. No decals or resin or metal parts.

I know, today we have the three Valom kits –different versions-, easier to build, but not as easy on your wallet (definitely not on mine). Or the LF kit, which seems also piquant to your budget, thanks very much; or an arcane FE resin version for about the same price.

I bought this kit from a retired couple that had a small booth in the vendor’s area at the Anaheim Nationals, some years ago, for a few dollars. They not only had nice kits and very fair prices, but also bright smiles. I do not remember their names, unfortunately, but if you guys are reading this THANKS!

In cutting out the parts from the backing sheet –which was an easy process- I was surprised by the thickness of the transparencies’ sheet; about 1.5 millimeters. In my kit they had yellowed a bit. The smaller clear bits like light covers are better made with thinner clear sheet instead of using the ones provided. I left out the landing gear legs, tailwheel and the props, since these parts don’t really lend themselves to be molded effectively in vacuform media. I found suitable Aeroclub white metal props and tail wheel, and fabricated the LG legs.

There were a number of modifications and versions of this plane, and the Rare Plane model depicts the tail-dragger early type, XFM-1, so check your references. I went for the very first, unarmed machine of September 1937.

The manufacturer instructs the builder to break the lower wing panels into the appropriate dihedral. The wings need some areas to be cut out, and some internal structure was added at the coolers and wheel well locations including reinforcements for the gear legs, as can be seen in the photos. Some additional parts were made for the periscope opening bellow the nose and the tail wheel support.

The clear parts, oddly thick as mentioned before, required some serious sanding and careful tracking in order to have a good fit. That clear plastic is of course of a different nature than the rest and handles not as well. For a moment I thought I’ll use the clear parts as masters for thinner transparencies, but the concern of melting down or deform them led me to cut out just the area that is actually clear in the plane and make a wood master to vac a clear part without a seam in the middle. At the end of the build –of course!- I realized acetone will glue the clear plastic.

A tube spar was used for the stabs and the wings had their own locating devices molded-in.

The job of smoothing out the seams, filling, sanding, priming, touching-up, etc. ensued, with its characteristic low pace, further aggravated by the sensation that you are working on three fuselages. It is important, though, to do a good job, since this bird has a metal finish and needs a nice surface.

Meanwhile the home-made decals were printed and some attention was paid to minor parts like the antenna, wheel well doors, landing lights recesses boxing-in, etc.  The wheels, props and the like were painted and decaled and the MV lenses selected. The engine pod modules lacked the exhausts on the inner sides, so there were fashioned from styrene rod. Control surfaces were covered in fabric in the original and silver doped, so those were painted accordingly. Clear part frames were done with decal strips.

So there you have it, an exhaustive and well documented review of a kit that you will not be able to buy.

You are welcome :-)