From the archives (2011):
The Lockheed family (Altair, Orion, Vega, Sirius) and the
Northrop family (Alfa, Beta, Gamma, Delta) share an appeal that's easy to
appreciate. Because of their exquisitely flowing lines and their aura of
glamour they often become a reference paradigm of the Golden Era .
Of its multiple feats and certain prowess much is already
written to be repeated here, so go and look around if you are not familiar with
the types and their achievements, you won’t regret it.
The Lockheed Altair that is the subject of this build gained
its place in history -as it seems to be the case for almost every member of
this remarkable breed- attempting a record flight.
I’ll refer you to Wikipedia where you will find sufficient information to
have a general idea of the facts involved with this particular subject:
Surprisingly enough, and in spite of the fame and appeal of
the types cited above, there is not really much about those magnificent planes
regarding kits. The reason is clear, the industry is too busy producing the
umpteenth kit of a really, really, really beaten to death and arch-known war
plane. I bet you heard that before. So here again the minor players and the
cottage industry –bless them- come to the rescue, this time in the form of the
1/72 LF models Lockheed Altair resin kit. As far as I can tell they released two
schemes: J-BAUC (a Japanese civil machine) and a US “yellow wings” version. But
the fellow enthusiast that commissioned this model wanted Lady Southern Cross, a
choice that I supported heartily. This friend sourced some aftermarket decals and we were all set. Or so we believed.
Upon arrival -after a couple of hand changes- the very small
and thin gauge-lidded box revealed what seemed –more later- to be a decently
molded resin kit, with good decals, TWO vacuformed canopies (thanks LF,
modelers really do appreciate that) a photoetched set to cater for the cockpit
details, a length of wire to reinforce the landing gear, a piece of clear
styrene for the landing light and a fuselage window (more on that later) and
the traditional resin parts attached to their casting blocks. The fuselage
floor and the two joysticks were missing, because the pouch containing the
resin parts had a slit (through which they possible escaped and are now lying
on a Brazilian beach drinking piña colada). Manufacturer’s fault? vendor’s
fault? laws of physics’ fault? We may never know.
The wing, as I discovered, was a very, very close match to
that of Special Hobby’s Lockheed Orion’s. They were so close, that you could
replace one for the other and nobody will notice, if you know what I mean.
Since pinholes were present on the LF kit wing leading edges and wheel wells, I
used for this build Special Hobby’s injected wing (which was discarded when I
scratched the wing for Wiley Post’s Explorer-Orion hybrid). The kit’s wing is
of course perfectly usable just filling and sanding the pinholes as in many
other resin kits.
Since this kit uses a “generic” wing, you should take note
that the machine depicted here had two oval landing lights on the wing leading
edges (instead of the only square one). For what I can tell from photos, J-BAUC (the manufacturer’s decal subject) did
not have any lights at all on the leading edge, but who knows, may be at some
point in its life? Lady Southern Cross had a larger air intake on the engine
clearly visible in contemporary photos. The fuselage window (present on other
machines) was covered/painted-over here. Almost all the photos I have seen show
the tail wheel semi-covered by a streamlined fairing, so you have to manufacture said part or resort to the spares' bin (that’s only if you are going for
Lady Southern Cross). Both instrument panels come printed in heavy stock glossy
paper instead of being part of the decals, for some obscure reason.
The instruction sheet shows on one side the intended model
(the Japanese machine J-BAUC in this case) in colors and on the other side a
part’s map and an exploded view which is so-so, perhaps a result of the
just-mentioned explosion. The English text translation (this is a Czech
manufacturer) can be understood, but it is a bit puzzling. What would it take
for this manufacturer to ask one of his English-speaking costumers, better yet:
one of its vendors!- to review a translation? three emails and an hour? I think
it is not an exorbitant price to pay.
Fuselage sides proved to be lacking in width (they didn’t
have a circular cross-section where applicable, but more of an ogival shape.
The fuselage Karmans therefore won’t meet the upper wing halves’ edges, leaving
a gap, whatever you tried the original resin wing or the left-over Orion’s wing.
I had to add a strip of styrene to build-up some width to one fuselage side.
That proved right because now the provided canopy would meet the fuselage as it
should. I wonder if the LF guys ever built this kit. I clarify here that I only
removed the casting blocks from the fuselage sides, and did not sand the parts
flat which would have caused the lack in width; the shortcoming is the kit’s.
The interior was assembled with the photoetched and resin
parts provided adding only a few stringers for theatrical effect.
Usually as I wait for parts to set I take care of the
smaller items like engine and props. Once the prop was painted and decaled –my
own decals- I noticed something strange –see image- the two blades were
inclined to the same side, instead of making an “X” when viewed from the side.
Either LF just re-invented the prop, or some crude mistake was made here.
Again, coincidentally, Special Hobby’s Orion comes with a prop with separate
blades that somebody may have assembled incorrectly before making a mold for
the resin part. The solution was simple in this case as I had only to cut one
blade and re-glue it at the right angle. Now one could assume that not only LF
didn’t assemble this model to check it, but also may perhaps have little
knowledge on how a prop works.
Metal pins were inserted on the tail surfaces and
corresponding holes drilled on the fuselage. The wing internal side of the
trailing edge had to be packed-up with a styrene strip to make the Karmans
match more or less the wing profile as a compromise solution, since when you
aligned the forth part of the area the back won’t align, and vice-versa.
I noticed in photos a metal strip running along the middle
of the canopy which is absent on the framing molded on the provided
transparency, no big deal since a decal strip can be added there. Two “U” shaped
parts for the landing gear legs were replaced, since the resin counterparts,
although OK, looked a tad fragile. MV lenses were used to depict the lights,
fine springy steel wire for the Pitot and so forth. There is a part provided as
an interface between the engine and the fuselage which I discarded since it
neither fit well nor was it realistic. I just made a disc of adequate thickness
and glued it to the fuselage nose, then glued the cowl+engine to it. The fuel
caps were fabricated from punched-out thin aluminum discs and glued.
After painting it was decaling time. This aftermarket set is the type of decal
sheet that has an all-encompassing carrier, so you have to cut each item loose,
trimming around it carefully. It caters for the four decorations that Lady
Southern Cross wore (more follows Re that). We wanted to go for the G-ADUS
registration that Lady Southern Cross was wearing when it went missing, flying
into eternity, but the aftermarket decal sheet has a couple of
mistakes on that one. To start with, it didn’t have the upper wing
registration, visible on photos. Then the fuselage registration was outlined
which seems to be wrong (not for VH-USB, though, which was indeed outlined). So
VH-USB it was. Knowing by experience what decals can be some times, I started
applying some small items first. So far so good. But then I applied the black
regs under the wing and the carrier film was showing so badly that I had remove them. Since this lettering was in black I made my own decals and all
went ok. The rest of the decals were fine, but the way the cowl wrap-around white
ribbon is provided (in four parts) made the alignment tricky, and when you had
an overlap it will show.
In spite of the already mentioned shortcomings (some minor,
some not) LF put out there an Altair kit, and that’s a merit on itself. I can’t
believe that the other related models on the market, Special Hobby’s Lockheed
Orion and Williams Bros Northrop Gamma are the only similarly-oriented kits out
there. Sad, isn’t it?
For what I could see on their website, LF Models (to whom I
am not related or affiliated in any way) has many interesting kits: a
Monocoupe, some racers, some autogyros. I can not –since I have never seen or
built one- comment on their quality or accuracy though, but I am glad they present
a plethora of nice options to the modeler. Their price is similar to some other
brands of resin kits of quality, so it is a matter for you to compare and
choose.
Lady Southern Cross was a great adventure for the historic
characters; and no doubt a little bit for this modeler too.
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