1/72nd scale vacuformed RarePlane Lockheed Vega converted to Dole racer

 A Golden Eagle is lost at sea

(Then completed model can be seen here:

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

Long time ago I came across photos of the Lockheed Vega "Golden Eagle" that participated in the Dole air race to Hawaii. The plane started, but never arrived, and is presumed by most as having gone down in the Pacific.

The Golden Eagle was the first Vega build, bought by George Hearst, and entered in the Dole race flown by Gordon Scott (navigator) and Jack Frost (pilot).

Whilst some photos show a plane with the 2788 registration and an unusual, early style of curved small windshield and open cockpit, others show a plane as it participated in the race (as also seen in the Dole race start newsreels), with a "V" shaped more common windshield (still open "roof" in the cockpit), the actual legend "Golden Eagle" on the side, NX913 registration, and that -often seen in Lockheed planes- linear "spread array" pattern on the stab.

Both had the early exposed cylinders -no NACA cowl or Townend ring- the triangular vertical tail, and a rather simple, unfaired, landing gear array.

As it happens, after long perusing, reading and browsing, it is clear that the two are one and the same, with the registration changed.

The color of the plane is given in one source as bright yellow. The diverse characters on the plane are certainly not black, and in fact are almost the same tonal value as the airframe color, confirming the red "trim" stated by many accounts. Yet another source (an article by Serge Pozzoli) reports orange-gold and red trim, and that would be indeed my choice, as it closely honors the name of the plane. The book Lockheed Aircraft since 1913 by R. Francillon states orange and red, and again, I think that "orange" stands for a golden paint.  The plane had large signs on the sides, almost invisible in all but two of the images I have, that play a bit on the logo of the San Francisco Examiner (the sponsor) but adding "Golden Eagle" split to each side of it. The tail has an early Lockheed star logo with the word Vega in it, and the lettering Lockheed bellow it.

As per details: a whole new interior has to be provided (fortunately I found a diagram). The Vega 1 was conceived as a four-seater, but for the race two fuel tanks were located ahead in the cabin, leaving a crawling space on top, and a navigator station was created with instruments, seat, a space for provisions, emergency equipment, radio, etc. An earth-inductor compass was part of the equipment, its mast with spinning windmill on the fuselage spine.

A hatch for a cut-out was provided for the navigator on the roof and a foldable windshield ahead of it on the wing.

Opposite to what will be seen in successive models, the ailerons did not have a compensating mass, thus the ailerons leading edges were a simple straight business.

These early Vegas, as mentioned, had a triangular vertical tail, a door that hinged upwards, located ahead of what will be the norm in later models, and only four windows on each side.

As many of you know, there is a 1/72 kit by MPM readily available -which I have in the stash- but also an old and venerable vac by Gordon Stevens of RarePlane fame. I had the good fortune of corresponding with him before his passing, at a time when I was building some of his kits. We had our good chats, as he was an affable, kind and knowledgeable gentleman, and I hope he may be looking from a cloud now and smiling, since I have chosen his kit for this build.

This kit is peculiar in the sense that the fuselage (and all the interior parts and engine) are vacuum-formed in a thick clear plastic, whilst flying surfaces and other small details come in the usual white styrene sheets. No decals were included in these kits, and many of the details like engine, prop, wheels, struts and other smallish parts are better substituted. Gordon included those additional parts in the clear sheet most likely to take advantage of the space, but it's not a happy solution. I have built in another life his Bell Airacuda, similarly fashioned, and that engineering solution, that may sound practical at first, ends up being not much so, for diverse reasons.

As the vac kit represents a later Vega, I will have to remove the nose NACA cowling and vertical tail, and replace them with pointy nose and triangular tail: I will have also to move the cabin door one "space" ahead, delete the aft fifth windows on both sides and replace the wheel pants-cum-partial wheel for just plain whole wheels. Landing gear struts need to be fabricated, new engine provided and a different interior fashioned.

And, of course, the decals.

A hefty amount of time, more than many would deem reasonable, was spent researching the many details of this plane, and lately I solved the last detail mentioned, that is, the particular details of the lettering and decoration on the plane, all from few, vague, and not very yielding images, gathered one or a few at a time, after hours and hours of perusing and browsing here and there.

 The vintage boxing

A spurious 1/48 AMT decal sheet was put inside by a previous owner:

Instructions...

Plastic

A not very practical approach, but may have seemed "high-tech" at the time:

The door and windows are there, although I will have to change some of that:

Spares bin and scratched parts to the rescue:

I molded a cover for the engine:

A William Bros Northrop Gamma nose will be used to obtain the right shape for this variant:

I fabricated the LG legs from Contrail airfoiled stock (please, someone MAKE MORE AND SELL IT! I am up to my last bits) wrapped in aluminium for the sliding section and metal-pinned:

The parts from the clear and opaque plastic backing sheets have been excised, following the traditional methods of following the edges with a permanent marker for ulterior reference, score with a blade, and flexing back and forth to free the parts:

The wheel pants will go the spares bin. Scraps are kept to create parts or (in the case of the clear plastic) try different adhesives:

In order not spend the rest of the year sanding, it's better to use rasps to eliminate surplus thickness.

1) Eliminate as much as you can

2) Do not eliminate more than you need

Trailing edge before (to the left) and after:

The cowl is not necessary for this version, so it's separated:

The parts included in the clear backing sheet, clearly not the best move, as you can't see a darn thing. In any case, all will be replaced for better items:

That canopy is going next, as this plane had a windshield and open "roof":

The plug adapted from the Williams Bros kit nose is a very good fit:

And the indispensable item in every long trip in a plane without a restroom:

The kit's vertical tail is removed, and a new one specific of this type made from scratch:

A new door is cut, as in this place it was located ahead than in later models:

The kit even depicts the leather strips that facilitated the movement of the horizontal tail trim.

Unfortunately the area will need sanding and blending, obliterating that detail that will have to be replaced for a decal:

The not very adequate kit parts are replaced by styrene ones. 

I found in the spares bin the Williams Bros Boeing 247 long distance fuel tanks that, once modified, will do well here to represent the ones in the Vega:

The fuel tanks are modified and reshaped to fit the cabin:

The spares bin may provide some suitable parts for the interior (nothing is yet glued there):

And interesting difference in the plastic between the RarePlane Seversky (that I am building in parallel) and Vega , is that the Vega, a later RarePlane kit, has a more rigid, harder and shinier plastic, whilst the Seversky has an opaque, soft, and more flexible one. I Must say I prefer these later kits' plastic. None of them has become brittle with time, fortunately. 

The first parts are glued, wing and stab halves:

As mentioned before the ailerons in this particular plane did not have mass balances, thus they are deleted:

This Vega did not have the same nav lights that would later be seen in the series machines. This is the tail light:

This is how I made the earth-inductor compass windmill:

It goes on a small airfoiled section, not on a rod. The excess on the tabs is later cut off:

A note on the changes of this plane:

-It's interesting that, whilst wearing the first registration (2788), it did not have navigation lights.

-The landing gear legs do not have a sleeve fairing where they attach the fuselage.

-The windshield is somewhat curved and of a different design while on this early reg.

-There is a (possibly retractable) step on the nose to facilitate ingress/egress from the cockpit.

A bit later in time: (still with the same first registration)

-The two prongs of the Pitot probe that until then were located above their boom are reversed and now hang down below that level.

-The landing gear legs have now a sleeve fairing.

-The long distance fuel tanks are in place, as well as the earth-inductor compass.

-What seems to be a fuel dump is installed on the right fuselage side, at floor level, under the third window counting from the front.

The plane never had (in its first or later reg as it took off to Hawaii) the teardrop bump fairings seen in later models where the landing gear leg reinforcement struts connect to the fuselage keel.

The small fairings where the LG legs attach to the fuselage were also absent, and we just see a metal fitting.

As stated before, the door had to be moved one "space" forward. The former position had to be filled protecting the last window with a mask:

The windows are masked inside and out in preparation for adding the interior and painting. Some parts are glued and some are tried. Found a door that is just right:

The long distance fuel tanks are ready to be painted:

Parts from this model and the Seversky racer also in progress are given their base coats:

More work is done on the parts:

Interior being assembled:

What you see separated is the kit's firewall/inst.pan. part. Not sure if I will use it, or just add the ones I scratched:

And the bucket is added, in case of need:

Under the pilot's seat was one of the flotation bags:

The fuselage halves are joined using -as per the instructions recommendation- acetone:

There is a little bit of a building trap here, a hiccup in the engineering. The recess on the wing may seem to be there to allow the matching volume on the fuselage to get inside the wing, WHICH IS INCORRECT. Pack the wing so the lower surface stays leveled with the top that shape on the fuselage. That shape is there to represent a fairing between the wing an the fuselage present in the real thing, it is NOT a locating device to be pushed into the wing.

The nose plug -from a discarded Northrop Gamma part- is cut to size with the help of a guide to obtain a regular depth:

The top cylinder notch is made on the part, to serve as a guide:

The location of the other notches marked:

Dry-fit:

Should look somewhat like this:

The nose plug is glued:

The horizontal tail is cut in its halves, the angles matched:

Metal-pin added and location on roots drilled:

 The bumps in the kit belly need removal, as this plane did not have them:

Tail feathers added:

I had copied the landing gear legs length from the vac sheet to make new ones. But some modelers' 6th sense kept me looking at them in distrust. I compared them with the kit's plan, and they were too long. Then to all plans I have, and confirmed that indeed they were too long. Thus a bit was cut off. Talk about bad model stance by default! I guess dear Gordon depicted the legs uncompressed?
Meanwhile a spinner is in the making combining leftovers:

 First coat of primer. That clear fuselage continues to be a freaking pain in the tailcone. It's virtually impossible to see what's going on on that surface as you work on it. The primer finally revealed that it was split along the seam in two places, but I couldn't tell that -even under close inspection- before the primer:

What is modeling but enjoying 5% of the time building and spending another bitter 95% of the time with those seams and boo-boos. 

The navigator had an external support on the fuselage under a removable window to plug a measuring instrument. The tailskid is added at this time too:

The Vega compared to the ongoing Seversky racer:

The Vega had a trapdoor for the navigator on the wing close to the trailing edge, and a foldable windshield ahead of it. Also added are three fuel tank caps seen in photos of this plane:

 

The tail nav. light was redone, smaller and more accurate:

As the color on the plane will be gold, to obtain a lighter hue gloss white is used as a base, instead of the more common approach of gloss black. And let's not forget the loose parts, so we don't have to do another airbrush session:

I could not resist to buy this one when I saw it, the "new" Special Hobby issue of this kit.

Not sure how or when I will use it, but I am glad I bought it. At a glance I could see some minor things that need attention, but that's for another thread:

Decals, by Cartograph, seem neat and sharp:

The new required vertical stabilizer for this particular version comes as a resin part:

The clear parts seem of good quality:

A small diameter metal tube is used as the Pitot probe mast, into which two very fine are inserted and bent to represent the real item:

Another beautiful sunset, now that autumn is making its presence felt in California:

Aclad II Pale Gold happened to be one of those Alclad colors that do not provide a nice shine, unlike other of its metal colors that behave nicely. The consistency is thicker and the coats render a "grainy" feeling. This one will have to be smoothed with a clear coat product to provide more "lift":

Whilst it's in my mind: To further add to Tim's contributions to the particularities of this Vega, and since we mentioned nav. lights, this Vega had the wing nav. lights as some sort of "limpets" (i. e. no stalk) on the upper surface of the wing, aligned in span with the outer edge of the ailerons (a position further in than usual) and a small distance behind the trailing edge. The tinted nature of the covers is evident in photos.  

 The nice sunsets continue:

and a Sunday treat: Argentinian asado!

I was dissatisfied with the finish, the gloss coat did not improve the surface greatly (note to self: do not use Alclad II Pale Gold, it's too grainy). A light sanding, cleaning, and re-spraying with Vallejo Metal Color acrylic Gold, and problem solved:

Redtail hawk visit of the Golden Eagle model (appeared flying over the backyard), maybe a good omen 😄:

The landing gear braces and wheels are on, as well as the louvers, done trimming down Archer items and applying them one by one:

Having read Tim's input, I finally discovered a second, lower step, barely visible in only two of the many photos I found, obscured by shade. Locations for both are drilled:

The circular metal plates added to protect the surface around the steps were painted over. Circular decals are punched to be added. The step should be at the very bottom, not in the middle of them:

One more detail for this specific Vega: the very many vertical leather strips that surrounded the stab-to-fuselage fairings, and allowed a smooth adjustment of that metal part on the fuselage side as the stab incidence was changed, were not present in this plane.

Have to work now on the windshield, cut the prop blades and re-glue them to the spinner, and make with very thin wire the vents for the three fuel caps. The other parts are ready to go. The decal set was commissioned, so we have now to wait a bit for it:

I followed the kit's demarcation line to remove the cockpit opening, but it resulted to be too large, something I just realized now as tried to glue the windshield. A piece of styrene was shaped and glued in place. It will have to be blended with the surroundings with putty and sanding, and the area repainted. Not an easy feat at this stage. We'll see:

The fix was a bit tricky, but it's done:

Windshield, prop and spinner, foldable windshield on the wing for the navigator hatch, wing nav lights and earth compass wind-driven generator are added:

Can't add until decals are applied the fin nav lights and the fuel caps vents. Here are the fin nav lights (two to chose the better, or in case I mess up/lose one):

Exhausts and Pitot mast in place:

And yesterday sunset:

The decals for the Vega and Vultee have arrived!:

Applications begins: