Boeing 377 - Modified Academy 1/72nd scale

 

 

  

 

Fat and shiny, this riveted sausage whale of a plane was at one point -although briefly- the Acme of aviation. It was incredibly complex, being the technological heir of all the discoveries and improvements previously made so far in the field, and some new technologies developed especially for it, complexity that caused many a problem, and several accidents with severe loss of life. Nonetheless, the 377 was hailed as the morning star of a new era in civil transportation, destined to unite all points on the globe, and in fact, it was still doing regular scheduled flights at the same time the first commercial jets went into service.

Some historical and model construction notes -with some tips you may find useful- can be found in the step-by-step building post:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2021/12/boeing-377-stratocruiser-academy-172nd.html

I am new to the field of modeling more modern airliners, and find it quite challenging, but interesting. Like any other specialty, I hope I can get better with time and experience. The Academy kit is in general of good quality, with nice detail, and needless to say gave us a wonderful, iconic modeling subject, but it's seriously compromised in two accounts: the molds are partially shared with the predecessors of the 377 (boom-boom, cargo, and tanker) also released by the manufacturer, creating issues resulting in some inaccuracies and worst of all the horrid fit of the flaps, that is very difficult and laborious to fix due to the more demanding metal finish. Another problem is the decal sheet, which in some reviews is reported as somewhat problematic, not being pliable enough to follow certain curves, having a not very good fit, and lacking good adhesive properties. The aftermarket industry released alternate decal sheets, some seem good, and some definitely are not, as you may see in the step-by-step building post. No one has offered so far a photo-etched or resin set for deploying the Fowler flaps, that could have fixed one of the weakest points of the kit and add a lot to the looks of the model.

I wish Academy could do a re-issue, with good decals, an additional sprue with the right props and exhausts for most 377s, and some mold tweaking to eliminate the serious fit issues due to the "multi-version" approach that rendered such poor results. I believe this mold can give Academy a winner, if properly re-done. Given the several famous airlines that used it, Academy as said could just add a sprue with the minor changes necessary to cover other schemes.

Notwithstanding the kit issues, it is great to have a reproduction of such superb flying machine that, in spite of its success, also had terrible accidents possibly induced by compromised development (rushing things), something that reminds of the Boeing 737 Max (watch the Netflix documentary "Downfall"). Still, one of the first and few that really opened the skies on the late forties and fifties, together with the Constellation and the latest Douglas prop planes, transporting passengers over long distances in regal splendor. Compared to how we fly today... I wish all the airlines CEO's, major stockholders, and bean counters would travel today ONLY in the worst seats they offer to the consumer, always, every flight. Even when flying in first class nowadays you are given a very tight sarcophagus where is almost impossible to turn as you try to sleep, not to mention that your feet are encased in a confined space that won't allow but one position. So the "luxury" of today would have been torture for the 1st class passengers in the 377, and that, dear fellow passengers, is called by the owners, CEOs and bean counters -no doubt with a barely hidden grin- airline "evolution".

We can know with some certainty where a trip on a plane may take us, but we can't be as sure as to where a modeling journey will take us.

This project started as a conversion of the Academy Boeing 377 Stratocruiser kit into a British BOAC machine. A lot of effort was put into improving the cockpit, fabricating a partial cabin interior, opening the cargo and cabin doors, doing the little mods necessary to more accurately represent the specific plane, and adding cowl/prop/landing gear aftermarket sets. Accessories where acquired (BOAC buses), an aftermarket stair was bought and assembled, and a ground power unit fabricated. The model was ready, pristine, and a sense of relief and accomplishment permeated the building board...until the moment came of crowning all the efforts applying the aftermarket BOAC decals by Flying Colors. And then disaster stroke, as the decal sheet was horrid and behaved terribly. You can see the details in the building post, I won't repeat that part of the story here as it has a bitter taste. Since I didn't want to represent the model with the kit's decal options either, I purchased another aftermarket decals set, this time the later Pan Am basketball livery by Vintage Flier (that looks good, but I ended up not using). This change of direction unfortunately required removing the bad decals, undoing some of the details that were pertinent to the BOAC option, and putting the BOAC stairs and buses in a box until another time, or forever, especially that stair. Needless to say in the process of removing those bad decals the so far immaculate finish suffered and had to be restored. At that point, I decided to go back to one of the original ideas, that is representing the plane that inaugurated the service to Buenos Aires, Argentine, the city where I was born. For that I could use some of the kit's decals and print at home the rest needed for N1027V, that had a partially different scheme than the one catered for by the kit. In the end, friend and fellow unmodeler C. Psarras helped me with the last needed details by printing the name of the plane that goes on the nose in white and in color near the door.

The "El Presidente" flight:

The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser arrived at Buenos Aires, Argentina, coming from New York, on July 3rd 1950, and was christened the next day, 4th of July. Aboard were Juan Trippe, the ambassadors to the US of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, an array of officials and the press. They were received by Juan Perón and Eva Duarte (aka "Evita"). A very interesting encounter of this trio of extremely controversial figures. The plane was christened "Clipper Friendship", and the name of the service, in Spanish mind you, was "El Presidente", no doubt to ingratiate the airline and the US with Perón, the head of a country that was then rich and full of natural resources, with a fast growing economy and incipient industrialization (it sounds like fantasy looking at the later history of the country). "Evita" famously requested to Trippe that the plane be christened instead "Presidente Perón" (a gesture that characterizes the times and in general personality cult), to which Trippe reputedly cunningly replied that he will name the next Boeing plane "Clipper Argentina" -a reply "Evita" didn't take kindly- and she said to Trippe "No, it has to be "Presidente Perón". But Trippe never did*. The Buenos Aires international airport at which the Boeing 377 arrived (called Ministro Pistarini officially but known by all Argentinians as "Ezeiza", because of its location) was, believe it or not, at the time the biggest airport of the world, still under construction.

*An interesting reading that depicts this is "My Pan Am story", by Alejo Nicolás Larocca. The book narrates the career of a female flight attendant from the 50's up to her retirement decades later. Great content, if with editing issues and plenty of typos.

A flying metaphor of better traveling times, the figure of this massive and luxurious plane glints as it taxies on the tarmac of history, a nostalgic sight signaling the end of the dominion of the propeller airliner, and to a great extent, of real comfort.

 My thanks to friend and fellow unmodeler C. Psarras, who printed for me the lettering for the name of the plane on the nose and near the pax door. He actually went to the trouble of designing a whole font to match the real thing (the font is different, btw, depending on what side of the plane it was).

During this build I missed more than usual the late Jim Schubert, a true Boingite. How many jokes, teasing, musing, and general BS we could have had with him and the other Ornithopters (a secret society of modelers that includes members from Volkania (a Principality of Marzipanland), Greece, The White Alaskan Plains of Vaculand, Cycletown -Canada-, French Vanilla Island, Staring City -NC-, Skrobacktown -MA- and Argentina). Jim, I know you are looking at the model now from your cloud with your habitual mischievous smile, hope you enjoy it!

The GPU I scratchbuilt for this project:

The aftermarket resin stairs, an item you must rework and complete in order improve it enough to use it:

 

Some of the elements that were fabricated, added or modified to spruce up the interior:

The cockpit was tweaked a bit and given the crew restroom:

The white block is a partial volume of the cargo hold that also added:

Some curtains: