Noorduyn Norseman Wien - 1/72nd Dora Wings + Arctic Decals conversion

 

 

The plane arrives in a flurry of snow dust, roaring loudly, ready to disembark cargo and passengers and take a new load of them, connecting isolated spots over the vast extensions of the North, creating a legend still alive today: Bush Plane Country.

What is so attractive about the not particularly graceful Norseman? Perhaps the invisible halo of accomplishments and almost impossible feats of aviation that surrounds it? Its sturdiness? A radial engine and the “heavy duty” stamp may have something to do with it too.

An exquisitely detailed and beautifully molded kit, with well-printed extensive instructions, decals, photo-etched parts, and even masks. And yet some issues with the fit, a couple of confusing instructions instances and occasionally some engineering that could be improved, as it is Dora´s wont, and has been for a while now. Many locating holes had to be enlarged as the tolerances were not good enough to allow a comfortable fit.

(For the step-by-step construction post please go here):

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/07/noorduyn-norseman-wien-alaska-airlines.html

The new Dora Wings kit is definitely a step forward for them and surely above all else in the market regarding this subject: very nicely molded, crisp and clean and with an outstanding quantity and high level of detail; with nicely clear transparencies, a photo-etched fret and even masks (unfortunately the latter of the vinyl type, that tend to partially detach during airbrushing). Still a few mishaps regarding the instructions and the engineering –both subjects that to a degree bogged previous Dora releases- are present. 

Some may call the kit over-engineered for 1/72^nd scale. A couple of parts look to me as wishful thinking (the propeller smaller bits, for example, can’t be more impractical). Pity the release is a military version, as one of the things that attract me to Dora kits is their civil subjects. This boxing has the only option of wheels (unlike the Matchbox/Revell kit), so the skis for this conversion had to be scratch-built. The scheme is a combination of Arctic Decals items and masking.

Dora Wings already has achieved a high level of molding and detail, and keeps releasing appealing subjects, but still needs to work on the fit for some of the assemblies and a few instruction glitches. This instructions this time are really well-printed and at a comfortable size, but a couple of things were still unclear. The part numbers on the parts’ map are so small they are illegible. I believe other versions of the Norseman may be in the works, on floats and perhaps skis. An additional photo-etched set that could deal with the cabin interior walls and the doors’ thickness would make the kit a winner; as it is, is lacking on these regards when compared to reality.

My thanks go to Mika Jernfors, Mr. C. Psarras of Future Atlantis and to Lars Opland of Khee-Kha Art Products fame (Lars knows “a bit” about bush planes), for their help with the references and their comments.

 

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