Loening "Cabin Amphibian" civil transport - conversion based on Esoteric OL-8/9 1/72nd vacuformed kit

 

(Photos from the ETCH repository)

Always fascinated by strange-looking aircraft, the Loening “Cabin Amphibian” (as it was called on the specialized press then) and also known diversely (and confusedly) as “Amphibian and “Air Yatch”, a civil conversion of the OL-8/9, caught my eye a long time ago. But no kit could be found of it, neither of the later development, the Loening C-2. I may attempt the same conversion Loening did, using the Esoteric Models “Naval Aviation Factory” series kit of the aforementioned OL-8/9. This involves quite a bit of surgery, deleting the kit’s ailerons on the top wing, re-contouring the vertical tail, moving the cockpit and engine 4mm forward and significantly altering the aft fuselage to accommodate the passenger cabin, which, wait for it…also included a tiny restroom! Lured as I am by flying toilets, it was a hard to resist challenge. This –British- Esoteric Models kit from 1987 includes instructions, notably decals (generally absent from vac kits), white metal parts, a piece of clear plastic sheet and strut material. The extruded airfoiled struts are too flimsy for most of the intended uses, and it’s better to substitute it for “Strutz” metal ones, in this case courtesy of friends Andrew Nickeas and John Adams of Aeroclub fame (my gratitude to both of them). The white metal parts are kind of dated, and it would be good to also substitute them. A basic cockpit interior is provided (which needs help), and the passenger cabin will need to be provided for. The wings have very faintly engraved the position for the struts. The position for the lower wing spars on the fuselage sides seems inaccurate. Fortunately plans of the civil modification do exist, although in a somewhat generic form, and it’s easy to tell that some details differ from the actual planes. So as always, photos need gathering and studied. There were a few Canadian planes, and also one that Richard Chamberlin used for special flights, one to promote a New York-Washington line and another to Europe crossing the Atlantic. A few other users can be told from photos. These planes extensively wore an orange/black scheme, while the fuselage float bottom seems metal color. 

The color cues and a complete description of the plane are given in this "Aviation" magazine article from 1928:

The base for the model:

Pre-crunched parts:

The upper wing needs the ailerons deleted, the fin needs re-contouring, the interior scratched, cockpit and cabin alike:

Well, it's seems it could be a little of a challenge:

Flimsy, inadequate struts for most uses on the model, have to be substituted for sturdier metal ones:

Kind of outdated white metal parts, will need replacement:

Some of the several mods this kit needs for the civil conversion:

Substitutes are found for the white metal parts. The wheels in the kit are rendered as solid (also with a "solid" description of the complex mechanism), but in reality they have the spokes bare, so P.E. spokes will be used on O-rings as I have done for other wheels (to the repeated question if the rubber will degrade, I have used O rings for about 20 years now, and I don't see signs of degradation, but some kits have provided rubber tires that did degrade). An aftermarket resin engine will substitute the homely one in the kit, using an engine "pie" cover from one of Khee-Kha's beautiful engine sets. The prop will also be substituted, as well as the white metal tailskid, which is not a sharp molding:

Using slightly bigger wheels than the ones intended for the model, vacuformed "wheel wells" are created with the Mattel Psychedelic Machine. These will replace the "pre-crunched" ones in the kit. They are to be glued inside the float halves before joining the fuselage sides:

Geometry of the LG:

 The LG partial cover (in lighter color) can be seen in this photo:

Following tradition, a fine sharpie is used to mark the contour of all parts. Then the contour is carefully scored with a new blade, the backing sheet rocked gently back and forth, and the parts are popped out. Strangely, this is a step that make newcomers to vacuformed kits a bit anxious, but it's actually easy compared to the judiciously sanding of the parts. This is not a vac for beginners to the media, but I will try nonetheless to show the constructions steps for clarity:

Carefully, gently, but almost effortlessly the parts are liberated from the backing sheets. Not all of them will be used and some will be replaced. The 3 parts in the immediate foreground do not feature on the plan:

It is wise to keep large chunks of the4 backing sheet for further use making bulkheads, spars, floors, etc.

The upper wing did not have ailerons in this version, these should by puttied over, sanded, and the ribbing restored:

The critical point of this build is the removal of a big section of the fuselage and replace it by a "bloated" passenger cabin and moving the engine and cockpit forward by about 4mm. The marred louvers on the nose should be filled from inside with epoxy or Milliput, sanded down, and replaced later on the build by Archer resin louvers. The wheel wells need carving out, not forgetting the furrows for the mechanism rods:

Now the process of scraping (careful using a small cabinet scraper), sanding down the excess plastic and truing the contact surfaces for all parts can begin. This includes thinning the trailing edges of all flying surfaces as much as possible (but not so thin that it will melt down or deform while applying cement). This may take a while, as it is a tedious, repetitive task that also needs keeping a keen eye, so I do it a bit every day, avoiding to be burned. I will be seeing you on the other side.

Some vacs present these pips, which are product of little suction holes designed to "suck in" the plastic during molding, producing a more detailed surface. I use a razor blade to remove them one by one:

Right side of the horizontal tail, pips removed:

Lower wing surface, pips removed. Playing with a light source angle you may spot some remaining blemishes that need a little additional sanding with a small square section home-made wooden sanding stick (with a strip of sandpaper glued on one side):

The grooves of the aileron hinges were puttied and sanded. Minor imperfections removed:

Masking tape is used leaving a small gab for the rib relief: 

 Putty is applied:

 More details are either fabricated of scrounged form the spares bin. Here are among other bits the toilet and the toilet roll. Now, often when I post images image of toilet rolls in vintage planes, the modeling police screams bloody murder claiming (inaccurately, needless to say) that the roll is a modern invention and not in use during the Golden Age of aviation, so here is a quotation from Wikipedia (the illegitimate child of Multivac, as we all know):

“Toilet paper dispensed from rolls was popularized when the Scott Paper Company began marketing it in 1890”

So, know your Apohoritiriosophy science before opening your lid:

The putty is sanded flush with the tape (right of the wing), then the tape removed (left of the wing):

Then, carefully, softly, with a sponge sanding stick, a few passes to make the relief more rounded and blend it with the existing rib detail. As the existing detail is not perfect, any small imperfections are basically unnoticeable:

Unfortunately none of the drawings on the plans are to scale, so no measures can be taken from them. The indicated spar position seems to be too far back and too thick for the wing:

I did find the anchoring points for the struts, they were very faintly molded in:

 

 

 

To be continued...

Fairey Rotodyne, the Revell chapter - 1961 1/78th scale, completed

 

 

After no little struggle and temporary abandonment of the build in utter frustration, here finally is Revell's Fairey Rotodyne in 1/78th scale (aka the “why?” scale). It was built as a comparison exercise with Airfix’s Rotodyne:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/02/fairey-rotodyne-modified-airfix-172nd.html

…it is not a question of which one is better, but which one is less bad, and I don’t really have an answer to that, nor to why both companies insist on squeezing repeated releases of them without bothering to correct even the most glaring inaccuracies by improving the outdated molds. I know this would imply some cost, but to offer again and again such outdated, inaccurate, ill fitting kit is kind of a slap to the paying modeler, as this molds surely have been amortized long, long ago.

If you want to elevate your blood pressure -as mine did-, here is the step-by-step building post that is also a comparison of the Airfix and Revell Rotodyne kits, and presents some basic historical material:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/12/fairey-rotodyne-tell-of-two-kits-airfix.html

Yes, they are very old kits, sixty-some years old,  so… is it unfair to criticize them? Well, not if, as stated above, both companies insist on re-releasing them without making improvements at all. Both these kits are mostly for collectors or nostalgics, not for builders with any aspiration of accuracy or a smooth ride. Revell and Airfix’s Rotodyne kits are true dinosaurs, and yet unfortunately they are the only game in town for such aircraft. Both contain such a number of inaccuracies that their listing would occupy a couple of pages.

Revell offers the benefit of recessed panel lines and rivets, while Airfix regales us with cheese grater-like rivets. Revell offers more interior detail (most of it bogus or infantile), and a better rotor, although with detail mostly overstated. Revell’s front transparencies are utter crap, Airfix’s kit is perhaps –only marginally- more buildable. Revell has cleverer clamshell doors, while Airfix’s are crude and coarse. Airfix has a marginally better cabin entrance door, while Revell’s is in turn coarse and clumsy. None of them depict correctly the door's details.

As explained in the construction article and the Airfix Rotodyne completed model post, both companies depicted the aircraft at different stages in its life, and both as mentioned introduced plenty of inaccuracies, some of which were dealt with during both builds. The bad fit, poor engineering, outdated detail, and again very poor research on part of the kit makers puts both efforts almost in the toy, curiosity, build for the heck of it, or collector categories. Revell got wrong -among other inaccuracy pearls- the whole front of the aircraft and its clear parts, the propeller blades rotating in the wrong direction, forgot the ailerons that at this stage the wing had, forgot the battens on the wings added at the point in time the kit is represented, did not include the light on the rotor pylon, got the shape of the tip jets wrong, and on top of that gives the wrong color distribution on the instructions. Why, Revell, well done! After sixty years plus, you think someone at Revell would have cared enough to make some kind of corrections, at the very least to the instructions.

So, here it is, such as it is, after working quite a bit only to gain some meager improvement, for your modeling voyeuristic pleasure. Bear in mind that the Rotodyne never flew with the whole allotment of passenger seats as depicted in the kit, but reputedly for a short time with only half of them at the back. And during most of its life it flew with a suite of additional instruments to collect data, and no pax seats whatsoever, so this is to some extent a “what if” interpretation. I opted to show the model as provided for in the kit, in the form of a “cut away” display, also keeping the cabin doors and cargo doors opened. Not that the detail is brilliant, but puts it more in line with those travel agency props I used to look through the window when I was a kid. This is, among my later builds, the one that demanded more time and effort, and yet it’s the poorest.

Nostalgia is the key word here.

Now, imagine a good 1/72^nd kit of the very futuristic, beautiful and strange aircraft the Rotodyne is, produced at the standard the industry has today and not this unappetizing, ill fitting, poorly detailed refried beans from more than sixty years ago. A kit with good fit, well researched, with a fair interior and options to leave accesses opened. The fact that Airfix’s and Revell’s very poor Rotodyne kits keep apparently selling should entice someone, perhaps?

I think we mature (polite term for “old sod”) modelers like to revisit old kits, and I have built many, all in this blog for your visual pleasure, but there are old kits and old kits. We may accept simplicity, a certain degree of naïveté, “movable” parts, etc. But these two kits are certainly a challenge -and not precisely for their complexity- even for the most nostalgic of modelers. 

Among other modifications:

-Addition of battens under and over the wings, as corresponds to the livery offered (timeline)-

-Addition of ailerons, present at the time the kit is depicted

-Pylon light, wingtip nav. lights

-Modified door to reflect reality

-Structural members added to clamshell doors 

-Re-shaping of tip jets, inaccurate in the kit

-Reversion of the rotation of the props, which rotate the wrong way in the kit

-Addition of nose probes

-Removal of bogus exhausts and addition of home-made ones

-Substitution of some LG doors, as the kit's were too thick

-Addition of what seems like fuel tank vent pipes over the wings clearly seen in photos

-Removal of spurious "hunchback" after the compressor air intakes 

-Bending of the rotor blades for a more realistic stance

 

Deepest sympathies to our friends from Canada, Mexico and Greenland. 

Let's hope that president stupid and his squad or morons and kiss-ass doesn't completely destroy the joint.