Wings of Intent: Northrop Delta 1D Ellsworth Antarctic Flight - Modified Special Hobby 1/72nd scale kit

The chubby figure of the Northrop Delta is well known to airplane enthusiasts and modelers. Like a too-fat cousin of the Gamma, it looks lumbering and heavy, but nonetheless it accomplished some feats of aviation and served often as executive transport besides other roles. It failed to carve a solid niche carrying passengers on commercial aviation, though, although it was employed by a few airlines.

I already built Azur/Frrom’s Delta 1C:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2017/05/northop-delta-completed-azurfrrom-172nd.html

And long ago I built a hybrid model from parts of the venerable William Bros kit and an Esoteric Models Bodyjob "conversion" vac:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2015/01/northrop-delta-172-conversion-completed.html

The fact is that besides being a rather simple rendition, that Antarctic injection/vac hybrid model needs an actualized build to correct inaccuracies, so I decided I will do the same plane with the Special Hobby Delta 1D boxing. This was a variant for pilot and copilot side-by-side in the cockpit, unlike the Azur/Frrom boxing which is for a single pilot in a narrower setting. The two molds do look as having a lot of commonality.

NC/NR14267 was acquired for the 4^th (and last) Ellsworth Antarctic expedition of 1938/9, and accomplished just one significant flight. It was previously an executive transport but was adapted for the Antarctic flight with extra fuel tanks, skis, and surely a number of other mods. Externally some windows were blanked and what it looks like accesses to refueling caps can be seen in photos. Loop and wire antennas can be also seen. There are a few photos on the Net, not really much, mind you, and none of the interior that I know of. The added tanks can be vaguely glimpsed in one photo and look similar to the long-range tanks used on Roscoe Turner’s Boeing 247. Once acquired this plane can bee seen on wheels while already wearing the “Ellsworth Antarctic Flight” legend, before swapping them for the skis, so modelers could depict it as such, circumventing the mods for the ski version if they wished.

I am familiar with the almost identical Azur/Frrom kit and with other Special Hobby short-run offerings, so I knew already were to start: cleaning ejector towers, sanding matting surfaces to avoid gaps and thin those trailing edges, thinning the cowl trailing edge, making the interior more accurate and adding some missing details (as an example, landing lights under the wings and nav. lights). Other parts can be improved by replacing them (like the exhausts) or refined. The engine is ok and will do for most modelers, but it looks a teeny tiny generic and a tad flat now that we can access much more detailed resin and 3D-printed ones. The prop needs a small modification to adjust to reality, and a vent needs to be added to the left of the nose. A window or two may need adjusting in width depending on the plane depicted. These are just examples of what it can be done to help the kit a little, if so one wished.

First we need addressing some minor issues. The window where the arrow points is rendered much smaller on the molds, and had to be enlarged:

Thus:

If you are looking at references, please face them with some healthy skepticism. This is a render on Avions Magazine, a very nice publication, but this drawing contains a few details that need revising. The font for the text along the fuselage was actually decreasing towards the tail (see the second photo at the beginning). No curtains for this fella, as they were removed; no fancy executive transport anymore but utility plane. The belly antenna was removed. The wing lights are too far forward. Photos strongly suggest the text on the fuselage was red (as in the Gamma "Texaco 20" antarctic plane) and not black:

And the little basculating actuators? hinges? continue under the control surface (the kit has only two, you will need to fabricate a second pair, unless you cut the elevators and position them all the way down):

This plane had long-range tanks in the forward cabin. A glimpse can be seen in one photo where they look akin those on the Turner Boeing 247 racer, so those were fetched from the WB kit:

Glued:

Have to remove the many ejector pin towers from inside the fuselage, wings and stabs:

The trailing edge of the cowl needs careful thinning from inside:

The engine in the kit is not bad, but the model could make with a bit more of realism, so a Small Stuff engine is adapted. No need to glue the valve covers to the cylinders as they will hit the thick walls of the plastic cowl. Here tanks and engine are given a gloss black base for the metal color:

Those strips for the fairings to slide into each other are not present in the Antarctic flier, they need to be very carefully removed. These pants will need modifications to accept the skis:

The prop in the kit has the molded counterweights pointing straight forward, which is not correct:

In the natural position they followed the plane of the blades, thus displaced in regard to the boss:

They are excised and replaced by styrene discs:

The trailing edges need rasping:

Because the molding process introduced a minute deformation (exaggerated in the drawing):

Wing and horizontal tail halves glued, most parts off the sprues, discarded bits to the right:

The narrow cockpit version of the Delta had eight seats, but the wide cockpit version had usually six.

It's academic anyway because this plane's cabin was completely modified:

Parts washed. Pant halves glued (they will need quite a modification for this plane). The location of the wing lights is drilled:

Now, the kit does not provide a bulkhead separating the cockpit from the cabin, but this being originally an executive plane, I very much doubt that it didn't have one. One is depicted in the loose rendition on the ad posted above. Therefore a cockpit bulkhead will need to be fashioned:

Lazy modelers as explained above can depict this plane before and after the skis. In this photo the decreasing font size towards the tail can be appreciated too:

Of note is that in this 4th expedition (1938/9) an Aeronca K was also carried on the back of the vessel Wyatt Earp. It was ceded by Vanderbilt, because what is a little plane between millionaires after all. Here it is for entrepreneurial modelers, but afaik, no kit exists of this plane:

Back to the Delta. Now the million-dollar question some of you have been anxiously waiting for: did this plane had a restroom? In its executive transport capacity I am sure it did have one. But in its transformation for a much rougher environment with the predictable concerns for weight and practicality -not to mention that it carried aboard survival equipment and provisions for weeks- most likely got rid of such luxuries. Bucket is it, I am afraid, perhaps a glorified one, as Ellsworth was after all a millionaire used to Ritz Carlton standards.

I think this is a nice kit, although some details seem a bit simplified. The fact that the cockpit seats are almost the same (just a slightly lower back) than the cabin seats is unlikely, but it's a minor thing. The cabin seats won't be used, as Ellsworth comments on the number of items stored in the plane, and the flights were to be crewed by him and the pilot:

That is supposed to be a Venturi, rather simplified too. It will be replaced with an aftermarket item. As well as the Pitot, looking a bit chunky. The only used part will be the loop antena:

Some questions arise at this point that impact the build.

1) The floor in the kit is located too high, so that prevents you from opening the cabin door unless you lower the floor (as I did on the Azur/Frrom rendition).

2) No photo of the interior of this plane could be found, we only know of those additional fuel tanks and Ellsworth note on the amount of gear.

3) So is either leave the door as it is molded closed, or lowering the floor and open the door to a cabin with some generic gear.

These are supports for the wheels, came broken, same as the belly antenna. None are used in this instance anyway:

Lowering of the floor to match the door height begins by removing the small locating tongue in it and gluing the floor a few millimeters down the groove where that tongue was supposed to lock: