Lockheed L-12 Electra Junior - Special Hobby 1/72nd scale

 

 This is one of the planes that I am considering -among a few other candidates:

http://www.edcoatescollection.com/ac3/Airline/California%20Central%20Airlines%20Lockheed%2012A.html 

Oh, the irresistible lure of classics!

Those who peruse these posts -or know me- know that I feel a sometimes uncontrollable attraction towards airplane oddballs. Many rara avis examples populate these virtual pages. But, as if yearning back to Apollonian archetypes, every now and again a classic would land on my building board.

Having built before the bigger version of the Electra, the L-10:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2018/07/lockheed-electra-10e-amelia-earhart.html

I felt it needed company, so this L-12 box was extricated from the deepest corners of the stash dungeons. In checking current availability, I found that I may be a millionaire, as this kit was sold on a virtual market for the absurd price of $140+*.   

For those unfamiliar with the kit, this is a review by the late Jim Schubert:

https://www.internetmodeler.com/2001/june/first-looks/specialhobby_lockheed12.htm

In addition of the kit’s resin perks, I gathered from the spares box pax seats (absent from the kit), an unrelated vertical tail that can be fashioned into a third middle one -sometimes wore by the L-12-, wheels with different hubs if so the choice of plane requires it, home-made landing light lenses (missing from the kit) and masks (the latter not at all my preferred type/brand, but that’s what’s available). The kit’s engines are not bad, but are bland and have a too prominent crankcase, as if it were the geared type (which was not the case for these planes). My boxing has clear plastic cabin windows (rattling unprotected inside the general bag) but a vacuformed canopy (I see this has yellowed in some kits, so not the best way to go I am afraid).

As I hardly ever use the decals in a kit, and almost invariably go for new ones, the exciting stage of choosing the specific planes comes. These airframes captured my attention: NACA 99 and 97 (both with the three vertical tails and additional equipment), Department of Commerce/Civil Aeronautics Authority NS-1, and California Central Airlines N71K. As a sidenote there is a civil “Videroe” sheet made by Mika Jernfors (Arctic Decals) for Lima November Decals. Additionally Draw Decal offers a TWA sheet.

Other examples of L-12 schemes can be found here in this PDF, including “Gilmore” and Milo Bucham racer “20”.

https://www.simelas.com/images/pilot_secrets/LockheedL12a_LFLU-2007-08/L12a-sn1226.pdf

Special Hobby as we know has to be commended for releasing a number of civil planes. So, the kit was a success, as demonstrated by its total unavailability and bonkers re-sell price, then why the same -or other- manufacturer doesn’t release it again? What about the iconic L-14 Super Electra for which no civil kit exists? Same with the Lodestar. Ah… I see, the industry is too busy making the arch-known and overly common Nth version of a military kit. 

We are all familiar at this point with "short run" technology. No locating devices, a bit of flash, not particularly sharp molds and sometimes soft detail. The kit: 

Aftermarket parts and spare box items:

Home-made lenses (the kit has none):

Instructions are fair, mostly. The cockpit bulkhead was actually kinked (see the door edge in the photo below from the Net):

Major parts separated off the sprues. ALL parts require cleaning:

Several ejector tower need removal on various parts:

Cabin windows with the usual distortion:

Two canopies, unfortunately covering different types, so no spare:

Bland, too soft detail on the engines:

Not very sharp landing gear legs:

Ejector towers removed from the fuselage inner walls:

The resin parts removed from their pouring blocks, tedious, but not difficult...unless...Both the inst. panel and cockpit floor cracked while removing their too thick pouring blocks. The control wheels are unusable and new ones need to be fashioned:

 

 

To be continued...