GAL Monospar ST.25 "Dubbele Arend" of Van Melle's chocolate - Special Hobby 1/72nd

 

 (Photo from the Net)

 (The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/01/van-melles-gal-st-25-monospar.html

 

A little story on the Van Melle's plane can be found here:

https://www-zeeuwseankers-nl.translate.goog/verhaal/een-vliegveld-bij-breskens?_x_tr_sl=nl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

And here:

https://www.wingstovictory.nl/index.php/Van-Melle-Breskens

Who can resist a twin tail? Here is a Special Hobby's rendition of a beautiful plane, the GAL Monospar ST.25. I have built the identical Azur kit sometime ago:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2021/09/gal-st-25-monospar-azur-172nd-injected.html

And I have built in parallel the Aeroclub vacuformed kit of it, but in the ST-12 version:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/01/gal-monospar-st-12-airlines-of.html

 With the previous building experience, things are a bit easier. Short run, so no locating devices, some minor flash, some thicknesses that need shaving, very nice resin details, vac canopies...yes, plural, thank goddess Styrene. A few alternate parts allow the modeler to also build two of the single vertical tail types:

Clear enough instructions:

You can see that SH provides "solid" engine/cowls, but Dekno offeres now a very cute Pobjoy that can be used to represent the model "in maintenance":

I have acquired a few, also the Gipsy Major for the ST.12 build:

Some modelers have commented on the downward angle of the kit's nacelles, puzzled by them. That's accurate.

Note: if you feel tempted to build the Kings Cup winner, G-ACTS, remember it's an ST-10, and it had a different cowl with rectilinear/faceted "bumps", and not teardrop ones as both kits have, no aft windows, single vertical tail (not double), and the race number 15. It is seen in photos with two-blade and four-blade props. Photos corroborate this drawing:

 

Now, and just as a feasibility exercise for those wanting to build an accurate ST-10, if you modify the cowls, sand away the teardrop bumps, fabricate the angular helmets and add them...

You can do that with just one cowl and for the other nacelle just use the Dekno Pobjoy "in maintenance".

The trailing edges are thick, so they are thinned from inside, as well as the wingtips and part of the root, which is thicker than the corresponding fuselage relief:

The props don't have an axle. Metal pins are inserted:

Important: if you are using the Dekno Pobjoy engine, bear in mind that at the moment of separating it from its 3D-printed cradle, you need to differentiate between exhausts and printing pillars, removing ONLY the later and leaving the connectors:

Watch out, and carefully remove the pillars one by one:

These exhausts connect the ring to the engine cylinders. Pay extra attention to the "flying" exhaust at the end of the ring, the one here at the bottom right:

If you brake one, no problem, you can use thin soldering wire to replace it.
 

Engine fronts drilled to receive the props now with axles:

Wing halves glued:

Base colors for some of the parts for both builds:

 As I did with the previous Azur Monospar I built, I opted for an alternate way to conjugate the clear part with the fuselage, instead of venturing into the dangerous and meandering path proposed by the instructions requiring to shape the aft windows areas to fit the fuselage sides. So part of the fuselage is removed to facilitate a more traditional approach. The seats are being readied:

Painting parts for the two Monospars continues:

 

Some preliminary work on the seams. This will be completed when the vacuformed transparency is added:

The vacuformed transparency is carefully trimmed to fit (dry run), removing little material at a time and testing frequently as you go. You have a spare, but try to get it in the first go. The subtle relief on the part is spot-on as a trimming guide, but at first leave some extra material as you do the rough cut, you never know:

Transparency bathed in clear acrylic after trimming:

 Glued on. Now the work of masking the windows begins. Some panels are just easy straight rectangles, but others have curves that will require some trial and error: 

The slow process of measuring and cutting the window masks begins. Pity neither the kit's manufacturer nor any aftermarket enterprise provides them or even patterns for them:

A metal spar is inserted:

All flying surfaces are glued and the model primed:

A base of gloss white to enhance the yellow/cream color to follow:

But before the control horns and the aileron mass balances are added:

One of the colors is airbrushed:

The cowls are painted in polished aluminium. The model is masked and white is airbrushed. Canopy frames and cheatline where white, so I will mask those before applying the chocolate color:

Once the chocolate color is airbrushed and the masks removed, the model is ready for a few touch-ups and the addition of engines, landing gear, antenna, etc.:

 Working now on the landing gear, one of the challenging aspects of this kit (no real anchoring points or locating devices) besides the vac canopy that makes life difficult:

 Stab struts, nose light, aileron cables, engine. I couldn't decide if using the other kit's engine or Dekno's cute 3D-printed Pobjoy, so I will alternate both for photos using a detachable plug:

 The plugs work like this:

You can plug the kit's engine as above, or Dekno´s engine:

Now I have to add the visible section of the spars that go from engine gondola to the fuselage, for which I used my own airfoiled material:

 The rudder bands are added in the form of decal stripes. The antenna is glued in place. Still to go are rudder mass balance, antenna cable, Pitot, props, etc.

 The rudder has a mass balance, and some of my other projects do too, so I am mass-producing them:

Now with the antenna wire, the rudder mass balance, beacons and prop:

The set from Arctic Decals has arrived:

 (The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2025/01/van-melles-gal-st-25-monospar.html

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.

 

Highly recommend:

John Stewart's The Daily Show

John Oliver's Last Week Tonight

Kurt Vonnegut's books.

Special Hobby 1/72nd Junkers W-34 - Eurasia modification + Arctic Decals set

 

Here is the completed Special Hobby Junkers W-34hi in Eurasia livery. Much has been elaborated on schemes and colors in modeling forums, and as usual sources may be not be definitive about certain things and sometimes even contradict each other, so some aspects are speculative, and other modelers have come to different conclusions representing different solutions for their models. For more information please refer to the step-by-step building post here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/04/eurasia-junkers-w34-second-model.html

The Special Hobby kit is clearly more refined than the MPM representation of the same plane, but both have pros and cons. More on that on a similar thread where that kit was built:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/10/junkers-w34-eurasia-iii-converted-mpm.html

My heart-felt thanks go to Mika Jernfors for producing a well-researched and beautiful set for the Eurasia W-34 in its different numerals (and soon for the W33 I understand) and providing invaluable data, and to modeling saint and hermit S. Schulz of Marzipanland for assisting with information and good advice.

The two models: 

Highly recommend:

John Stewart's The Daily Show

John Oliver's Last Week Tonight

Kurt Vonnegut's books.