Old Man

That looks very nice, Sir!

Thank you, Sir. I do enjoy fussing with these old things. My preference for 1/72 runs pretty deep, though there have been some serious temptations.... Have you seen the re-issued kit? I was poking around about this,wellafter I started it,mind, and found some comments on a Polish board which, shall we say, displayed scant respect for the ZTS item. I have only done one resin kit, so far,but I have a couple of Olimp kits, of Curtiss and Boeing types in the thirties. Some of the Ardpol stuff does look very interesting.

Thank you for the advice, Sir. I think this does meet your qualifications,as the decals are about thirty years old, and there is a lot of surface irregularity for them to go down over. What proportion of Windex do you recommend? If it does not work, I will have to change field and some new markings; either pirate from one of my Heller kits (I could spare Polish markings as I want to do one as a Romanian machine),or get a modern sheet (someone,I think Trech-Mod, has a sheet for a 1/72 P.11).

Glad to see you making good progress on this, Sir! It is a very striking aircraft. I was very glad when this came out, as it is a real improvement on the old Heller, which for someo dd reason got the nose weirdly wrong....

A 'Spinne' actually, Sir, is one I have considered. Another is B.E. 1, the first of the R.A.F. B.E. breed, or B.E. 2, the second: I have got a little more information on that one; material on the very first one seem a bit thin on the ground. An early Farman, 1911 or 1912,of the sort that France operated in Morocco very early,has also intrigued me for a while. At this point, though, I must admit, I am a bit more fixed on inter-war subjects. I am planning to take another run soon at the N.E.I. Hawk, which you may recall: I think I can do a better job of it on a second pass, and may incorporate s

Great to see this shaping up so nicely, Sir! Most impressive. I wish I could offer something solid on the wing, but I have done a couple of these, and the upper wing fit was a little odd, but in different ways, on each. I am sure you will make it work, and without any evidence of the effort showing, either!

Welcome to the forum, Sir! Thank you for the pictures of the Spinne; it is a fascinating aeroplane. I hope to see more of the model of it you are working on. The 'Historic Wings' people are really onto something, in my view; they may yet save me a scratch-build or two, though I am not too comfortable myself with photo-etch as a building material, or with skinning it as a final step. There is no doubt, though, it has the potential for superb realism in modeling pioneer and other early machines.

Thank you very much, Sir! Glad you like it. Curtiss cockpits are a little easier than most, as Curtiss lined them with sheet aluminum concealing all but the major structural elements, so there are no stringers and such to do. The sealed cockpit and the pilot comfort it provided was a selling point for the company.

Thank you, Sir! I presume by the AWACS option you mean the stand? Surely you must remember the ancient custom of elevated display? Odd that you should mention the Tiger Moth; this blue and yellow scheme originated as the Army finish for trainers, as the most conspicuous combination they tested, the aim being to cut down on mid-air collisions over training fields. It was then standardized for all Army planes as a cost-cutting measure.

Thank you, Sir. You do some excellent work yourself; that is quite a collection to browse on your link. Excellent finish on the Matchbox Boeing P-12E. The Boeing was the real workhorse of the Army fighter squadrons in those days; Curtiss got most of the press (and the export market), but Boeing equipped the U.S. fighter forces....

Thank you,my friend. Glad you like it. the Starfighter people have a new decal sheet out for this one, with a wide range of possible finishes. I think the Time On Target people have a sheet with a couple of P-6E options, too. Accurate Miniatures did re-issue this, in a combination boxing with the F4B-4, but it is pretty well sold out by now. Which I suppose indicates a re-issue would sell....

Thank you, Sir. I agree, these are very well-made kits, and it must be said, the older the pressing, the better. This one was sealed in original cellophane, with a price tag reading $1.09 on it, so I expect it actually does date back to the early seventies. The trailing edges are like a razor, and what ejection marks there were on the wings pretty well disappeared just in smoothing down the 'fabric' texture. It would be nice if Revell re-did the P-36 and P-26 kits; I have a couple of each in stash. The Revell P-26 does need some work on the wing shape and elevator trailing edges, though, and h

Into the home stretch with this one, Gentlemen: all that remains is decals, tail struts, putting in wing gun barrels, and making the windscreen.... A few points worth mentioning.... The propeller is one area that need modification for accuracy. The spinner is supposed to make a smooth cone with the front-plate; the kit piece leaves a distinct step. I added about a millimeter of plastic sheet at the rear of the spinner,trimmed the propeller blades off,and re-mounted them a little bit back of their original position.The spinner is just tacked in place for these pictures,it still needs a

Thank you, Sir. Regarding the box art: that is a scheme employed by the 17th Pursuit Squadron, at Selfridge Field, in the early thirties. It was an attempt to lend the appearance of a snow owl to the entire machine, with the landing gear standing for its talons --- the snow owl was the emblem of the squadron. The scheme drew some national attention when the squadron made a well-reported endurance flight, and came for many to be emblematic of Army aviation in the period. Actually, the P-6E was a minor type, equipping only one squadron (the 17th Pursuit) entirely. When the 17th Pursuit was re-e

Painting is underway: Paints are PollyScale, cut with future,and applied over white Tamiya primer. Quartermaster blue and yellow were used; the blue was mixed with some Azure Blue,to grey it down a bit and make it a bit paler, and the Yellow with a bit of red,as the white undercoat was leaving it a bit too pale and washed-out. The red nose is from a 35th Pursuit scheme on a Starfighter Decal sheet. Here is a picture with the the upper wing and vertical tail surface temporarily in place:

Lower wing fit was very good,and so was that of the horizontal stabilizer. I have added control horns for the elevators: The exhaust stubs have been sanded down to proper lengths,and opened up. Here is a view of the underside: the area round the radiator is open on the kit;I filledit in.I am not sure this is correct,but the open gape into yellow plastic could not be proper either:

Fit is quite nice, even of the upper cowling and cowling front pieces. Raised detail on the panels is appropriate for this model,as Curtiss panels in this period had raised edges. There is such a join at the seam of the cowling top with the fuselage,and I replicated this with .004" brass wire. Here is a look in the cockpit: I decided I was not satisfied with my first run at replacing the kit's exhaust stubs; here is the early portion of the second pass. They are made of .8mm rod, and set at a downward angle,as they were actually at right angles to the cylinders:

Since I want to do a blue and yellow example, the kit does need some modification to the late service style of spats, and provision of full wheels: I also decided to improve the exhaust stubs.

This vintage kit is an excellent example of both the classic period of aviation and of model making. It does need some interior work: here is basic side-wall and such,scratch-built:

Well, the last little bits are finished on this one, Gentlemen. I confess I am not so much happy with this model as I am happy to be shut of it. It fought me to the last, with aileron wires refusing to attach till flat cursed at. But it is done now,and here are the pictures.... Still, most of my difficulties were of my own making, and I think this is a nice little kit, that I intend to have a few more passes at in future. I know what to look out for now, and suspect I will be able to keep from dropping the damned thing so often in future efforts....

Hell, Sir, we have a 'pre-war and early war' group build going now on ARC, covering from 1935 to June, 1940, started in July. There are about the same number of participants as in yours. I have four builds going in the thing,myself.... I have gotten the feeling over the last couple of years, anyway, that A.R.C. does attract a crowd much more focused on modern (read jet) aircraft, than average among modelers. I very seldom look in on a post concerning a jet, as I do not have much knowledge of or interest in such subjects in general.I expect many of the jet clan have the same attitude towards s

Damn, Sir! That is fabulous stuff. Reminds me of some remembered streets south of downtown back when I was a kid. Thanks so much for sharing the view!

Not bad at all, Sir ... and damned funny!

EZ-Line for me, Sir.... (Farman 11, scratch-built in 1/72) You need CA glue in gel form, not the thin liquid (if you cannot get gel, you can leave a pool of the thin stuff laying for a while on a bit of tin-foil, it will thicken somewhat), and you will need CA accelerator, along with some sharp tooth-picks and a good tweezer. Basically, you put a tiny dab of the CA gel where you want an end of the wire to be, wet that end of the EZ-Line piece in the accelerator, and touch that to the tiny bit of glue. The accelerator will set the glue in a few seconds, holding the end of the line. You can

Here are some shots of the closed fuselage, with views into the cockpits from several angles. I expect to be re-doing the panel lines, and there are some protrubances that need to be restored on the nose.