Project “Sound Barrier”: From B-29 to EB-29

After studying all the material I could find about the EB-29 mothership, I believe I have a sufficient understanding of the modifications that are needed to transform the Academy 1/72nd scale B-29A kit into a model of the EB-29. Apart from modifications that were made to the aircraft to be able to carry the X-1, the kit can also be enhanced by adding a few details here and there; generally, the kit is excellent, though.

NASA photo from 1955.

The Academy kit is generally considered the best 1/72nd scale offering of this type. I found some reviews and “build reports” of the kit on the Web, including this one, but as a general rule I like to do my own research to figure out how to correct and improve kits.

Project “Sound Barrier”: Initial Thoughts

I recently watched a Smithsonian Institute documentary titled “Bell X-1: Breaking the Sound Barrier“, the story about the first supersonic aircraft and the test pilot Chuck Yeager. While that history was well known to me already before, the documentary made me think about building a model of the X-1. That, inevitably, led to thoughts about modeling the B-29 mothership as well. This is a potentially very deep rabbit hole…

Enhancing old kits

I have never subscribed to the idea that when you build a scale model you always have to have the latest, most perfectly detailed kit to start with. Some folks say it saves a lot of effort when the kit is “perfect” with all the details you need. For me, building models is not about saving time, and in fact I get tremendous satisfaction from building a model from some old kit, but then “super-detailing” it (and correcting its mistakes) so that the end result does not reveal where I started. As an example, I recently built a de Havilland Vampire (by combining parts from the old Heller’s Vampire and Mistral kits, Airfix and Revell boxings, respectively).I also built and super-detailed Monogram’s old X-15.

This time, I would like to talk about of how to go from something that is really bad to something much better. I have been working on a model of the Heinkel He 115 floatplane, combining the best parts from the old 1976 Matchbox kit and the old 1977 Revell kit (1993 boxing, not their 2007 re-boxing of the Matchbox kit) to produce a reasonable rendition of the He 115A-2 (the kits are – ostensibly – B and C variants). Both kits are rather terrible.

Spanish Messerschmitts and their colors

This blog post is part of my research that I always do in preparation to build a scale model. The current model project is sort of a continuation of my Grand Messerschmitt Project.

Spanish aircraft manufacturer Hispano Aviación built a version of the Messerschmitt Bf 109G that eventually was powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, called HA-1112 Buchón. Yep, more or less the same engine that was used in the Spitfire and the P-51 Mustang. The history of the Spanish Messerschmitts is long and troubled, mostly because of the engine choices and engine availability. It was not until well into the 1950s that the Spanish Air Force was able to use these aircraft; they served until the mid-1960s.

So what’s a “Cornell” anyway…?

The recently formed Commemorative Air Force New England Wing just received its first aircraft, a Fairchild PT-23. The aircraft arrived at its new home, the Hampton Airfield (7B3) in NH, yesterday afternoon, after being diverted to KMHT on Friday.

A fly-by for the awaiting crowd before landing.

Some people refer to this aircraft as “Cornell”, so let’s figure out why.

First completed Arado

The first model from the “Grand Arado project of 2022” has now been completed! It is an Arado Ar 96B-7, built from the old Heller 1/72nd scale kit. The model depicts a captured aircraft marked “AIR MIN 120” serving with the No.435 DSRU of RAF in Germany in December 1945. The history of the aircraft is documented in the book “War Prizes” (p.120; see our previous blog post for a list of reference sources) as well as Mark I Publications’ book “Arado Ar 96 colours & markings”.

New model projects: Arado

After the successful completion of my “Grand Messerschmitt project” I thought about starting another project where I build several models in parallel. For a long time I have really wanted to build the Arado Ar 196 -floatplane, an iconic representative of German maritime aircraft from World War 2. My “stash” of unbuilt kits yielded plenty of raw material for a project, and so I have decided to build the following:

• Arado Ar 196A-2 on loan from Luftwaffe to the Finnish Air Force, sometime in 1943.
• Arado Ar 196 V3 prototype; this will be a conversion from a twin-float to a single-float configuration.
• Arado Ar 96B-7 captured by the RAF and used after the war a “unit hack”.

Grand Messerschmitt project: Conclusion

I am happy to declare that the “Grand Messerschmitt project of 2021” is finally finished, with the completion of the fifth and final model a few days ago. The idea of the project was to study whether models could be built “assembly line” style, taking advantage of the economies of scale. The results are generally positive, the project was a success, but I learned a number of things too.

First, I think building five models is too many. I think the sweet spot is probably three. And second, to really take advantage of this approach, all the kits should be the same. I used three FineMolds’ kits, one Premium Hobbies’ (ex-Academy) kit, and one Airfix kit (of a completely different variant of the Bf 109, also not a good idea). One idea I have for doing this again is to take three Hasegawa Brewster Buffalo kits and build them all as aircraft of the Finnish Air Force, then there will be sufficient similarities to yield benefits. Nevertheless, in this project I was able to take advantage of painting four aircraft with the German RLM 74/75/76 camouflage, painting three identical propellers all at the same time, five sets of landing gears, etc.

Taking scale model photos

I take photos of real aircraft to support my scale model projects (as reference material). Once a model project is completed, I usually take pictures of the model and produce a Web page that describes the model, its construction, etc. Some people have asked me how do I take those model pictures, and how do I edit them afterwards. This blog post is my answer.

Here are some examples of my recent models:

Vought F4U-1A Corsair

Caudron-Renault C.R.714 Cyclone