FAMED BIPLANE TRAINER FROM REVELL: BOEING-STEARMAN MODEL 75 TO 1:48 SCALE

The Boeing-Stearman Model 75 (also known as the PT-17 and Kaydet) was a biplane first built in the mid-1930s, followed by wide use as a military trainer throughout World War II.

LATEST BOEING 747-8 JUMBO JET TO 1:144 SCALE FROM REVELL

Jetliner fans can come up to date with this 1:144 scale model of the latest Dash-8 version of the venerable Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet.

CHALLENGE-AND-A-HALF FOR AIRLINER LOVERS - ALASKA AIRLINES ‘KING SALMON’ PAINT JOB ON A BOEING 737

SMN REPORT

For lovers of exotic and complex markings, this one’s a winner, and ought to be the subject for a garage-kit decal job... please! Last week, a 41-tonne king salmon landed in Anchorage, Alaska, to a rousing welcome from crowds of workers with Alaska Airlines and the state seafood industry.

GIANT AIRBORNE COMMAND POST - REVELL BOEING E-4B

MAT IRVINE REPORTS

Perhaps not too surprisingly, the major cost of any model kit is in the tooling. So once the main mould has been made, companies want to get the most out of their investment by creating as many variations on a theme as possible. And so we see a new version of Revell’s venerable 1:144 scale Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet, this time as the E-4B Airborne Command Post.

EVEN BIGGER BOMBER - 1:32 SCALE B-17 FLYING FORTRESS FROM HK MODELS

SMN Report:

We make no apologies for featuring another World War II bomber from Hong Kong Models - this one adds two more engines, and a lot more size, to represent the famed Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. Manufactured to 1:32 scale, it’s a biggie all right.

ON A ROLL - HOT STUFF FROM HASEGAWA

SMN report:

Hasegawa of Japan is bringing us hot new and revised products at a pace-and-a-half. Here a taste of what’s in store - space, sci-fi, aviation, and... girls!

BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL - NEW ZEALAND ALL BLACKS BOEING 777 UNVEILED FOR 2012 FLIGHT

SMN report:

Here’s a challenge for the kit-basher kings and paint-masters among you - it’s Boeing’s latest 777 twin-jet for ANZ (Air New Zealand), painted in midnight black to toast the World Champion All Blacks rugby team. Not only does the special scheme look great, but it makes the 777 the world’s largest airliner ever painted in an overall black finish. You can see the rollout on video, together with two All Blacks players, after the jump.

ARE YOU A COLLECTOR OR A CRAFTSMAN? OR MAYBE BOTH!

David Jefferis reports
It’s an old argument between model fans - should you buy ready-built models, and collect your kicks from the collecting habit? Or should you make your miniatures, and get your groove from the craftsmanship involved?

As ever, there are two sides to every story - and in this case, more than that. For example, it’s possible to buy a ready-built model and improve it with weathering or extra detail. Or buy a snap-kit to cut down assembly time, a good half-way house for those us us who don’t have time for a full-on model making hobby.

Balsa v Plastic
And even if you reckon the ‘true way’ is assembly with loving care, things are not clear-cut - after all, balsa-and-tissue craftsmen once dismissed plastic kits for making things too easy!

But where the line has really blurred is with the results of competition between diecast makers in providing ever-higher levels of detail. And nowhere is this more apparent than in models of older subjects, especially aircraft of the pre-World War II era.

Hobby Master P-26A Peashooter
Just have a look at Hobby Master’s beautiful 1:48 scale Boeing P-26A monoplane of 1932, shown above in model form and the full-size replica on display at the US Air Force Museum, Ohio. This is one my all-time fave aircraft, and was the world’s first all-metal production fighter, sporting such advanced features as enclosed wheels for streamlining and extra speed.

Rigging wires
Even so, the ‘Peashooter’ was something of an in-between design, with an open cockpit and tensioning wires, both standard fittings on this class of aircraft up to that point - and that’s where Hobby Master (and other manufacturers, such as Corgi) hit a home-run in the detail stakes. For these rigging wires are so beautifully fitted that even old-stager model makers like me cannot compete.

So even if we’re only talking rigging wires, in this case very few model makers are even in the same ballpark - and I take my hat off to those of that are!
 
The pictures show, top to bottom:
1  Three views of Hobby Master's 1:48 Boeing P-26A.
2  Full size replica P-26A at the USAF MUseum.

UK online store JohnJohn has some P-26 Peashooters to look at here.

Visit the USAF Museum here.

And here are some more Peashooters in various scales.

SO, JUST WHAT IS A 'BOILERPLATE'?

The term ‘boilerplate’ came up in the recent post about the reissued Airfix Lunar Module, and the fact that early test spacecraft and mockups are usually called boilerplate versions. It's a bit of an odd word, so we asked ourselves: “Why are they called that?”

The name stems from the earliest US crewed spacecraft, the single-seat Mercury capsule. Although flight versions were built by what was then the McDonnell Aircraft Company (later McDonnell-Douglas, now part of Boeing), early mockups were built at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, (currently NASA’s Langley Research Center). The ‘boilerplate’ moniker appears to stem from the very first of these, when a Mercury capsule’s conical section was made at the Norfolk Navy Shipyard, from the type of steel plate used for ship-building, or for that matter, pressurized engine boilers.

This first boilerplate did fly a short distance on top of a Little Joe rocket, and the name has stuck, whatever materials have been used. Note though, it can be written as ‘boilerplate’, ‘boiler plate’, even ‘boiler-plate’!

Since that first boilerplate Mercury, the word has been used to describe all US test spacecraft, especially the capsule designs used for Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and the latest Orion. In theory, the prototype Space Shuttle Orbiter Enterprise could be called a boilerplate, though it is rarely referred to as such.

The pictures show, top to bottom:

Little Joe rocket and Mercury boilerplate at Wallops Island.
Mercury boilerplate at the Air Power Park, Hampton, Virginia.
The delightfully named Gemini El Kabong boilerplate at the Air Zoo, Michigan.
Apollo boilerplate 29 on display at Meteor Crater, Arizona.

Little Joe picture courtesy NASA, others by Mat Irvine

BIGGEST HORNET KIT YET - WELL ACTUALLY, IT’S THE 1:1 SCALE REAL THING

Academy’s neat 1:72 scale Boeing F/A-18 Hornet (and its hugely bigger 1:32 scale cousin, shown top above) is an example of ongoing product improvement, with extra parts and excellent third-party Cartograf decals. For anyone who has assembled one of these bigger Hornet kits, the time-lapse video above is a reminder of the complexities of putting together the real thing.

Like all big aircraft projects, construction and assembly of the Hornet is an international business, with parts big and small arriving at the assembly hall from thousands of separate suppliers. The final flying machine is a triumph of systems integration.

However, this approach doesn’t always work the first time. For example, on the much-delayed Dreamliner passenger jet, Boeing has had real problems with the supply chain - among other issues, thousands of fasteners had to be replaced. Still, Boeing reckons most of these problems are now solved, and the company aims to have the new jet taking off on its maiden flight later this year.

Visit Academy here, and the Boeing company here.

The video is via Live Leak, here.