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Northrop YC-125B 'Raider'


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I visited the USAF museum in Dayton, Ohio last summer, and came across a Northrop Raider sitting in the transport section of the museum and it intrigued me to say the least!

There are no injection molded kits of this aircraft in existence, but I knew that Combat Models did a 'kit' of this aircraft. As soon as I got home I ordered one, and a few weeks later it arrived. Kits such as these are bumps in plastic, which give a good starting point to what is always a good modelling adventure. A resin 'detail' set was provided, which gave me the engines, propellers, undercarriage and intakes etc.

Decals were not provided, so I had to raid the spares box. I painted the model using my trusty Badger 200 and paints were from Xtracolour and Humbrol enamel ranges.

It has taken approximately three months to build. I would estimate that it's about 40% plastic and 60% filler!

Here is a picture of the aircraft in flight - a total of 23 were built (picture used for illustrative purposes only):

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Combat Models 1/72nd scale Northrop YC-125B Raider

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Thanks for looking,

Rob

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Nice model. I recall seeing some of these aircraft about fifty years ago at Wichita Falls, TX (my home town). They had been retired from use as maintenance trainers at Sheppard Air Force Base and were sitting forlornly away from the civil airport terminal, missing most of their instruments and with engines stored inside the fuselages. They had been purchased by a guy who was rebuilding them for use as freighters in Central and South America, so we were told. A buddy of mine and I crawled all through them and got oil, grease, and hydraulic fluid all over ourselves and our clothes.

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Anyone who can turn a Combat Vacuform into a model like that deserves the Scale Modeling Medal of Honor. That's really nice!

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Full marks for your endeavour, there must have been many times during the build that you wished a different aircraft had taken your fancy ! However the finished result is excellent and just rewards for all you efforts.

Like many who have never heard or seen one of these before what's the story ?

Cheers Pat

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Thank you for the kind words, and yes it was a bit of a battle at times but I managed to beat it into submission!

Full marks for your endeavour, there must have been many times during the build that you wished a different aircraft had taken your fancy ! However the finished result is excellent and just rewards for all you efforts.

Like many who have never heard or seen one of these before what's the story ?

Cheers Pat

The Raider was designed with two jobs in mind: troop transport from short, unpaved runways and Arctic rescue. They were delivered to the USAF from 1950 onwards, but proved to be very unstable and woefully underpowered. Also, with helicopters becoming increasingly capable they were seen as a far more viable option in both roles intended for the Raider. Therefore they were soon declared surplus and sent to Shepperd AFB (as stated by Space Ranger) and were used as instructional airframes. The example I saw at Dayton is only one of two survivors.

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