Percival Proctor, civil adaptation of vintage Air Lines (Frog, Novo) 1/72 kit

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

I am ever looking for conversion projects in order to redeem boring and drab doom machines into colorful, joyful, useful and uplifting models.

Many times the suitable kit happens to be a very old and outdated one. Perfect examples of those endeavors are -among many I posted here- the two Westland Everest planes:

 

 

That, coincidentally, were re-issued by the same company that boxed the Proctor: Air Lines.

This for what I can tell was originally a Frog mold, and it also more recently came out as a NOVO boxing (which already gives you the clue that you are communicating with the spirits of the departed kits...).

On the pro side: you can get them for an affordable price, they are abundant as most modelers moved on the better and newer releases (and for good reasons), and if you botch one you just trash it mercilessly and forget about it, no stress ruining a good kit here.

So, I got this old and humble kit and started to look for nice civil liveries, of which I found a lot. But soon I discovered that many of my potential subjects actually belonged to other variants of the type, and would require some modifications. Since a reasonable improvement and detailing of the kit already would consume certain time, and not wanting to get into a building quagmire, I discarded the subjects that belonged to other marks of the Proctor and centered on a few candidates that were more or less a direct adaptation of these machines into civil use.

The parts were liberated from the ever-present flash, cleaned up, and slightly refined.

 

My boxing -bought 334,677th hand- was missing a side window, no big deal.

 

 

This area needs to be opened up, so one hole and two razor cuts do the trick:

 

 

 

Vent drilled:

 

 Another small intake drilled:

 

All locating pins were removed since invariably they actually dis-located the parts they were supposed to seamlessly align, and stabs and wing halves were shaved a bit, since they sinned of fatulence (yes, correct word, no typo, it describes a known kit malady that makes kit parts  -especially flying surfaces- look excessively fat).

 

 

 

[John Aero]

The ancient Frog Proctor Mk. IV/V, is as a stand alone Mk ,not a bad kit in terms of outline shape. However having a totally different  fuselage and other parts it cannot easily be transformed in any way into any of the other Gull series as Moa has already mentioned. 

 

Somewhere in the archives I have put chapter and verse ( as I see it) on the Gulls, Vegas and early Proctors.

 

I will sit back and enjoy, Moa's fiddling.

 

John

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

8 hours ago, John Aero said:

The ancient Frog Proctor Mk. IV/V, is as a stand alone Mk ,not a bad kit in terms of outline shape. However having a totally different  fuselage and other parts it cannot easily be transformed in any way into any of the other Gull series as Moa has already mentioned. 

 

Somewhere in the archives I have put chapter and verse ( as I see it) on the Gulls, Vegas and early Proctors.

 

I will sit back and enjoy, Moa's fiddling.

 

John

Thanks John, glad you are around.

Now the build has a knowledgeable guardian angel that will prevent it from straying too far from the righteous path.

 

I reiterate the comment added to the Junkers build, in regards of duty calling and having to take a break from the building board for a while.

But hopefully will come back with renewed impetus for the current builds.

 

Cheers!

 

 

[pheonix]

Nice to see such a venerable kit being given the Moa treatment!

 

P

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Some parts are added from the spares box and others fabricated for the interior:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The parts are masked to proceed with the base color:

 

Given that the parts that come in halves have a less than perfect fit, a liquid filler is run along all joints:

 

This old kit was missing a window, so a new one is fabricated:

 

A painting guide is included! Phew! We are safe now!:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

After an inordinate number of hours spent on research, I finally decanted for a subject that had an auxiliary underbelly tank to help with a very long ferry flight, thus the part is created:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Base color applied to the interior:

 

The leading edge lights are superglued and sanded to shape. On this plane the covers were slightly different, and thus they are masked accordingly:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The underbelly tank is ready:

 

 

The succinct interior is ready, windows to be added before joining halves:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

A cylinder from the spares box is glued behind the nose air inlet to preclude the void effect:

 

The fuselage halves are united, ailerons glued on wings, stabs on fuselage, all parts ready:

 

The fit in general is quite good for a kit this age and size, requiring only clean up and very small adjustments occasionally.

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

Windows masked, canopy and nose glued on:

 

I am unaware of any masks set for this kit. If any of you knows about one, please let me know.

 

Why, you may ask yourselves, am I building this very old kit, instead of the new Dora Wings rendition (Mark I and Mark III, both in 1/72)?

Well, the answer to that question is...wait...somebody is at the door...they say they came from Mars...oh, no!...no!.....

[Martian]

56 minutes ago, Moa said:

Windows masked, canopy and nose glued on:

 

 

I am unaware of any masks set for this kit. If any of you knows about one, please let me know.

 

Why, you may ask yourselves, am I building this very old kit, instead of the new Dora Wings rendition (Mark I and Mark III, both in 1/72)?

Well, the answer to that question is...wait...somebody is at the door...they say they came from Mars...oh, no!...no!.....

Evil child! You know perfectly well I have never been at you door!

 

Outraged of Mars 👽

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, Martian Hale said:

Evil child! You know perfectly well I have never been at you door!

 

Outraged of Mars 👽

Then it's a look-alike or an impersonator:

[Courageous]

8 hours ago, Moa said:

Why, you may ask yourselves, am I building this very old kit, instead of the new Dora Wings rendition (Mark I and Mark III, both in 1/72)?

'cos you have great satisfaction of making silk purses from sows ears...or you're bonkers, like most on here.

 

Stuart

[Martian]

8 hours ago, Moa said:

Then it's a look-alike or an impersonator:

Imposter, I'm miles better looking than that.

 

Martian 👽

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

7 hours ago, Martian Hale said:

Imposter, I'm miles better looking than that.

 

Martian 👽

So that's what Mrs Martian told you, and you believed her. Well, ignorance is bliss.

 

No Adonis Either

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The landing gear is glued to the wings. The process of producing a good surface starts. Some paint is ready to be sampled on a scrap. Do not fill the seam above the nose, there was a hinge line there in reality:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

And as the Beatles used to say..all together now:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

The ferry tank is glued on, as well as the little air intake on the left wing:

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

First coat of primer:

[72modeler]

I don't know what it is about old Frog kits, and maybe I'm the only demented modeler who feels this way, but they always seem to make a great basis for a very nice model- they just need better transparencies, detail parts, some scribing, and there you are! One of my favorite builds was the Frog Fokker DXXI in Finnish markings- stole detail parts from several assorted kits, rescribed it, scratchbuilt the carb and oil cooler intakes and exhaust, and it ended up being one of my best efforts! Your Proctor is looking very good so far, Moa- can't wait to see the RFI photos! 👍

Mike

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

I

4 hours ago, 72modeler said:

I don't know what it is about old Frog kits, and maybe I'm the only demented modeler who feels this way, but they always seem to make a great basis for a very nice model- they just need better transparencies, detail parts, some scribing, and there you are! One of my favorite builds was the Frog Fokker DXXI in Finnish markings- stole detail parts from several assorted kits, rescribed it, scratchbuilt the carb and oil cooler intakes and exhaust, and it ended up being one of my best efforts! Your Proctor is looking very good so far, Moa- can't wait to see the RFI photos! 👍

Mike

I like many old kits, Italeri, Heller and other brands. I think there is a nostalgia component, but some are still holding!

[Brandy]

On 7/2/2019 at 2:26 AM, Moa said:

Why, you may ask yourselves, am I building this very old kit, instead of the new Dora Wings rendition (Mark I and Mark III, both in 1/72)?

'Cos there's more satisfaction in improving these old inaccurate kits, that's why!

 

Ian

[AdrianMF]

I've just built a FROG Proctor (in the eponymous GB) but I'm still looking forward to building my Dora Wings Proctor and Gull. It will be a different experience, more like "I'm ruining a perfectly good kit". The Proctor is one of FROG's nicer kits though. On mine I re-scribed the raised spanwise  lines on the wings, which probably isn't the best approach for a wood and fabric wing but hey, it's on the finished shelf now.

 

Looking forward to your choice of colour scheme Moa!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, AdrianMF said:

Looking forward to your choice of colour scheme Moa!

  

Regards,

Adrian 

Hi Adrian

I have the Gull too in the stash, looks like a nice kit.

After much research and pondering, I found many candidates at The Aviation Forum, and decanted for the plane I have been describing, G-AHWW, which has the color of the paint containers posted above (light turquoise) with silver registrations (outlined in black), and silver wings (colored spats). It was named the Kiwi Wanderer, flown by a New Zealand pilot (Bradshaw) that once flew in Argentina for the FAMA airline. It has a little kiwi on the nose.

There are a number of interesting liveries found in photos on the Net, but most belong to other marks or it is not possible to determine the colors with precision.

Since the Frog kit is so far the only Mark IV (when later civilized Mark V), would be interesting if an entrepreneur would release an aftermarket set with civil decals and perhaps a mask set. I couldn't believe that there was no mask set for this one. I bought a large generic masking set that has all kinds of curves and straight bits to adapt some for this build.

Cheers