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F166 Spirit of St. Louis - ## FINISHED ##


nimrod54

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This FROG Trail Blazers boxing of Charles Lindberg's Spirit of St. Louis is going to be my second entry to the group build and here are the photos of the box and its contents.

 

48188207576_41781aed20_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

48188207231_1cbcbb329d_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

48188212426_77db14c420_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

and a final shot of the parts that have broken away from the sprues and the decals.

 

48188270162_2e45a72f38_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

With no plans for any extras, other than maybe some scratch building, this will be a quick out of box build.

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@nimrod54 said

“With no plans for any extras, other than maybe some scratch building, this will be a quick out of box build.” 

                                                      :crap:

 

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I recall in 1978ish it made a great little model.  As a kid I couldn't understand why there was no windscreen.  I thought I was doing it wrong so had to go to the library to get books.  (Oh those pre-internet days of cycling to the library before they closed).

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Well done John, this is an excellent selection and those old parts do look nice and crisp in comparison to some Novo kit's I've come across. 

I'm sure you will do this kit the justice it so richly deserves. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

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Really looking forward to seeing this come together - I have a bagged one in the stash. It might have to be built soon as I picked up a Haynes manual on the type for £4 yesterday after seeing @Richard Humm 's post - some nice references in there.

 

How will you treat the scalloped (?) pattern on the nose?

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17 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

Strange that you don’t get a standing Lindbergh figure like you do in the other trail blazer kits. The plastic looks good though.

 

Regards,

Adrian

Your comment sent me off into a mild panic Adrian. I thought that I had seen a loose seated pilot in the box yesterday but it is not there in the last photo of the loose bits. Having checked I can report that the fly-boy is in the box, but there is no standing figure of Lindy. :shrug:

 

13 hours ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Well done John, this is an excellent selection and those old parts do look nice and crisp in comparison to some Novo kit's I've come across. 

I'm sure you will do this kit the justice it so richly deserves. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

 

 Thanks Dave, there is a small amount of flash on a few of the parts but the rest seem OK for a kit of this age. I am trying to figure out a way to represent a 1/72 engine turned finish on the cowling  :mental:, I think that it will just be a shiny metal finish to contrast against the doped fabric. 

 

10 hours ago, Jinxman said:

Really looking forward to seeing this come together - I have a bagged one in the stash. It might have to be built soon as I picked up a Haynes manual on the type for £4 yesterday after seeing @Richard Humm 's post - some nice references in there.

I hope to pick a copy up over the weekend, I should also say thanks to @Richard Humm for the heads-up too.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Having painted the seat and figure a couple of nights ago, I made a start a start on putting this one together today by assembling the fuselage and wings. The empennage was the next to receive some attention, after that I cleaned up the joins before making up the tubular frame for the instrument panel in an effort to fill the empty space in front of Charlie.

 

48331681437_b3f3586910_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

48331682262_7a02d3f504_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

48331546441_d527ec52f5_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

I don't plan to do much more in the cabin, because little will be seen once everything is buttoned up and adding the frame structure has caused a couple of small issues. When the frame is fixed in position it will sit across the slot for the stand, so that means that my plan to use it needed revising and I will now fill the slot, which will not be a great loss because I don't think that the stand in the box is the right one for this kit. As can be seen in the photo above I have had to rearrange the Lindberg legs to stop them fouling the new internal structure.

 

48331682482_3529069fc8_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

48331545456_1b271df4c9_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

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As always John, this WIP is looking most lovely. I would have thought that next to nothing inside would be seen once the fuselage is cemented together which actually appeals to me as it’s one area I detest in 1/72 scale. I do like the original Frog silver plastic, looks to be nice to work with. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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2 hours ago, nimrod54 said:

48331681437_b3f3586910_c.jpg

Now, I know that FROG influenced the modern Internet sub-culture:

_93998704_homunweb2.jpg

Probably creator of this figure:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homunculus_loxodontus

Dutch artist Margriet van Breevoort building FROG Spirit of St. Louis, too!

😁

 

1 hour ago, dad's lad said:

This aircraft never made any sense to me with the complete lack of a windscreen. Must've made take off and landing "interesting" with no direct forward vision.

Did not the "Spirit of St. Louis" Charles Lindberg have a periscope?

 

B.R.

Serge

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Whilst trying to drum up some enthusiasm to push on with my Panzer VI build - not very successfully - I thought that I would crack on with this build. The wing is on and after priming then brushing some chrome silver on the nose, I decided that the fuselage joins would require further sanding. I did that remedial work this afternoon then primed again and the model is now ready for the topcoats.

 

48521666501_8a008a30af_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

 

48521666136_f3e78b5669_c.jpg

by John L, on Flickr

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Until I read this thread it had completely slipped my mind that I built one of these when I was a kid. I don't remember seeing this kit at all during my teenage years in the 1970s.

I've no idea what happened to mine, played with to destruction no doubt. 

John 

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32 minutes ago, John said:

Until I read this thread it had completely slipped my mind that I built one of these when I was a kid. I don't remember seeing this kit at all during my teenage years in the 1970s.

I've no idea what happened to mine, played with to destruction no doubt. 

John 

If you were anything like me in my early modeller years John, I would have finished a model and then it would be off out to fly it around the garden.  :)

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49 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Nice update John and the kit is looking as pristine during the build stage as we all expect. 

 

Cheers... Dave 

Thanks Dave, I am still trying to come up with a way of representing the engine-turned finish seen on many aircraft at that time, but I figure that if I get the topcoats on I can have a tinker with some spare plastic as a paint mule to try a few techniques.

Surprisingly, what I thought was just a rough surface finish on the nose, on closer inspection appears to have a regular pattern and I now feel that it may be FROG's attempt  to represent the engine turning, so that may be a good starting point.

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6 hours ago, nimrod54 said:

I am still trying to come up with a way of representing the engine-turned finish

 

All knowledge is found here on BM.

 

42.

 

 

This is possibly a step too far for you, but it may help you work out an alternative.

 

Gah, wrong post. Try this'un

 

 

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