Jackie Cochran Twin Wasp Northrop Gamma, Bendix 1935 - Modified Willimas Bros 1/72 kit

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

 

 

Finally completed: Jackie Cochran's Northrop Gamma with its P&W Twin Wasp engine.

Unfortunately she had to drop from the 1935 Bendix, encountering rough weather that forced her to return to the origin point.

The plane was later on leased to Howard Hughes, who re-engined it and used it for his record flights.

 

The step-by-step building article with the modifications needed for this specific version can be visited here:

 

 

The old and venerable Williams Bros kit was modified to obtain this version.

This is one those gifts that keeps on giving:

I had previously built the Conqueror Gamma, also flown by Cochran:

 

And the Experimental Overweather Laboratory (yes, @Martian, laboratory, not lavatory, so don't get confused, we know what happens when you do )

 

Besides this very old build:

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vb4vjFCwMeU/XyCvQ9AroFI/AAAAAAAAxWw/0gO3Z1-bebUr-GpXww1-xFjFh9I0900VwCLcBGAsYHQ/s650/01.jpg

 

 

A set from Arctic Decals was commissioned for this model, and it delivered the usual quality and precision, even including masks for the tail.

A word about the different schemes.

Under Cochran's ownership, photos show the plane in different schemes.

The one chosen here has those curved motifs on the cowl, an X registration -letter that was applied on a white patch that covered the NR one-, on tail and wings, and a line on the fuselage sides ending in an arrow at the front, and with a running hare in the middle on a rhomboidal shape.

The regs. on the wing are not perpendicular to the fuselage, but parallel to the leading edge.

There were other schemes, again still under Cochran's ownership:

-At the race (that the plane did not complete) a number 55 was applied to the airframe, and the reg. is preceded by NR.

-During what seems like the original trials, again the reg. numbers are preceded by X, and no other decoration is visible anywhere on the plane.

 

I leave you know to dream of unending skies and open landscapes, speed and elegance, and some remarkable woman.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Unfinished project]

Another beauty Moa 👌🏻👌🏻

[Marklo]

Yet again looks like the real thing. Amazing.

[SAT69]

Once again you produce a beautiful build of a most interesting airplane from the past. Given that Howard Hughes had an airplane of his own design, in the same time frame, I was surprised to learn he leased Jackie's airplane. Both planes were definitely elegant!

[woody37]

Another classic rolls off the line. I’m not normally a fan of un weathered builds, but yours are always exceptions

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, Unfinished project said:

Another beauty Moa 👌🏻👌🏻

Thanks!

Thanks, Marklo!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, SAT69 said:

Once again you produce a beautiful build of a most interesting airplane from the past. Given that Howard Hughes had an airplane of his own design, in the same time frame, I was surprised to learn he leased Jackie's airplane. Both planes were definitely elegant!

Very kind of you.

I think Howard could not let a good plane pass.

Money, no object, as we know.

 

[jeaton01]

Ah, well done, C.  I think this Gamma has the best proportions of them all.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

On 7/29/2020 at 2:20 PM, woody37 said:

Another classic rolls off the line. I’m not normally a fan of un weathered builds, but yours are always exceptions

 

Very nice of you Woody, appreciated.

Yes, I favor "clean" models.

I do have the same thing you do, but of the opposite sign: I do not favor weathered models, especially those that are overdone, or do not represent realistically the actual service conditions of the original; but most of all cringe at those that look like the modeling magazine drawings, where each panel line and rivet is black or very dark. No doubt there were some planes that under harsh conditions or by negligence will show heavy weathering, but in general planes are kept clean. I don't do warplanes, most likely to show some sort of weathering.

But the fad propelled years ago by magazines and contest judges of favoring a sort of "3D drawing" model is not only inaccurate, but at this point passé.

By now, I have flown in hundreds of planes of many types, and helicopters. Never, in my life, my perception of them was something even near like those overdone models. Planes in general do not have black/dark panel lines, especially at the scale distance we normally appreciate them.

Fed up with all that, I am at the other extreme, and may sin of over cleanness. I rather do that than fantasy weathering.

As we soon learn in this hobby: to each, her/his own 🙂

[Learstang]

Gee, I want to be you when I grow up, Claudio! Another brilliant model! I've noticed in the photographs that many of your models become airborne - have you ever lost one where it just kept flying away? I wish one would fly into my backyard. I'd return it, I promise!

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

[billn53]

In one word, Gorgeous!
 

i just finished packing up my workshop for moving, and here you go tempting me again! Your timing is impeccable. Shame on you, modeling monk! Shame!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

31 minutes ago, jeaton01 said:

Ah, well done, C.  I think this Gamma has the best proportions of them all.

Thanks J.!

That is because you haven't seen my next Gamma project: on EDO floats!

 

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

20 minutes ago, Learstang said:

Gee, I want to be you when I grow up, Claudio! Another brilliant model! I've noticed in the photographs that many of your models become airborne - have you ever lost one where it just kept flying away? I wish one would fly into my backyard. I'd return it, I promise!

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

You made me laugh, something I had not done since the sad events of 2016! 😁

Well, one or two did become airborne, no kidding, as I was photographing them. Mr. Reynolds guaranteed that the landings were anything but elegant. The glide ratio was actually 0/1.

Having been in a former life a free-flight and RC modeler, I also remember some instances of OOS.

The RC models (gliders) I still have, posses a tag with name, phone number and address.

Oh, happy memories, when you had vast pastures and hills all for yourself and a few other friends, at a reasonable driving distance, without bureaucracy, fees, permits, city oversights, radio licenses and the like.

I was much thinner then too!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

19 minutes ago, billn53 said:

In one word, Gorgeous!
 

i just finished packing up my workshop for moving, and here you go tempting me again! Your timing is impeccable. Shame on you, modeling monk! Shame!

Thanks, Bill.

Another laugh, for which I am thankful 😆

 

[Learstang]

2 minutes ago, Moa said:

You made me laugh, something I had not done since the sad events of 2016! 😁 

Patience, Grasshopper. Come January 20, 2021 (175 days) our problems may be ending...

 

Best Regards,

 

Jason

[billn53]

1 minute ago, Learstang said:

Come January 20, 2021 (175 days) our problems may be ending...

Knock on wood. 

[dogsbody]

Beauty!

 

 

 

Chris

[dnl42]

Very well done! 

 

Beautiful photography, especially the sunset below the marine layer!

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

2 hours ago, dogsbody said:

Beauty!

 

 

 

Chris

Thanks, Chris!

1 hour ago, dnl42 said:

Very well done! 

 

Beautiful photography, especially the sunset below the marine layer!

Well caught!

Yeap, my wife was laughing as I scrambled to take those before the light went off.

[Space Ranger]

Outstanding, both model and photography. I heartily agree with your sentiments re: "weathering." It seems to me that these days many modelers have never seen a real airplane or at least have never taken a close look at one, but instead glean all their "knowledge" from photographs of someone's featured model in a full-color magazine photograph, finished with the latest "hi-tech" products of the magazine's advertisers. But I'm cynical.

 

And how do you achieve those in-flight photos? Is it something as simple as posing the model outdoors and upside down on a glass tabletop while you contort yourself underneath with your camera, or is there some sort of mystical monkish levitation involved?

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

1 hour ago, Space Ranger said:

And how do you achieve those in-flight photos? Is it something as simple as posing the model outdoors and upside down on a glass tabletop while you contort yourself underneath with your camera, or is there some sort of mystical monkish levitation involved?

Hi Michael

You have to summon the best of your Shaolin Modeling Monastery training.

I have described the scene already many times: I have a large piece of glass, on which I place the model, I go outside and holding the glass with one hand by the edge trying not to break it due to its own weight, I take the camera with the other hand and take the photos from below, keeping the glass at a certain angle to avoid reflections, depending on the position of the sun.

I have to go to the front yard as the grass on the backyard would reflect on the glass. Sometimes the passing neighbours rejoice themselves to the spectacle of my strange contortions as I literally twist and shout repositioning the glass pane, trying to avoid the model sliding off the pane to one side or the other, as I shoot the photos.

I have even gotten rounds of applause.

(Kids, don't try this at home)

(No models have been harmed during the performance of these antics)

 

 

[busnproplinerfan]

Looks good. Cochran flew a Sabre way back and broke the sound barrier in a dive. I will add it was a Canadian built machine. When I was with my aviation museum we had that Sabre dismantled in storage. The nose section was lying on the floor on it’s side completely stripped. So of course I crawled inside and sat on the ejector rails. I think it’s still in storage.

[fjaweijfopi4j48]

43 minutes ago, busnproplinerfan said:

flew a Sabre

Arghhhh! a military plane in my thread!

Where is the disinfectant!!!

The horror!

[stevehnz]

Wonderful modelling Moa, a superb looking aircraft, as is the Conqueror Gamma you linked to above, I don't recall (not hard  ) having seen that one before either, obviously sitting down the back, checking out the chicks & not paying attention, I must do better.  Also a wonderful looking aircraft & beautifully modelled, she was quite a gal was Ms Cochrane.

Steve.