billn53 Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 Photo from Clintonville Public Library (Clintonville, WI) In 1939 the Four Wheel Drive Auto Company (FWD), a major manufacturer of four-wheel transmissions and heavy-duty trucks based in Clintonville, Wisconsin, opened a flight department and traded a company truck for a Waco biplane for their company's use. In 1944 company executives decided to start an airline named Wisconsin Central Airlines, and service began between six Wisconsin cities in 1946. This led the company to buy two Cessna UC-78 Bobcats, and, soon after, three Lockheed Electra 10As. In 1949, the familiar logo of "Herman the Duck" was created by Karl Brocken, a Milwaukee industrial design consultant. The flying mallard, silhouetted against the sun by day and the moon at night, symbolized the frequent and quick flights of Wisconsin Central's aircraft. More revenue allowed three more Electra 10As, then six Douglas DC-3s. Within three years the airline was serving 19 cities in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. In October 1950, Wisconsin Central bought six Douglas DC-3 aircraft from Trans World Airlines (TWA). These larger, 21 passenger aircraft cost $450,000, nearly a quarter of the airline’s total revenues for that year. In 1952 the airline moved their headquarters from Wisconsin to Minneapolis, Minnesota and changed its name to North Central Airlines. In July 1979, North Central acquired regional carrier Southern Airways and became Republic Airlines. This merger ended the proud legacy of Wisconsin Central Airlines and Herman the Duck. In 1986, Republic merged with Northwest Orient Airlines. Following the merger, the new airline became Northwest Airlines (dropping the "Orient"), which merged into Delta Air Lines in 2008. Once the merger was finalized in early 2010, the Northwest Airlines brand fully retired with the Delta Air Lines name surviving as the successor to Wisconsin Central Airlines. From its start in small-town Clintonville, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Central Airlines, and its successor North Central, grew into a major regional and national air carrier. In its 35 year history the airline carried nearly 6 million passengers, served 96 cities, employed 3,400 people, earned $140 million and flew seven different types of aircraft. A history of Wisconsin Central and North Central Airlines aircraft, from top to bottom: Cessna UC-70 Bobcat, Lockheed 10A, Douglas DC-3, Convair 440, Convair 580, Douglas DC-9, Douglas DC-9, Douglas DC-9 Series 30 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In Spring of 2020, having decided to retire and relocate to Madison, Wisconsin, I built this model of a Lockheed L10 Electra in Wisconsin Central Airlines markings: Now, I'm all settled in to my new home and it's time to expand my collection of Wisconsin-themed aircraft. For this project, I will be building Wisconsin Central Airlines's first aircraft, the Cessna T-50 Bobcat: Let's open the box and see what's included! Two sprues of gray plastic: One clear sprue for the canopy and side windows: Two sheets of decals, representing four Bobcats in civil markings: Lastly, four pages of instructions: I will also be using these aftermarket items: Research is the necessary prerequisite for building a historic aircraft, and I was challenged to find any photos or other information about WCA's Bobcats. Fortunately, Space Ranger came to the rescue with a color profile drawing and a 1947 black & white photo taken in Clintonville of NC51401 and NC63662: My first question was, is the Wisconsin Central Airlines logo in the profile correct? The aircraft in the photo show no logos present. Perhaps the profile creator was applying artistic license? Then, Mika at Arctic Decals unearthed this photo, which confirms the passenger side of the WAC Bobcats carried a logo: Just a few days ago I stumbled on a veritable treasure-trove of information about Wisconsin Central Airlines at the Clintonville Public Library. In addition to the color photo at the top of this post, I found the following items to help me in my build: This is going to be fun! 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Holden Posted January 5, 2021 Share Posted January 5, 2021 Interesting project and nice history of a classic US airline. Herman the Duck was carried over into the Republic era and was on their first colour scheme. I have 1/144 DC-9 decals somewhere. He only disappeared with Republic's mid-80s (pretty awful) colour scheme..... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 Nice! Nice! Nice! Looking forward to this. Your L-10 and classic car were a tour-de-force! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted January 6, 2021 Author Share Posted January 6, 2021 33 minutes ago, TheyJammedKenny! said: Nice! Nice! Nice! Looking forward to this. Your L-10 and classic car were a tour-de-force! Thank you very much, TJK! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnl42 Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 This is cool! I remember Republic well. I recall one flight where I and 1 other passenger were aboard at the origin in Sault Ste Marie. The flight attendant didn't do her usual spiel but talked to each of us separately. A few more boarded in Traverse City and, and IIRC, another handful boarded in Saginaw before the flight ended Detroit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy54 Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 Hello Bill, excellent research you have done on this project, I plan to follow this build and if it turns out anything like your previous wip it will be well worth it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted January 7, 2021 Author Share Posted January 7, 2021 Work has begun! Before I show what I've been up to, I must exercise full disclosure and admit that, so far, I've been cribbing from Moa's work on this same kit. Thus, I'm not going to repeat all the details... for those, you can find his WIP here: Here are my accomplishments thus far: I assembled the rather basic interior: I have practically nil info about interior colors for the WCA Bobcats. All I have is this photo, which suggests (based on a close look at the entry door) a two tone scheme: black below the windows and a lighter grayish hue above that: Trailing edges of the wing and rudder were thinned down using a scraper: I drilled holes for the retractable landing lights. I will be adding reflective lenses from the backside of the holes. The plastic is very thick in this area, so I ground down the interior of the wing to make the holes shallower: Some Bobcats also had a light in the leading edge of the left wing. This appears to be the case with the WCA Bobcats, as evidenced by this period photo: Here is a better view on a different aircraft: I thinned the rear of the engine cowlings and drilled holes for the exhausts: I will be replacing the kit engines with more detailed resin castings from Engines & Things: There is no way these will fit in the kit's cowlings, so I'll cheat and cut back the top of the cylinders: I assembled the engine nacelles and test fit them to the wings. The fit is very good and very little filler will be needed at the join: I was concerned about the size and shape of the opening for the landing gear (a lesson I learned from my L10 Electra build), but these seem close to being correct: I have read that the landing gear legs of the KP Bobcat kit are too long. By making measurements from drawings and photos, I believe the landing gear leg should project between 0.4 and 0.45 inches below the nacelle (the variability depends on fuel and cargo load, plus how much pressure is in the shock strut). See examples below: Measuring the kit's landing gear assembly, I found the distance between the nacelle and wheel axle to be 0.55 inches, meaning I will have to remove at least a tenth of an inch (2.5-mm) from the leg. A sizeable amount! That's all for now. Thanks for viewing! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesa Jussila Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 Nice work. This Cessna is also in my to do list. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted January 8, 2021 Author Share Posted January 8, 2021 A bit more progress this evening: I shortened the landing gear by 3-mm, then added a 0.5-mm styrene strip to support the three "legs", giving a net reduction in length of 2.5-mm. Painted the interior black & gray, with aluminum seats for the pilot and co-pilot: Added reflective lenses for the retractable landing lights in the wings. I will do the leading edge light after the wings are assembled: Cheers! 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 Nice looking kit and wouldn't mind one of these myself. Great start and lovely scheme too Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy54 Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 Nice progress! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted January 8, 2021 Author Share Posted January 8, 2021 Doing two completely different builds at once (my other being a 3D-printed Socata TB9 Tampico), progress isn’t as rapid as it would be otherwise. Nonetheless, I’m happy how things are going so far... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 (edited) What a neat project! I didn't know there was a Wisconsin Central Airlines, although I'm sure my in-laws do. The build looks really good so far. Having lived in Washington my whole life, I only remember a couple airlines based here in my lifetime: Horizon Air and Cascade Airways (which my pilot dad always called "Crash-cade"). Of course there were the ubiquitous bright yellow Hughes Airwest DC-9's flying in and out of PSC across the river when I was a kid. I'm not usually a civil aircraft fan, but this looks like a fun project! I'll tag along if I may! Edited January 8, 2021 by opus999 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted January 8, 2021 Author Share Posted January 8, 2021 28 minutes ago, opus999 said: What a neat project! I didn't know there was a Wisconsin Central Airlines, although I'm sure my in-laws do. The build looks really good so far. Having lived in Washington my whole life, I only remember a couple airlines based here in my lifetime: Horizon Air and Cascade Airways (which my pilot dad always called "Crash-cade"). Of course there were the ubiquitous bright yellow Hughes Airwest DC-9's flying in and out of PSC across the river when I was a kid. I'm not usually a civil aircraft fan, but this looks like a fun project! I'll tag along if I may! I grew up in western Virginia, and remember Piedmont and Allegheny Airlines when I was a youngster. My first plane flight was on a Piedmont DC-3 -- I have one with Piedmont decals in my stash, waiting to be built. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesa Jussila Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 This project is progressing nicely. And good tips to my own project. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted January 12, 2021 Author Share Posted January 12, 2021 I polished the clear parts with Tamiya polishing paste, then gave them a coat of Mr. Polymer Coating. I just recently discovered this product, and used it in my earlier F-4 Phantom build. It gives a result at least as good as dipping in Future, but without the mess and hassle. There are no locating pins in the fuselage halves, so I glued narrow styrene strips along the edges to help with alignment: I had to do a lot of trial-and-error fettling to get the side windows to fit properly, and it took me over an hour to install them. I used VMS Transpa Fix 6 for the first time -- It is very thick & viscous, and creates messy strings of glue. It also takes 24-hours to completely dry. It reminds me very much of watch crystal cement. The nice thing about it is it doesn't craze the clear parts like CA or standard styrene cement. I assembled the wings while the side windows were drying; they went together with no problems. My thinning of the trailing edge seems to have done the trick, although I do have some cleanup to do there. Next, I will install the interior and close up the fuselage. After that, I'll probably spend some quality time with the engines. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted January 14, 2021 Author Share Posted January 14, 2021 I've spent the past couple of days working on my Socata Tampico, but this morning I turned my attention back to the red Bobcat. With the wings assembled, I was ready to add the leading edge lights. For this, I elected to try the method that @lunarhighway recently posted in his T-6 Harvard build: First, I cut away the area in the leading edge where the lights will go and added the lenses for the lights: I'm fond of using this product for lights, and have used it in many of my builds: With the lenses in place, I created the transparent cover using clear cello tape (the thicker kind, used for sealing packages). I trimmed the edges with a sharp scalpel blade: I did say sharp, didn't I? Next, I worked on the engine nacelles. On the actual aircraft, there is a gap between the engine nacelle and cowling, which provides an exit for the engine cooling air: To re-create this gap, I needed to round off the front of the kit engine nacelle. Here's a pic, with the modified nacelle shown on the left: The nacelles fit very nicely to the wing, but did require a bit of cleanup along the edge for the join: You can see that I've closed off the front of the nacelles with plasticard. This serves two purposes. First, it will prevent the "see through" effect when I install the aftermarket engines. More importantly, the plasticard bulkhead will facilitate creating the desired gap when I install the cowlings to the nacelles. I used this same method when I did my L10 Electra, and it was very effective. The wings are now pretty much done, so I moved on to finishing up the fuselage. I installed the instrument panel and interior, then closed up the fuselage. I paid special attention to properly aligning the fin and rudder, where I had thinned down the trailing edge: Everything fit together well, except for the nose join, which needed a little "convincing": I nearly forgot to add the yokes to the IP before closing the fuselage. The yokes are provided on the sprue, but there is no mention of them in KP's instructions! A test fit of the wings to the fuselage revealed some serious gaps: Also, the wing is not as thick as the wing root on the fuselage: I partly, but not completely, corrected this by adding shims between the top & bottom wing pieces: There's a lot of seam work to be done before I'm ready to attach the wings to the fuselage. But, things are coming together and she's shaping up to be a nice looking airplane: 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 It does look nice and is coming together well. Great job Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunarhighway Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 It's really comming together nicely! You're doing this handsome little plane justice! Good luck with those wing roots. It will be interesting to see your plan of attack. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 Too bad about the wing roots. I'm also curious to see how you deal with them. Good catch on the yokes, too! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted January 15, 2021 Author Share Posted January 15, 2021 On 1/14/2021 at 1:48 PM, lunarhighway said: It's really comming together nicely! You're doing this handsome little plane justice! Good luck with those wing roots. It will be interesting to see your plan of attack. On 1/14/2021 at 7:08 PM, opus999 said: Too bad about the wing roots. I'm also curious to see how you deal with them. Good catch on the yokes, too! Moa was first to report the yoke issue, so I was aware of it. Nonetheless, I very nearly left them off. For the wing roots, I will probably fill the gaps with stretched sprue and/or styrene strip, then overlay with sprue gloop. I handled some even larger gaps on my B-58 Hustler build that way, with good results: Massive gap in B-58 fin, filled with stretched sprue & sprue gloop -- Before & After: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VT Red Sox Fan Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 Bill, can’t believe I missed this—what a cool project—I also now have a better understanding of the history behind the small seal by some airline doors a few years ago stating the aircraft was operated by Republic Airlines as a sub—very cool—I am really looking forward to the final finish—I know you will hit it out of the park! Best Erwin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billn53 Posted January 15, 2021 Author Share Posted January 15, 2021 All the seams on the fuselage and wings have been puttied and sanded to my satisfaction, so it was time to glue the wings in place: I will give the glue plenty of time to set, then I'll tackle those humongous gaps along the wing roots. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
busnproplinerfan Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 This will be nice when done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheyJammedKenny! Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 Really great results. As for using Cellotape over the landing lights, what is your experience with it over the long term? Does it stay clear, free of dust, and stay attached? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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