Northropp2E, RAE Farnborough, 1934-5, Azur kit 1/72nd scale

Mr T · February 6, 2021

Despite what I have occasionally read over the years about the lack of vision on the part of the Services and the Air Ministry, especially in the early thirties. It appears that the Air Ministry was interested in what was going on outside Britain and to this end bought a number of aircraft from abroad to study either their construction o aspects of their performance.

One of these purchases was a Northrop 2E purchased at the end of 1934, probably as it was fairly state-of-the-art in terms of construction and had items like a controllable propeller that were not overly common on British service aircraft flying in 1934. 'Flight' Magazine covered the aircraft in an article in the edition for 7th February 1935, which suggested it had been in the UK for a while before then. Special Hobby have produced a series of kits based on the Northrop Gamma airframe and this version was in an Azur-Frrom boxing with decals for the one bought by Britain and a number of options for 2Es used by China.

The kit comes in a proper box and as well as mid-grey and clear runners there is small etched fret for the seat belts etc. Surface detail and small parts are well-defined. There are no location pins except for the tailplanes and the decal sheet looks very good, but the decals are very thin and fragile. The underwing serials broke up on use despite careful handling, and the roundels were off-centre and replaced by some from an old Modeldecal sheet. Some parts are not used and are obviously for other kits related to the Gamma

The build was relatively straightforward for a kit of this type. The major issue was getting the wheels to fit in the spats and the fitting of the gun mounting in the rear cockpit was awkward. The finish was airbrushed Vallejo White Aluminium, photos how quite a clean looking airframe. Something a bit different. The serial allocated K5053, is off course, one before that given to the Supermarine Type 300 as the outcome of the discussions that had taken place with the Air Ministry for a new type in view of the poor performance of the Type 224.