Amelia's Lockheed Vega

[rob Lyttle]

Well, there was me thinking that we've got LOADS of time on this group, all the way August...... and then I realised that June is basically gone and we're counting weeks rather than months 😲! 

So rather than get tangled up in a complicated multi project involving a bunch of Percival Vega Gulls, I'm opting for a simpler job in the hope of getting a finisher. 

It's another Vega - the Lockheed one. 

The decor supplied is for Amelia Earhart's "Little Red Bus", also described on the box as "Lady Lindy". 

Special Hobby box art also includes a little image of her Lockheed L10 in which she was lost out over the Pacific. 

This plane, the single-engined Vega 5B, she flew solo from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland to Derry in Northern Ireland in 15h 18m in May 1932, followed by her trans-continental coast to coast USA trip in August. 

Pretty good going for her and the plane! 

Looking like a nice simple build and paint job, no crazy pe bits etc. 

Afraid this GB, and the "Less than a tenner" group, has coincided with a fair bit of work stuff and a lack of modelling time for me, but I have some hopes for this one. 👍

[CliffB]

A really nice choice Rob.  I hope that SH provide decals for those beautiful gold coach-lines .

[Brad]

Great stuff, welcome back.

[rob Lyttle]

Cheers Brad, gotta keep on the case 😎

@CliffB yep, in fact it's the only option in the kit,

Although I'm sure there are other options available in other boxings. Interior seats are on the sprues but marked as Do Not Use, their place is taken by a couple of auxiliary fuel tanks that look very like 50gal oil drums. 

Some action has been going on.....

From the left, a drill and pin effort on the tailplanes which otherwise rely on a simple butt joint with no alignment aids. The enlarged fin is supplied as a resin item. 

The spats and wheels look way too thin to me. I've sandwiched a piece of 1mm stock between the sides and added a disc of the same on the inside of the wheel /tyre. Most of the wheel is out of sight inside the spat in the end. 

And the prop has been drilled and fitted on a shaft of Ali tube. This will run inside a piece of brass tube fixed into the hub of the radial engine. That's my usual method. 

There are a few names that crop up in various places and periods of aviation development, often at interesting stages of development. 

You know, where you think - "That's interesting" and then it's - "Hang on a minute, I've come across this name a couple of times already...... What was it??" 

Well Jack Northop is one of those. 

He just seems to have been in on the action and creating innovations and development throughout his career. 

Well, the Vega is one of his early designs. 

I've got a Northrop Gamma, the Williams Bros kit, and a Delta although my version is a Canadian Vickers Delta. They took over his design and business. 

 

[rob Lyttle]

Assembly progressing with the internals done ready for the fuselage joining ceremony. 

I have tried masking the window panes before they were fixed in to see if its any easier. In fact it looks like there are only two are left clear, one in the door and one opposite. The rest are painted over. So I haven't gone overboard with interior decorating. There is a separate passenger door supplied with the parts, which is always a temptation, but they haven't made it easy to cut the door out of the fuselage, so I'm passing on that one. 

The wing is done and I got a bit of deflection on the ailerons. Special Hobby have produced quite a shine and finish on the surfaces. 

And the little Wright Whirlwind radial comes up rather well too. 

That'll do me nicely at this size. 

So she's coming along. 😇

Edited June 29, 2021 by rob Lyttle
Correction

[TimJ]

Off to a good start. 

[rob Lyttle]

Some major assembly has occurred 😇

Fuselage joined, cockpit glazing in place and the wing is on.... 

The gap in the middle of the wing is a kind of interference fit on the sloping sides of the canopy and this took a bit of fine tuning to let the wings down onto the fuselage structure behind. This leaves the roof glazing panel just a fraction proud of top wing surface, and looking at the moulded detail here it seems like the cockpit roof slides back on runners for access. I haven't seen any pictures of a pilot getting in or out of a Vega, but there is no room for a door behind the pilot's seat into the cabin and there are details of footholds up the port side at the front. 

Anyway, that little raised edge at the back of the roof can stay for the moment. 

The kit has a smaller vertical tailfin in styrene and the larger one required is in resin. 

This leaves me with a resin-to-plastic butt joint in a rather crucial place. 

After a couple of goes with the CA produced no results that would be described as straight or vertically aligned, I opted for a Plan B. 

I snapped off the rudder and made my own fin from stock sheet honed to shape. 

Now with a styrene-to-styrene joint I was back in the comfort zone, with time for adjustment and straightening etc and no panic. 

The resin rudder was added later. It has a slight deflection and that's OK - that wasn't a problem. 

 

I've lost one of the tailplanes though. The one with the pin and dropped elevator that was in the earlier picture. 

I may end up scratching this as well! 🙄

[rob Lyttle]

I eventually found the missing tailplane piece, so I got the 2 of them fixed on. I don’t think my little pins will add much in the way of mechanical strength to the tailplane assembly but certainly useful in the glueing process for placing and alignment. 

I wanted to see how things looked with some primer so I gave it a good blast with spraycan yellow primer. I find that yellow undercoat gives the red a bit of glow that you don't get with the dull red primer. 

The airframe didn't look too bad, even the homemade fin piece, and Weather conditions were favourable so I got back on the case with the red gloss. 

 

Top seam looks OK behind the wings. 

I also included the cowling in the process. 

It fits to the engine and then the engine fits to the fuselage, so it's just sitting in place here to get the idea. 

The cockpit is a right little festival of glazing bars, and only a few of them have been outlined by the masking. This is not a favourite activity of mine 🙄 I'm visualising thin strips of red Decal coming to my aid eventually. 

More pressing now is how to sort out the undercarriage struts and legs. There's no real structure designed into the kit parts, and I'd rather have some real pins glued into real holes. 

And I'm going to have to paint it and the wheel spats. Hmmmmm..... 🤔

[rob Lyttle]

I've got the undercarriage parts together. Each side is a 3 legged structure plus the wheel spat. 

And some yellow primer applied. I wasn't too sure about the appearance of the 1mm inserts in the spats but in fact the finish over the top edge is looking good. 

I've left the maximum amount of "pin" on the legs where available, in fact I cut the leg pieces high up the attachment plastic on the sprues and then filed the extra to the pin shape and size. 

And I drilled the corresponding points on the fuselage to take the pins. And so I managed to dry fit my assemblies into position as I proceeded, with a view to getting the correct angles. 

I doubt if they are all precisely right but the hope is that they will adjust enough to fit to the 3 attachment points. Once they're painted and fixed, the triangulation of the 3 legs to the fuselage should be steady. Wheels will fit later. 

There's one detail on the instructions that has me baffled...... Have a look at this, 

Windows going in the port fuselage side. The 4th one back is left clear, all the others are clear plastic but painted over. But what is it they are trying to show for the 2nd one.?? 

Is it "Cut an oval of masking tape and stick it on the window."? 

There's nothing featured on the profiles or the box art for the 2nd window. 🤨

[VG 33]

6 minutes ago, rob Lyttle said:

I

 

 

There's one detail on the instructions that has me baffled...... Have a look at this, 

Windows going in the port fuselage side. The 4th one back is left clear, all the others are clear plastic but painted over. But what is it they are trying to show for the 2nd one.?? 

Is it "Cut an oval of masking tape and stick it on the window."? 

There's nothing featured on the profiles or the box art for the 2nd window. 🤨

Hello

 

You should cut the oval protuberance under the second window. I saw you left it when viewed on your pictures.

 

Patrick

Edited July 4, 2021 by VG 33

[rob Lyttle]

25 minutes ago, VG 33 said:

You should cut the oval protuberance under the second window.

A-HA....! 

Cheers, Patrick 👍 I see it now. Just an unfortunate coincidence that the window indication line is red too and goes right through the oval shape.! I'd guess the starboard side should get the same. Maybe attachment points for floats or something. 

Well, too late now, I'm not going to be creating that kind of wreckage at this stage. 

But if I was marking their graphics homework, they'd be doing it again in detention..... 😎

[rob Lyttle]

A bit of enforced down time on the modelling I'm afraid, a medical run in reduced the mojo to approx Zero. 

But I'm getting back on the case and I think I can get Amelia's Bus to the finishing line..... 

The main gold lines are on and I've got the main gears assembled to the fuselage. This would have been better done when the leg joints were fairly fresh and some movement obtainable, rather than a couple of weeks later 😲

But they're on and the spats are pointing fairly well forward. Main reg applied top and bottom of the wing. 

 

And, just to get me going, I'm now the grateful recipient and proud owner of what must be THE definitive reference book on the Lockheed Singles..... 

Many thanks to Dennis @DMC for passing the book on to me. Very much appreciated ☑️

I can see a few more Lockheed models of these types coming along. What an era for aviation. 

But let's see if I can get this one sorted in time 😎

[DMC]

Sorry, Rob, fat finger wrong button poor eyesight. 

[rob Lyttle]

A final round of finishing on the Vega and I have a finisher to put in the galleries. 

 

The regrettable incident with the mounting blisters on the sides is there still, but the real issue with the kit is getting the 3 legged u/c assemblies with the wheels and spats fixed with alignment. 

It's been........ Emotional... ‼️

A 2nd go at this kit would involve some comprehensive preparations and probably some metal struts wrapped in sleeves. A Winnie May perhaps?? 

Oh yea, and the resin vertical tail piece butt jointed on the fuselage..... 😲

Right O, better get this posted in the galleries before closing. 

Cheers 👍

[VG 33]

Nice build. I opened my box yesterday and I will start building the same aircraft this summer if I find enough time to spend on it with this rainy season.😀

 

Patrick

[rob Lyttle]

4 hours ago, VG 33 said:

I opened my box yesterday

OK, good luck with the build Patrick. See what you think about the wheels and spats, I think they are too narrow as supplied. And have a plan for getting the legs and wheels assembled 👍

[Brad]

Nice work, it's good looking plane.

[VG 33]

5 hours ago, rob Lyttle said:

OK, good luck with the build Patrick. See what you think about the wheels and spats, I think they are too narrow as supplied. And have a plan for getting the legs and wheels assembled 👍

 

 

I will see and I will open a WIP subject for this kit as well.

 

Patrick