BOAC Lodestar

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Wow, @Vingtor May I PM you about these resin bits?

[81-er]

Some nice work going into this build

 

James

[Vingtor]

1 hour ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

May I PM you about these resin bits?

 

Sorry. I only have a few that are good. Barely enough for my own planned models. And I gave away the moulds.

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Before I can start on dessert (the interior), I need to eat my "vegetables," so the difficult part comes first--namely, drilling out the wing slots Lockheed engineered into the wing leading edge.  Others can correct me, but I think the purpose of these slots was to prevent the outboard portion of the wing from stalling at high angles of attack.  I drilled out each slot using a tiny hand-drill bit, then cleaned them up with sandpaper, a hobby knife, and a micro file.  They're not perfect, but they're better than leaving them closed as per the kit straight-out-of-the-box.

 

 

[marvinneko]

I cut out the slots on my Ventura and put in angle bits inside so you could look down or up at an angle and see through them. I think they caused more air to flow over the wing to compensate for high wing loading.

 

My Ventura is one of my mega projects... so many details to play with.

[modelling minion]

I think that you have done a good job on cutting the wing slots, nice work 👍. 

[81-er]

Those look nicely done to me too

 

James

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Slow progress here, first with the wings.  After cutting out the vents, I cemented half-rounds of Evergreen plastic tubing to emulate the curvature of the inner portion of the wing, followed by plastic card on the vents along the wing upper half.  The plastic card will intersect with the tubing at an angle, as I believe these vents were not straight up-and-down, but aligned with the air flow.

 

 

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Having made progress on the wings, I worked on the interior a bit.  Again, I think the cabin floor is positioned too high, so I lowered the kit's guide rails by adding some plastic.  The floor will sit beneath the new wing spar, which was a big tripping hazard on the real aircraft and provided for an eventful negotiation of the cabin.  The kit provides 12, not 14 or 18 seats, but this is sufficient to understand how tight the aircraft would have been inside.  I marked off on the cabin floor roughly where I wanted the seats to align at a scale 3' pitch.  

 

 

[modelling minion]

Very nice work on both the wings and the cabin interior. 

[Planebuilder62]

Hi @TheyJammedKenny!

 

Very creative solution to the wings. I wish I had thought of that with my build of this kit. Well done👍

 

Regards Toby

[TheyJammedKenny!]

2 hours ago, Planebuilder62 said:

Very creative solution to the wings. 

Glad you approve!  It's one of many available options for this important design feature.  Perhaps when Special Hobby finishes redesigning their Hudson, they'll ensure the wing openings are truly open.

Edited August 23 by TheyJammedKenny!
typo

[81-er]

Nice work there

 

James

[Vingtor]

On 8/23/2025 at 12:52 AM, TheyJammedKenny! said:

I believe these vents were not straight up-and-down, but aligned with the air flow.

 

That is correct. The inside walls were curved, and you have found a good solution.

[TheyJammedKenny!]

This project has not been totally dormant; I've made some progress with the interior.  The seats seemed low to me, and especially so after I lowered the floor!  So I added plastic bits to the underside of each to raise them some and give a little extra detail.  To ensure a clear aisle in the rear cabin, I sawed off the armrests on two of the kit provided seats and used them to create two additional seats using extra parts.  

 

 

At the bottom of the image is the revised wing spar with cabin structure carved out.  This will ensure that I've got additional rigidity on the wing structure.  I need to remember to cut a 5 degree angle into the underside of the spar to give the wings something to cling to.  As I understand, the Lodestar has a 7 degree wing dihedral, and the kit's taper will provide the remaining angle.

[TheyJammedKenny!]

What you see here are the kit's clear parts with toothpick halves cemented to them using Zap 560 Canopy glue, which is PVA.  This serves several purposes: to prevent the pieces from taking flight when I cut them from the runner; to hold them in place and orient inside-out as I sand slight plugs that will allow them to seat in the fuselage halves; and to keep my fingers clear of the Tamiya Extra Thin cement I'll use to attach them.  I'm wondering if I should wait until I've got the model painted before I add the windows.  Doing so would save me the effort of masking, but run the risk of having them detach and get lost in the interior.  The kit gives you two extras, just in case.

 

 

[modelling minion]

Thats a neat trick with the clear parts. 

[81-er]

Nice to see this one's still progressing  Given the size of the windows, could you use something like Microscale's Kristal Klear instead of the kit glazing? You could form a window with it before painting to act as a mask, and once the paintwork is finished you can remove those and reapply some fresh to give nicely clear windows

 

James

[TheyJammedKenny!]

4 hours ago, 81-er said:

You could form a window with it before painting to act as a mask, and once the paintwork is finished you can remove those and reapply some fresh to give nicely clear windows

That's actually a good idea, and I've used it before.  The problem with using Kristal Kleer is that it never looks right as a window. Too much concavity, and too little visibility.  The kit windows are quite good--clear and smooth--and I'd like to take advantage of them.

[TheyJammedKenny!]

The other thing is: I'll be adding curtains to the windows, and these work best with the kit's transparencies.

[TheyJammedKenny!]

Here's the interior so far with the seats and over-deck spar carry-through structure.  I'm not planning on going hog wild on cabin detail, having learned an important lesson from my Viking build:

 

 

[TheyJammedKenny!]

I'm not the first modeler to puzzle over the enigma that Special Hobby presents on the wing trailing edge.  I've decided to mount the kit's photo-etch part on plastic sheet, with the brass atop the wing, and the plastic splitting the wing trailing edge, which I left un-cemented during construction.  That means I'll have plastic-on-plastic contact for cementing this vulnerable area.  I sawed the ailerons along the inboard edge so they would close up along the trailing edge with the added thickness of plastic installed.

 

 

[modelling minion]

Neat job on the interior, more than adequate, and your solution to the wing trailing edge sounds good to me. 

[TheyJammedKenny!]

2 hours ago, modelling minion said:

Neat job on the interior, more than adequate, and your solution to the wing trailing edge sounds good to me. 

Thanks!

 

Here's the wing trailing edge with the chord extensions fitted:

 

 

[Vingtor]

12 hours ago, TheyJammedKenny! said:

I've decided to mount the kit's photo-etch part on plastic sheet, with the brass atop the wing, and the plastic splitting the wing trailing edge, which I left un-cemented during construction.

 

This might be a good way to do it. I will follow the progress with interest.