Well, well - a new subject thread! Airliners and GA a/c…who would have believed! Great idea -
Here’s the Special Hobby Lodestar in TAA colors…she’s still got a little way to go, but I thought I might throw a pic for you guys to check out.
Here’s what she should look like:
And here’s the story so far…
The kit isn’t a bad one - things fit together ok - no major mis-matches…certainly not a “Tamigawa” fit, but not enough to make you want to toss it in the rubbish bin. I wish I’d paid a little more attention to the dihedral…too shallow…oh well…the kit comes with decals for an English and a Dutch Lodestar C-60, but as it’s a contract build, I don’t have a choice!
Paint is white automotive acrylic from a rattle can, sprayed through my Paasche VLS, then with Alclad II Bright Aluminium…a good friend made the decals for me - and a sweet job he does on them…great stuff. I’ve tidied the edges of the anti-glare panel with a brush, now I need to fill it in with the airbrush - then hit it with a matt coat.
Next is the engines and the gear and wheels…won’t be long now…
Thanks for your kind words…yeah, the kit isn’t the easiest build…but with careful work, it goes together better than it might. It would have been nice to have some way of mounting the engines - OOB, they “float” in mid-air…thanks for that, Special Hobby…not.
This one’s going to a senior Qantas pilot whose father flew for TAA for half of forever…he wants a model of every type of plane TAA flew, and in every livery that type flew in…I’ve got my work cut out for me.
I don’t think I’ll build one for myself - my stash is already waaaay too large…that’s all I need…ANOTHER unbuilt model!!
I’ll post more pics shortly - more decals to come, and more bits to glue on.
I recently started a Special Hobby Lockheed Electra L-10 and am doing Amelia Earharts plane. It’s got to be nearly the same kit as the Loadstar. I’m with you, the kit is definately no Tamigawa, but it’s manageable. The engine nacelles (3pc) were a bit tricky and instructions are vague at best!
Your’s is looking great so far, looking forward to seeing the end result!
Your Loadstar is really looking nice. I’m not a big 1/72 guy (at my age I can barely see a FULL SIZE airplane!) but your model is first class. Seeing that thing makes me long for a big scale Beech 18 even more!
I did a review of this kit when it first came out, that is I started a review but in the blink of an eye life interuptious caused me to send a replacement kit to someone who had the time. I had gotten mine almost finished. In fact it is still in that same stage of completion. My had several short shot pieces, two on the horizontal stab which made it very difficult to assemble.
Sorry guys…for the lack of updates…life gets in the way sometimes…
I’d hoped to have some more pics up this afternoon, but I got busy…laundry, dishes…now I gotta cook dinner…
All the decals are on, and I’m just tidying the engine nacelles for paint (it would have been GREAT if they were round)…trying to make the oval turn into a circle!
Tomorrow, all the ladies in the house are making themselves absent - a bit of peace and quiet (if you can call Pearl Jam turned up to 11 peace and quiet)…by the way, their concert in Melbourse was a blast! A good show…so tomorrow I’ll squirt the thing with Future and take some pics and post them.
Jeez…took me long enough…but here she is…finally…a little too “clean” for my liking, but it’s meant to be a display piece for a friend. I’m happy with the way she came up…a couple of things I’d do differently next time - pay more attention to the dihedral, although I couldn’t think of any other way of attaching the “floating” engines - I used punched discs of styrene to make a little mount…nothing else would have worked.
The paint is bright white automotive laquer from a spray can (decanted and sprayed with my Paasche VLS), with Alclad bright alumimium over that. The custom decals (thanks Col!!) went on and then the Future. I masked the canopy with Bare Metal Foil - works every time. I re-scribed a fair amount of the fuselage and wings and the cowls…had to make the oval cowls round - lost a lot of detail there…
The decals were made by a friend of mine…a mad keen model maker…who make lots of truck models - and adds his own decals to them…to make mostly Australian subjects…he’s got a couple of Alps printers and about a grand’s worth of ink cartridges, so he won’t run out soon - good for me!
I gave him the unbuilt model and some pictures of what I wanted…he did the rest…and boy, does he do a good job! The decals are beautiful.
The new owner of the model just loves it! And I’m glad.
Thanks for all the kind comments guys! I really appreciate it!
