After many years of search for good plans of the B-18 “Bolo” in early 2006 I wrote the National Aviation and Space Museum in Washington D.C…Told the people there what I wanted to do and my long search for plans. After about 3 hours I received and E-mail saying that offhand they could not provide me of any. BUT…that they were going to make a search in some other facilities of the Museum. About 3 weeks later I received an envelope from the Museum…and inside the best Bolo Plans I have ever seen!!! just for the asking…Great people. Later today I am writing those guys another note and hope to send them the model, not for exhibition!!! but for their desk…quite a bunch of Aviation lovers there!!!..
Well I searched for the right block of wood and cut and sanded the basic shapes…
For the rest of 2006 until last night I just worked on it…
and now its finished…
Why make the Bolo???..I was very lucky to see one, a long long time ago, taking off so slow I could not beleive it would grab the clouds…it did, very slowly roaring and eventually it dissapeared in a bunch of cumulus nimbus…I never forgot the sight…and its history is that of a Fine Lady, not pretty, just loyal and honorable…from 1936 to 1940 it was the mainstay in bomber command of the USAAF…many of them were destroyed on December 7…Just a great old Lady…
I too have a fondness for the older, less glamorous airplanes that didn’t get in the limelight much (if at all). Unlike you, however, I have to wait for someone to take pity and make a kit. Looks like you’ve nailed the, well, ungainly look of the Bolo, especially that kind of “squashed” look of the front fuselage. Nice work!
Wow, solid - that’s excellent work right there. Like so many others, I envy you your woodworking skills. Mine only go as far as a Pinewood Derby kit. I agree with mfsob - the lesser-known aircraft (or lesser-represented) always tend to grab my interest - especially planes that are no longer inexistence, and someone’s imagination is the only way to see them take wing again.
that is awesome. note to self to write them. i have been waiting for the bolo to come out in injection plastic. i have been teased by companies and scamed by a company in my quest. yours looks awesome. well done. you do the fine bird justice.
Hi Guys…Happy you liked the “Bolo” I really enjoyed making it since it has been one of my “most liked”[C=:-)]
It should have been made into a plastic kit a long time ago, I hope someone do soon…
What´s next?..a very interesting plane, totally unknown but was paramount in the development of the Italian four engine bomber Piaggio 108…the twin engine:
