Vaculand is a not that far away region that is located right after
Plasticland. It limits to the East with Resinland, near the mostly unknown
regions of Scratchland, were the
Glue
River
and the Spring of Cyanoacrylate cross into Styrene
Territory.
Carried on the wings of
Methylene and Terpene, the Greek muses of modeling, I arrived to those
strange lands where I found this RarePlane’s kit of a –soon to be
transformed- Seversky P-35.
Click on
images below to see larger images
It is a simple vacuformed model, easy to grasp and with a pleasant styrene
sheet gauge. You get the idea, not a flimsy please-don’t-glue-me kit,
neither a please-grab-the-chain-saw one. As with most vacs, you have to
ride the spares box or learn something for heaven’s sake and fabricate
your own missing bits. Aeroclub Models and other companies also have
accessories that you can buy for a modest stipend.
I gathered my references, but this time I read them before building the model,
which resulted to be the right thing to do. I received help from Jim Schubert,
a.k.a. the Modeling Santa Claus and from other good fellows at the Wings of
Peace forum.
OK then: panel lines all over
–well, admitedly, I skipped some-, interior bits, engine donor, prop donor,
mods in the due places, Jim’s wheels, a bit more there, a bit less here and
there it is, a Seversky AP-7 as flown by Jackie Cochran in the 1938 Bendix race.
Or is it? Oh, drat, the decals! Out with some images that Modeling Santa
provided and the inkjet printer. A few coats of varnish and voila!: A total
mess. If you apply too little varnish the ink dissolves in the water; if you
apply too much you end up with material suitable for transparent roofing in you
house. Plan B: laser printer. This time it went much better and after a careful
positioning of the many images and some decal strips for the canopy framing I
was able to sit down and contemplate the chrome blender-like lines of this
graceful racer.
The stance says it all, isn’t it?
Gabriel
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|