The Little World

Or forever sit on your tail.

I applaud the tricycle landing gear for aircraft – in the case of civilian airliners it allows a steady takeoff and landing – I would not want to spill my champagne. On military planes it probably allows the pilot a lot better view of the field or carrier deck as well as not spilling the champagne. On plastic models it is a right pain in the …if you are not careful…arse.

I have just completed four Hobby Boss WW2 fighter planes – two different marques of the P-40 and two identical P-39’s. The P-40’s are tail sitters and as long as you get the undercart straight and the tailwheel in place ( easy on Hobby Boss kits ) it is all wonderful.

The P-39’s are tail heavy to a massive degree – the nature of the solid plastic vs the real thing makes that inevitable. Like most trike kits it needs nose weight. Unlike most of the bombers and civil airliners, however, the P-39 has very little volume in the nose for the weights to hide within. And the way that the Hobby Boss designers have filled the nose of the ships with a complex and bulky plastic cylinder to allow the propeller to turn means that there is no way to avoid a tail-sitter out of the box.

Well, I did not need the props to spin, so the plastic cylinders went. In their place three lead rods fashioned out of musket balls were inserted and capped off with the spinners glued on. Then the aft section of the wheel well in the nose was packed with two more lead weights. Unsightly, but I am not looking under there for my pictures. In the end, the Airacobras are sitting on their front wheels…but only just.

How would I do it differently if I were re-engineering it for Hobby Boss?

1. Hollow out the tail more. Lose some of the  – admittedly excellent – plastic.
2. Provide a lead weight totally filling the nose.
3. Provide a metal casting instead of a plastic one for the front wheel and strut.

That’s about all one could do in this scale – filling the drop tank with lead might add a little more stability but not much. It’s a marginal plane in 1:72.