The Little World

I took advantage of a stash sale one time to purchase a number of never-to-be-seen-again model kits. You’ve already seen one of the Eastern European maker’s short-run planes – the Mitsubishi ” Ann “- in this column before. This Northrop is the accompanying model – a contemporary in the air in the early 1940’s.

This is a Valom kit with all the trimmings – injection plastic, resin, and brass. There are two canopies supplied – styrene and vacform. The decal sheet is tiny, but the markings on the real thing were actually sparse. Most of the colour variance is paintwork, rather than transfers.

Nevertheless there are several chances for this dive bomber. It was the forerunner to the Douglas Dauntless and you can see clear heritage lines, but there are several features on it that just scream transition plane.

The sale of the kit was at a reasonable price – perfectly fine as it fills a gap in my US Navy collection – but it was rendered all the sweeter by inclusion of a photo book on the type. This book was destined to answer a whole raft of awkward questions that the Czech instruction sheet posed. It is a joy to read just for itself.

As I purchased it in our club rooms I determined to build it at the club – to reserve it for the Tuesday Men’s Shed session that I enjoy so much. This meant stretching out the build time and only doing operations at home that could not be completed at the club. It’s a philosophy or discipline, I suppose, but it does have stresses; you need to transport increasingly delicate assemblies each week in the building box. A traffic incident would wipe out the model. Then there is the increased danger of misplacing parts. And the need to hive off pots of paint from the main racks to do the brush painting. You start to lose track of where a certain colour has gotten to when you need it for another model.

Still, the kit looks great to begin with as there is minimal flash and burring. I hope the cockpit fits…