1/72 Boeing YP-4 Bluejay

[Brian da Basher]

The 1927 U.S. Army Air Corps pursuit competition was held and many different designs vied for the contract to provide the U.S. with its next generation fighter aircraft. While the eventual winner was a fairly conventional design, the Boeing P-12, another design submitted by the Boeing Co. was also selected for limited production. In the years following the end of W.W. I, Boeing engineers had become very interested in the cantilever winged aircraft produced in Germany by Fokker and Junkers and had managed to spirit out copies of various plans, correctly deducing that such wing construction would eliminate drag and increase speed and manoeverability. Thus the Boeing YP-4 Bluejay was born. It was a very small, lightweight fighter for its time and featured along with the cantilever wing a monocoque fuselage construction that put the design light years ahead of any competition. Powered by the seven cylinder Pratt & Whitney R 1347-1/2 radial, the aircraft was able to achieve speeds of over 225 m.p.h. and was heavily armed with four .30 caliber machine guns, two on the upper decking synchronized to fire through the propellor arc and two more in underwing pods. Beautifully streamlined spats topped off the sleek design. Test pilots were unanimous in their praise of the new machine and groundcrews appreciated not having to work around rigging so prevalent in other aircraft of the time. A test squadron of 12 machines was ordered and performed admirably, most notably in keeping the rogue Canadian RCMP commander Col. Dudley Doowrong from invading northern Michigan. Unfortunately, the U.S. Army was loathe to bet much on such an unorthodox design and front-line service of the type was limited to the initial test squadron. The tiny pursuit was given a new lease on life during the late 1930s when it was discovered that the Bluejay made an almost perfect intermediate training machine and over 300 were produced to equip training schools. No. 33 shown here is currently on display at the Selfrige AFB museum along with a brief history of the aborted invasion of Michigan undertaken in 1930 by the errant Col. Doowrong.

1st of 6 pics.

Brian da Basher

[anthonyp]

Whoa!  Big friggin engine and blade!

[Brian da Basher]

Some of you may remember me asking Does She Need a Ring? recently. Well, I was undecided until I accidentally stepped on the proposed Townend ring and obliterated it. Fortunately, I think this bird looks pretty good without it. Also, you can see all the engine detail I spent so much time on. I swiped the engine from a 1/72 Wildcat and the collector ring I found in my spares box. The tiny exhausts and mufflers are actually landing gear struts left over from my He-100. Here's another shot that shows off the engine.

2nd of 6 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

The fuse is a left over drop-tank and the wings were swiped from some 1/144 scale kit with ailerons added from scrap plastic to bring them more into scale. The rudder is cut from a plastic bread-bag clip and the horiz. stabs. are more leftover parts. The headrest is 1/4 of a drop-tank and the windscreen is from a SPAD I think. The spats were scratched from sheet styrene and the landing gear struts are left-over sprue. The prop blades are from the SPAD leftovers and the spinner is the tip of the drop-tank used for the fuse.

3rd of 6 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Except for trying to decide about the Townend ring, the project wasn't too difficult. I chose not to detail the cockpit as those efforts are fairly wasted on such a small model, especially one that's destined to join my 90-plus ceiling fleet. I did take a moment to choose between different color schemes. O.D. fuse with yellow wings, War Games camo or the old blue fuse with yellow wings? I really like the brightness of the blue and yellow scheme and how it shows off those cool inter-war U.S.A.A.C. star-and-meatball roundels and rudder stripes. Feeling a bit lazy, I opted for the vertical rudder stripes which are easier than trying to paint 13 matching horizontal stripes on such a small tail. I figured if I set the project in the late 1920s I could get away with it. The propellor was painted in ModelMasters Dark Earth with the laminate stripes painted in ModelMasters Rust.

4th of 6 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Damian2]

BdB you've done it again!! I love this bird, she has a "racer" feel about her!  

[Brian da Basher]

The entire model was brush painted by hand with acrylics. I used Polly-Scale Insignia Yellow on the wings and tail, Polly-Scale Blue on the fuse and spats, ModelMasters Steel on the collector ring and Tamiya Aluminum on the exhausts and mufflers. The guns were painted with Tamiya Gunmetal and the tires with Mars Black artists' acrylics. I used Ultramarine Blue artists acrylics, Testor's White and Polly-Scale Red for the rudder stripes. The engine cylinders were painted in my own custom mix of Blue Steel which was a little difficult as the whole engine was glued in place when I painted it.  :dum:

5th of 6 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Brian da Basher]

Those cool inter-war U.S.A.A.C. roundels are from a sheet by Eagle Strike and the fuse codes are from a sheet for a Dauntless. As the Bluejay is part of a service test squadron, I decided to keep the markings simple, not that there's room for much else on such a tiny aircraft. Speaking of size, most of the photos are actually larger than the model is in real life! Here's a shot of it next to a penny which will give you some idea of the scale.

Last of 6 pics.

Brian da Basher

[Chap]

That's a sharp little fighter Brian! Great work yet again!

~Steve

[Rafael]

Adorable little thing!!!

The final arrangement of "The Ring"™ lets the airplane show its sleekness.

Beautiful

Rafa

[Eddie M.]

That is incredible BdaB!! B) My hat is off to you and your outstanding work. Bravo Zulu!  :salute:
  Eddie  

[Archibald]

I like it!  

[ysi_maniac]

Me too. Yellow wings scheme is always sexy.

         

[Sisko]

Looks cool Brian!!

Nice little bash B)  

[B777LR]

Great as usual brian!