Here it is, the mystery what-if, 1/48 scale piece of crap. :(

[matrixone]

This is my 1/48 scale Minicraft Beachcraft Bonanza and it was a nightmare of a kit to build.
This was intended to be a quick build but the more work I put into this kit it kept getting worse and worse. The windows have to be put in from the inside are were a very bad fit with no way to correct them...after the fuselage halves were joined two of the windows fell inside and had to dig them out and reglue them which caused some glue to get on the windows. Most of the smaller parts had plenty of flash on them which had to be carved away, the larger parts had some nice surface detail but were let down by not fitting together that well and they also had no locating pins to help matters. Another big problem I had were decals, none of the kit markings were used all of them came from my spares box but some of them were bad and shattered when put into water so I had to scramble and find other markings to use. I tried to add some weathering to this model but it was a flop, you can't expect weathering to look right on a poorly built aircraft model, it can't hide these kind of mistakes.

On to the model...this what-if is of a Blohm & Voss Bv 55, this aircraft was designed and built to replace the Bf 108 for military liaison duties. The Bv 55 had a much longer range than the Bf 108 and could also carry six passengers...which was important once the German armed forces expanded deep into Russian territory in 1947, long range for these light planes was of great value. Some say the Bv 55 was copied by the Americans years later and was put into production as a civil light aircraft.
My Bv 55 carries the old RLM 70/71/65 paint scheme, the later production aircraft were painted in 82/83/76 colors.











Matrixone

[scooter]

So when/"how" did they get an F-35?

[Glenn]

Very nice....yes, the Americans copied many Luftwaffe designs, and their power plants. Look at the Boeing 737 and the Me-262....need I say more?
Question....what is that beautiful 'buzzbox' near the hanger?
Glenn

[Army of One]

Love it.....!!!! I was gonna ask as well.....what is the a/c by the hanger with the yellow tips on the v-tail.....

[Cobra]

Great Work that Beech may have been a Headache maker,but You made it it look Superb Dan

[andrewj]

So when/"how" did they get an F-35?

F 32 surely, not F 35.

[Army of One]

To angular for a SAAB Tunnan....With a v-tail......

[Leading Observer]

Looks like the XF-32 in the background. Later used by the Royal Navy as the Martlet V

[dumaniac]

crap or no crap - it is a nice build as usual - and all the beaut Luft 46 in the background

[NARSES2]

crap or no crap - it is a nice build as usual - and all the beaut Luft 46 in the background

Can't disagree with this statement 

[Chap]

Matrix,

I am continually amazed at the creativity and originality you display. Truly a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

~Steve

[TallEng]

Beautiful Airbrush work as ever and the Background is just

Idle thought: to make the 'Beech' look more 'German' you could graft an Argus engine on the front instead of the Lycoming?
and add that Funny spinner with the 'vanes' on it...

Regards
Keith

[sequoiaranger]

Hardly a "piece of crap" in the execution, anyway.

I was just curious what kind of powerplant this aircraft had that "required" a beefy, four-bladed prop???

[lancer]

That's got to be the best looking piece of crap I've seen in a very long time. Superb finish Matrix

[matrixone]

Thanks Guys!

The jet with the yellow tipped rudders is actually an Arado Ar 387, many years later Boeing tried to use the Arado design to gain a government contract for a VTOL fighter but it was rejected once it was discovered it was an older German design.

The engine for the Bv 55 is an Argus flat six and was the worlds first production engine with V.V.Ti...thus the need for the special light weight four blade prop. After takeoff and climb to cruising altitude the engine was throttled back to the economy 'cruise' RPMs.

I am just glad to get this model out of the way, from start to finish it has been cursed! I admit I was shocked at how bad this kit was...I have built a number of short run kits before including some of the very early Special Hobby kits and did not have near the amount of trouble building them like I had with this Minicraft kit. Unless you get this kit for free pass it by, its not worth ANY amount of money.

What to expect from me in the near future is another old kit, this time the 1/48 scale Testors/HAWK Me 163. Many years ago I built this same kit in the original HAWK boxing and remember they included a red tinted clear plastic ''flame'' that was supposed to glued the the rear of the model to represent the rocket motor under full power.

Matrixone